Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "zeven" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce zeven in Dutch?

zeven is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈzeːvə(n)/. It means “seven.” SAY-vuh — long "ay" first, weak schwa second, and the final n usually vanishes in speech.

SAY-vuh — long "ay" first, weak schwa second, and the final n usually vanishes in speech.

zeven /ˈzeːvə(n)/

The beat goes on the first syllable, the pattern for essentially all native two-syllable Dutch nouns and numerals. The gap in weight between ZAY- and -vuh is larger than English speakers instinctively make it; the second syllable should be genuinely faint.

Listen: zeven

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Sound it out

z Barely-voiced initial z, closer to s than English speakers expect. The buzz builds up over the first fraction of the sound rather than being there from the outset.

e (first) Long tense "ay": the syllable ends after this vowel, and an open syllable automatically stretches a single e in Dutch spelling.

v Between vowels the v does get proper voicing, so it is fuller here than a Dutch v at the start of a word would be.

en A weak closing syllable. The n survives in careful counting — reading numbers aloud slowly — but vanishes the moment you say the number at conversational speed.

Hear it in a sentence

Er zijn zeven dagen in een week.

There are seven days in a week.

Listen: Er zijn zeven dagen in een week.

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"Er zijn zeven dagen in een week" strings together three unstressed function words at the end — "in een week" flattens to "in-uhn-VAYK" — while the numeral and "dagen" carry the melody. Notice "dagen" pluralises with -en and lengthens the a of "dag" as the syllable opens up.

Where English speakers slip

Its English cousin "seven" hovers over this word, tempting learners into the short "eh" of "sev-" when Dutch has a long "ay." The vowels are genuinely different lengths, and shortening it is the error a Dutch ear notices first. The second-syllable schwa is also often given a real "eh," producing a stiff "ZAY-ven" instead of the natural "ZAY-vuh."