Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "twintig" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce twintig in Dutch?

twintig is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈtʋɪntəx/. It means “twenty.” TVIN-tuhkh — soft lip-teeth w, and the -ig ending rhymes with a scraped "-uhkh," not English "-ig."

TVIN-tuhkh — soft lip-teeth w, and the -ig ending rhymes with a scraped "-uhkh," not English "-ig."

twintig /ˈtʋɪntəx/

The beat sits on TWIN- and the suffix is completely unstressed — the same shape as "dertig," "veertig" and every other multiple of ten. That consistency means the whole tens series can be learned as a single rhythmic template.

Listen: twintig

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Sound it out

tw Unaspirated t running straight into the soft Dutch w, made with the bottom lip near the teeth. To an English ear the cluster sounds partway to "tv."

i The short lax vowel of "win," kept brief because two consonants close the syllable behind it.

-ig A fixed suffix pronounced /əx/: a schwa followed by the harsh velar fricative. This ending appears on dozens of Dutch words and never sounds like the English "-ig" of "big."

Hear it in a sentence

Ik ben twintig jaar oud.

I'm twenty years old.

Listen: Ik ben twintig jaar oud.

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"Ik ben twintig jaar oud" gives the age with "jaar" singular, and Dutch often shortens this further to just "ik ben twintig." The sentence ends on "oud," whose ou diphthong and devoiced final t make a nice contrast with the fricative ending of the number itself.

Where English speakers slip

The suffix is the sticking point: learners say "-ig" with a hard English g, or worse, an English "-idge." It is schwa plus the scraping fricative — "tuhkh." The w is the second issue, usually rendered as the rounded English w. And the short i frequently gets stretched into "tween-tig," pulled there by the influence of "twee."