Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "vier" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce vier in Dutch?

vier is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vir/. It means “four.” veer — but with a Dutch v that is only lightly voiced, so it sits somewhere between English "f" and "v."

veer — but with a Dutch v that is only lightly voiced, so it sits somewhere between English "f" and "v."

vier /vir/

One syllable with full weight, though it lives inside a family where stress moves around: "vier" is strong, "veertien" puts the beat first, and "veertig" does the same while lengthening the vowel in the spelling. Learn the numeral on its own before worrying about its relatives.

Listen: vier

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

v Standard northern Dutch weakens initial v until it nearly matches f. Begin the sound almost voiceless and let the vocal cords join in partway through, rather than buzzing from the start as English "very" does.

ie Long "ee," tense and bright, exactly as in "drie."

r A light tap or soft back scrape at the end. Because it follows a long vowel, many speakers reduce it to little more than a flick.

Hear it in a sentence

Er zijn vier stoelen.

There are four chairs.

Listen: Er zijn vier stoelen.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

"Er zijn vier stoelen" opens with the existential "er," the Dutch equivalent of "there" in "there are." The plural "stoelen" ends in the droppable -en, so in speech the sentence closes on a schwa: "er zijn vier STOO-luh."

Where English speakers slip

Anglophones give the v a full English buzz and add a heavy r, producing something like "VEER" that sounds distinctly non-Dutch on both ends. The v should be almost breathy at its onset. Beginners also confuse this word with "vuur" (fire), which differs only in the vowel — "ie" is "ee," while "uu" is the rounded front vowel with no English equivalent.