Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "jullie" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce jullie in Dutch?

jullie is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈjʏli/. It means “you (plural).” YUH-lee — y-sound at the start, a short rounded "uh" in the middle, and a bright "ee" at the end.

YUH-lee — y-sound at the start, a short rounded "uh" in the middle, and a bright "ee" at the end.

jullie /ˈjʏli/

First syllable takes the beat, JUL-lie, which is the norm for native two-syllable Dutch words. Unlike "jij" and "je," this pronoun has no separate weak form, so it always keeps its full two-syllable shape even in casual speech.

Listen: jullie

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Sound it out

j The y of "yes." Dutch j is never the English affricate, so the word opens like "you," not like "July."

u The short rounded vowel of Dutch "bus" — lips slightly pursed, tongue central. English has nothing quite like it; the nearest approximation is the vowel in "put" said with more lip rounding.

ll One bright l, doubled in spelling to keep the u short. Tongue tip forward, tongue body low.

ie The "ee" of "see," and it keeps its full quality even though the syllable is unstressed. Dutch does not reduce this vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Waar wonen jullie nu?

Where do you all live now?

Listen: Waar wonen jullie nu?

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"Waar wonen jullie nu?" inverts to put the verb second after the question word, and the plural verb "wonen" agrees with "jullie." English speakers regularly forget that Dutch has a dedicated plural "you" — this sentence would be ambiguous in English but is perfectly precise in Dutch.

Where English speakers slip

The opening j gets the English treatment, producing "JOO-lee" as if it were a name. It is "yuh-." The middle vowel is the harder problem: English speakers substitute the "uh" of "cup" without rounding their lips, which lands somewhere between "jullie" and a non-word. Purse the lips slightly and keep it short.