LingoDrop
Dutch · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "leeg" in Dutch?
laykh — bright l, long "ay," and the harsh Dutch fricative at the end.
One beat that ends on friction rather than a stop, so the word can be held and stretched at the end — Dutch speakers do exactly that for emphasis. In "lege" the spelling drops an e as the syllable opens, adding a schwa without moving the accent.
Listen: leeg
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
De fles is leeg.
The bottle is empty.
Listen: De fles is leeg.
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"De fles is leeg" closes on the adjective with the fricative fully exposed. "Fles" beforehand ends in a hiss, so the sentence gives you two very different fricatives in quick succession — one at the teeth, one at the soft palate.
Where English speakers slip
Converting the final g into an English hard g gives "layg," and some learners drop it entirely. It is a sustained scrape. They also brighten the vowel toward "league," using the "ee" of "seen" — Dutch ee is lower, closer to "ay." The two errors together produce a word no Dutch listener would recognise.