Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "nieuw" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce nieuw in Dutch?

nieuw is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /niʋ/. It means “new.” nee-oo, run together as one syllable — "ee" gliding into the soft Dutch w. It does not rhyme with English "new."

nee-oo, run together as one syllable — "ee" gliding into the soft Dutch w. It does not rhyme with English "new."

nieuw /niʋ/

All of the word's material is squeezed into one beat, which is why it feels crowded. Inflect it to "nieuwe" and a schwa opens up behind the w, letting the consonant become properly audible — the two forms sound quite different in length even though the accent has not moved.

Listen: nieuw

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Sound it out

n Nothing to relearn here: the same n as English, tongue tip on the ridge.

ieu The "ee" of "see" moving straight into a rounded off-glide. Three letters, one continuous vowel movement, and it happens fast enough that the word stays a single syllable.

w The soft labiodental approximant closing the word: bottom lip toward the upper teeth, barely any friction. English speakers who round their lips into a full "w" add a syllable that is not there.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb een nieuwe telefoon gekocht.

I bought a new phone.

Listen: Ik heb een nieuwe telefoon gekocht.

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"Ik heb een nieuwe telefoon gekocht" uses the inflected form and puts the past participle "gekocht" at the very end, after the object. That participle carries an unstressed ge- prefix and a cht cluster, so it is quietly one of the harder words in the sentence.

Where English speakers slip

The English "new" supplies a completely different vowel and a rounded w, giving "nyoo." Dutch starts at "ee" and glides. The second problem is syllable count: reading the letters one at a time produces "nee-uh-oo," three syllables where Dutch has one. Say "ee" and let the lip move without stopping.