Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "leren" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce leren in Dutch?

leren is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈleːrə(n)/. It means “to learn.” LAY-ruh — bright l, long "ay," a light r, and no audible final n.

LAY-ruh — bright l, long "ay," a light r, and no audible final n.

leren /ˈleːrə(n)/

Front-stressed, and there is a nice symmetry worth noticing: the stressed syllable is long and open, the unstressed one is a bare schwa, and the r sits precisely at the boundary. Say the word slowly and you can hear the r belonging to neither syllable in particular.

Listen: leren

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Sound it out

l Bright and forward, tongue tip on the ridge with the body low. Dutch avoids the hollow, dark l that English uses in "learn."

e Steady rather than gliding, and lengthened by the open syllable. It holds the beat.

r A quick tap or soft back scrape between vowels — light enough that it does not colour the vowel before it.

en An r followed by a schwa, which in fast speech merge into one indistinct sound at the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik leer Nederlands.

I'm learning Dutch.

Listen: Ik leer Nederlands.

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"Ik leer Nederlands" uses the stem "leer" with the doubled vowel restored in spelling. Language names take no article in Dutch, and "Nederlands" carries first-syllable stress — NAY-der-lands — so the sentence has two front-stressed words in a row.

Where English speakers slip

English "learn" contributes an r-coloured vowel that swallows the "ay" completely. Dutch keeps the vowel clean and adds a light r afterward. There is also a meaning fork: "leren" covers both learning and teaching in Dutch, so context alone decides whether "hij leert Nederlands" means he is studying it or teaching it.