Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "verliefd" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce verliefd in Dutch?

verliefd is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vərˈlift/. It means “in love.” vuhr-LEEFT — unstressed prefix, a long bright "ee," and the final d said as a t.

vuhr-LEEFT — unstressed prefix, a long bright "ee," and the final d said as a t.

verliefd /vərˈlift/

Second-syllable stress, dictated by the unstressed ver- prefix. Note that this word is built from "lief" plus the prefix and a participle ending, and the root keeps the accent throughout that construction.

Listen: verliefd

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Sound it out

ver- Half-voiced v, schwa, faint r — a prefix so light it can compress toward a bare "vr-" in fast speech.

l A bright forward l opening the stressed syllable, tongue tip up and body low.

ie A long bright "ee" carrying the primary stress, held fully before the consonants arrive.

fd The f is voiceless and the d devoices to t behind it, so the word ends "-ft" — exactly the same cluster behaviour as in "hoofd."

Hear it in a sentence

Hij is al jaren verliefd op haar.

He has been in love with her for years.

Listen: Hij is al jaren verliefd op haar.

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"Hij is al jaren verliefd op haar" uses "op" for the object of affection — not "met" or "van" — and "al jaren" for a duration that continues. Dutch uses the present tense here where English needs a perfect, which is a persistent tense mismatch.

Where English speakers slip

The fd ending gets voiced or dropped; it surfaces as "-ft." Learners also front-stress the word and read "ie" as a diphthong. The preposition is the more damaging error though: "verliefd met" is a direct translation from English that Dutch does not accept.