Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "lezen" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce lezen in Dutch?

lezen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈleːzə(n)/. It means “to read.” LAY-zuh — bright l, long "ay," and a properly voiced z in the middle.

LAY-zuh — bright l, long "ay," and a properly voiced z in the middle.

lezen /ˈleːzə(n)/

Front-stressed, and this verb is a clean illustration of the open-syllable length rule: le-zen splits after the vowel, so the e is long. Compare "lessen" (lessons), where the doubled s closes the syllable and the vowel goes short. Same first letter, opposite rhythm.

Listen: lezen

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Sound it out

l Bright and forward, tongue tip on the ridge and the body kept low. English l before a vowel is closer to this than English l at the end of a word.

e It carries the stress and should be fully held — the open syllable is what licenses the length.

z Genuinely voiced here because it sits between vowels — unlike a Dutch z at the start of a word, which loses most of its buzz.

en The voiced z flows straight into the schwa without any break, which is part of why this verb sounds so smooth.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik lees graag.

I like to read.

Listen: Ik lees graag.

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"Ik lees graag" needs no object at all — "graag" plus a verb is how Dutch says "I like to do something," with no separate verb for "like." The stem "lees" doubles the vowel in spelling because the syllable has closed, and the two words together give you long "ay" followed by long "aah."

Where English speakers slip

The vowel gets shortened toward "lezz-" or brightened toward "leez." Dutch sits between them: a long, steady mid vowel. Learners also devoice the intervocalic z into an s, over-applying the rule about weak initial z — inside a word, between two vowels, the z keeps its voice.