LingoDrop
Dutch · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "u" in Dutch?
A single rounded front vowel: say "ee" and then round your lips without moving your tongue. Not "oo," not "you."
One vowel, one syllable, and always fully pronounced — unlike "je," the formal pronoun never reduces. Its weight in a sentence comes from politeness rather than emphasis: "u" marks respect, so slurring it undercuts the whole point of choosing it.
Listen: u
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Kan ik u helpen?
Can I help you?
Listen: Kan ik u helpen?
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"Kan ik u helpen?" is the standard shop-and-office greeting, and the pronoun sits between "ik" and the infinitive. Note the verb order: "kan" fronts for the question and "helpen" waits at the end, so the rounded vowel of "u" lands right in the middle of the sentence where it is easy to hear.
Where English speakers slip
A lone u on the page reads as "you" or "oo" to an anglophone eye. Both miss: "you" adds a y-glide the Dutch vowel does not have, and "oo" puts the tongue at the back of the mouth when it needs to be right at the front. If you can already say French "tu," you already have this sound. A separate risk is social rather than phonetic — using "u" and "jij" interchangeably, when Dutch draws a real line between them.