Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "tien" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce tien in Dutch?

tien is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tin/. It means “ten.” teen — a long "ee" vowel with an unaspirated t at the front.

teen — a long "ee" vowel with an unaspirated t at the front.

tien /tin/

Fully stressed standing alone, but it turns into a stress-bearing suffix in the teens: "veertien," "vijftien" and "zestien" all place secondary weight here while the first element takes the primary beat. Hearing "tien" as a building block makes the whole 13–19 range easier.

Listen: tien

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Sound it out

t Released without the burst of air English puts on "ten." Hold your hand in front of your mouth: the English t moves it, the Dutch one should not.

ie Long tense "ee." Dutch reserves this digraph for the high front vowel and never lets it split into two sounds.

n Final n articulated clearly with the tongue tip up — this one is part of the root, not a droppable ending.

Hear it in a sentence

Wacht tien minuten.

Wait ten minutes.

Listen: Wacht tien minuten.

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"Wacht tien minuten" is an imperative with the verb stripped to its stem, "wacht," and no pronoun. The two t-sounds at the boundary of "wacht tien" merge into one slightly longer t in natural speech rather than being said twice.

Where English speakers slip

Reading t-i-e-n letter by letter produces the vowel of "tin" or the diphthong of "tie." It is neither — a long, steady "ee." The aspiration on the t is the other tell: an English-style puffed t makes "tien" sound like a foreigner counting, even when the vowel is right.