Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "leuk" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce leuk in Dutch?

leuk is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /løːk/. It means “nice / fun.” luhk — the eu is a rounded front vowel like French "eu," and there is no English equivalent.

luhk — the eu is a rounded front vowel like French "eu," and there is no English equivalent.

leuk /løːk/

Built around a vowel that does not exist in English, which makes this a good diagnostic word — if your "leuk" is right, your "deur" and "kleur" will be too. Inflected as "leuke," a schwa follows and the k moves between vowels.

Listen: leuk

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Sound it out

l A bright forward l, tongue tip on the ridge and the body low.

eu Set the lips as if for "oo" and the tongue as if for "ay," then hold both at once. The result is the vowel of French "deux" or German "schön" — a genuinely new sound for an English speaker.

k An unaspirated final stop, released cleanly with no puff.

Hear it in a sentence

Het feest was heel leuk.

The party was really fun.

Listen: Het feest was heel leuk.

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"Het feest was heel leuk" uses the past tense "was" and ends on the bare adjective. "Leuk" is one of the most-used words in spoken Dutch, covering everything English splits between nice, fun and enjoyable, so this sentence is a template you will reuse constantly.

Where English speakers slip

The reflex readings are "look" and "luke," both wrong. "Look" puts the tongue at the back; "luke" adds a y-glide. Dutch wants the tongue forward and the lips rounded simultaneously, with no glide at all. Say "ay" and then round your lips without letting the tongue move — that is the whole trick.