Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "opstaan" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce opstaan in Dutch?

opstaan is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈɔpstaːn/. It means “to get up.” OP-stahn — stress on the prefix, plain s in "st" (never "sht"), and a long open "aah."

OP-stahn — stress on the prefix, plain s in "st" (never "sht"), and a long open "aah."

opstaan /ˈɔpstaːn/

Separable verbs put the primary beat on the prefix, so it is OP-staan and never op-STAAN. That rule is completely reliable and it doubles as a diagnostic: if the prefix is stressed, the verb will split apart in a main clause.

Listen: opstaan

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Sound it out

op- The separable prefix, and it takes the main beat. Short rounded o as in British "hop," closed by an unaspirated p.

st A plain hissing s into an unaspirated t. German would say "sht" here at the start of a root; Dutch keeps the s clean, which is one of the fastest ways to tell the two languages apart.

aa Hold this one. The doubled letter is an instruction to stretch, and a clipped version makes the prefix sound rushed.

n Root-final and fully pronounced. This is one of the fused single-syllable infinitives, so no schwa precedes it.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik sta om zeven uur op.

I get up at seven.

Listen: Ik sta om zeven uur op.

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"Ik sta om zeven uur op" demonstrates the split exactly — "sta" takes second position and "op" is exiled to the end of the clause. The stem also loses the second a in spelling because the syllable is now open, which is the mirror image of what happened in the infinitive.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners keep the verb together, producing "ik opsta om zeven uur," which is ungrammatical in a main clause. Phonetically the risk is the st-: German speakers and English speakers who have studied German say "OP-shtahn." Dutch does not palatalise that s anywhere. Watch the vowel length too — the aa should be noticeably long.