Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "lang" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce lang in Dutch?

lang is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /lɑŋ/. It means “long / tall.” lahng — open back "ah," and the ng is a single nasal with no hard g behind it.

lahng — open back "ah," and the ng is a single nasal with no hard g behind it.

lang /lɑŋ/

The word ends on a nasal, and the inflected "lange" is where that matters most: it stays "LANG-uh," never "LAN-guh," because a velar nasal does not sprout a stop when a vowel follows. English speakers break this rule constantly.

Listen: lang

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Sound it out

l A bright forward l, tongue tip up and body low. English darkens the l in "long"; Dutch keeps it light.

a Short and open, made at the back of the mouth and closed by the nasal.

ng One velar nasal, the sound ending English "sing." No g follows it in Dutch — not here and not in the inflected forms.

Hear it in a sentence

Het was een lange reis.

It was a long trip.

Listen: Het was een lange reis.

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"Het was een lange reis" uses the past tense and the inflected adjective, so you get to hear the ng running straight into a schwa. "Reis" afterwards contains the ei diphthong, giving the sentence a nice contrast between a nasal ending and a gliding one.

Where English speakers slip

Inserting a hard g into "lange" is the classic error, producing "LAN-guh" on the model of English "longer." Dutch keeps the nasal alone. The vowel also drifts: English "long" is rounded in most accents, while Dutch wants an unrounded open "ah." And "lang" means both long and tall, which surprises learners describing people.