Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "vijf" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce vijf in Dutch?

vijf is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vɛif/. It means “five.” Like English "fife" but with the vowel starting lower — roughly "vayf" with a soft v.

Like English "fife" but with the vowel starting lower — roughly "vayf" with a soft v.

vijf /vɛif/

A one-beat word, but its diphthong gives it a natural internal movement that makes it feel weightier than a simple vowel would. In "vijftien" and "vijftig" the vowel survives intact while the stress shifts to that first syllable — unusually well-behaved compared to "drie" and "vier."

Listen: vijf

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Sound it out

v Lightly voiced, close to f in the northern standard. The word begins and ends with almost the same sound, which is a good way to test your v: they should feel like near-twins.

ij The Dutch diphthong, starting near "eh" and rising toward "ee." It is identical in sound to the spelling ei, which is why Dutch children have to memorise which words take which.

f A clean voiceless f at the end, cut off without any trailing vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Ik heb vijf euro.

I have five euros.

Listen: Ik heb vijf euro.

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"Ik heb vijf euro" keeps "euro" singular after a number, which is standard for currency and units in Dutch — never "vijf euro's." The eu in "euro" is also the rounded front vowel, so the sentence gives you two non-English vowels in a row to negotiate.

Where English speakers slip

Seeing ij, English speakers guess the "eye" sound of "five" and say "vife." The Dutch diphthong starts much higher in the mouth — at the vowel of "met," not the open "ah" of "father." That single substitution is the most common vowel error in beginner Dutch, since ij and ei appear in dozens of high-frequency words.