Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "met" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce met in Dutch?

met is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /mɛt/. It means “with.” Like English "met" — short "eh" and a t, though the t is released more quietly than in English.

Like English "met" — short "eh" and a t, though the t is released more quietly than in English.

met /mɛt/

A preposition that ordinarily takes no beat, sitting between two stressed elements and passing by almost unnoticed. It gains prominence only when it is a separable verb prefix, as in "meekomen," where the related "mee" carries genuine weight.

Listen: met

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Sound it out

m An ordinary m with the lips fully closed.

e The vowel of "bed," no longer than that. The closing t seals the syllable and prevents any stretching.

t Unaspirated: no burst of air. Because "met" is unstressed in most sentences, the t often flows straight into whatever follows.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik kom met je mee.

I'm coming with you.

Listen: Ik kom met je mee.

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"Ik kom met je mee" contains both "met" and the separable prefix "mee" in one short sentence — the preposition unstressed in the middle, the prefix stressed at the end. That pairing shows exactly how Dutch splits a verb like "meekomen" apart in a main clause.

Where English speakers slip

Phonetically this word is nearly free for English speakers, so the danger is elsewhere: giving the final t an English puff, and stressing it as though it mattered. The bigger trap is the sentence-level one — "met je mee" looks redundant to an English eye, and beginners drop the "mee," producing a sentence that is grammatically incomplete in Dutch.