Dutch · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "zijn" in Dutch?

Q: How do you pronounce zijn in Dutch?

zijn is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /zɛin/. It means “to be.” zayn — barely-voiced z, then the ij diphthong gliding from "eh" up to "ee," and a final n.

zayn — barely-voiced z, then the ij diphthong gliding from "eh" up to "ee," and a final n.

zijn /zɛin/

Weight depends entirely on which "zijn" you mean. As the infinitive "to be" it can take a beat, especially at the end of a clause; as the possessive "his" it is normally unstressed and leans on the noun. The spelling gives you no clue — only the syntax does.

Listen: zijn

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Sound it out

z Only lightly voiced at the start of a word in northern Dutch, hovering near s. Do not give it the full buzz of English "zone."

ij The Dutch diphthong: start around the vowel of "met" and rise toward "ee." Identical in sound to the spelling "ei," which is why "zijn" and a hypothetical "zein" would sound the same.

n This n carries grammatical weight: it is what marks the word as the infinitive or plural form rather than "zij."

Hear it in a sentence

Ik wil gelukkig zijn.

I want to be happy.

Listen: Ik wil gelukkig zijn.

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"Ik wil gelukkig zijn" pushes the infinitive to the end behind the adjective, the mirror image of English "I want to be happy." Because it lands last, the diphthong is fully exposed and there is nothing after it to hide a sloppy vowel — a good sentence for auditing your ij.

Where English speakers slip

Seeing z-i-j-n, English speakers guess "zine" with the vowel of "mine." That open "ah"-start belongs to a different diphthong; Dutch ij begins mid-front. A second confusion is lexical rather than phonetic: "zijn" means both "to be" and "his," and beginners reading a sentence often pick the wrong one and then can't parse the grammar.