Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "slim" in Dutch?

Like English "slim," but the s stays a plain hiss and the l is brighter.

slim /slɪm/

One beat, short and closed, which suits a word meaning clever — it lands quickly. Inflected as "slimme," the m doubles in spelling to keep the vowel short, so "een slimme man" adds a schwa without lengthening anything.

Listen: slim

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Sound it out

sl A sharp s running into a forward, bright l. German palatalises this cluster into "shl"; Dutch never does.

i Short and lax, the vowel of English "slim" — a rare case where the cognate spelling gives you the right sound.

m Lips fully closed at the end, held briefly. Do not let it fade into a nasalised vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Hij is heel slim.

He is very smart.

Listen: Hij is heel slim.

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"Hij is heel slim" is as compact as Dutch gets, with "heel" doing the work of "very." The adjective sits bare after the verb, so the final m closes the sentence with the lips together — a soft landing compared with the stop endings of most Dutch adjectives.

Where English speakers slip

This is a false friend hiding behind an identical spelling: English "slim" means thin, not clever. Phonetically the only adjustments are a brighter l and no aspiration anywhere, both minor. Getting the meaning wrong is far more likely than getting the sound wrong.