Pronunciation
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The consonants are:

* B as in "bad" /Bath/ (B at end of words sounds like "P")
* D as in "dom" /Doll/ (D at end of words sounds like "T")
* F as in "fijn" /Fix/ and "laf" /lauGH/
* G as in "god" (sounds somewhat like the "ch" in /loCH ness/, very throaty,
and "dag"
* G as in "garage" /SHow/ only used in words originating from the French.
* H as in "help" /Help/
* J as in "jas" /Yes/ (not like J in /Jet/, that's more a DJ sound)
* J as in "journaal" /CHopin/
* K as in "kat" /Cat/ and "ik" /liCK/
* L as in "los" /Lot/ and "tol" /toLL/
* M as in "mijn" /Mine/ and "dom' /suM/
* N as in "niet" /Not/ and "tin" /tiN/
* P as in "pas" /Pen/ and "sop" /cuP/
* Q as in "quiz" /Quiz/
* R as in "rot" /Run/ and "kar" /faR/ (don't roll it)
* S as in "sop" /Sob/ and "los" /boSS/
* T as in "tin" /Tin/ and "rot" /weT/
* V the same as "F", "V" can't be at the end of a word or syllable.
* W as in "wat" /Where/ and "ruw" /hoW/
* X as in "sex" /seX/
* Z as in "zak" /Zoo/ and "quiz" /quiZ/

The vowels differ more from the English, and they are so many ways to pronounce them!!
Pffff. To make it more difficult is that the sound of a vowel depends (just like in English) on the surrounding consonants and other vowels. Two or three adjacent vowels can also form diphthongs, i.e. they makes one sound together.




The vowels are:

* A as in "kat", sounds something like /cUt/
* E as in "ben" /zEn/
* E as in "gokken", this is another sound for the single E, it sound like the mute "e" in English, like in {givEn}, it is used mostly when the syllable with the "e" doesn't have the emphasis
* I as in "ik" /dIck/
* O as in "dom" /sOld/
* U as in "put" (sounds a bit like /wOrd} or {bIrd}, say the "i" sound and round your lips to a small circle)
* IJ as in "hij", sounds not entirely not like /whY/




The diphthongs are:

* AA as in "daar" (a bit like /jA/ or /fAther/, but not really)
* AAI as in "saai", a bit like the "ij" sound, only longer
* AU as in "rauw" (same sound as OU)
* CH as in "lach" (same sound as "G")
* CH as in "douchen" /SHow/ (pronounced like "sj"), from the French, always pronounced like this before the "OU" difhthong
* EAU as in "bureau" /gO/ (pronounced like an "oo"), it's a French word, in previous spelling also written with "o" instead of "eau"
* EE as in " reet" /rAte/, sounds different before an "R", more like a long "i", like as in "meer" /gEAr/
* EI as in "zeik" /dIke/, sounds like the "ij"
* EEU as in "eeuw", almost like the long "ee" sound. It's always followed by a "w"
* EU as in "neus" (a sound not known in English, just listen), sounds different before an "R", more like a long mute "E", like in "deur".
* IE as in "lief" /sEE/
* IEU as in "nieuw" a bit like /sEAl/, always before a 'w'
* NG as in "zingen" and "lang" /loNG/
* OE as in "boek" /lOOk/
* OEI as in "groeien" /OOJ/
* OI as in "hoi" /bOY/, not many words with this sounds though.
* OO as in "hoop" /hOpe/, sounds different before an "R", more like a long "o", like as in "door" /dOOr/
* OOI as in "mooi", a long OI
* OU as in "goud" /lOUd/
* OU as in "douchen" /lOOse/ (pronounced like an "oe"), from the French, always prononced like this before "CH", and in some other French words
* SCH as in "schip", the "s" followed by the "CH" sound, but when an "r" follows "sch", as in "schreeuwen".
At the end of a word its always preceded by a "i" and sounds like the "ies" sound, like in "logisch" (sometimes even written with "ies", like "logies", but only in 'rebelian', non-standard Dutch texts).
* SJ as in "sjaal" /SHow/
* TS as in "tsaar" /TSar/
* UI as in "huis" (a sound not present in English, a bit like saying the mute "e" followed by the "UU" sound, but very smooth)
* UU as in "muur" (a sound not present in English, sounds like the French 'lune', try to say the "ie" /sEE/ sound, and round your lips)


The short vowels "a", "e", "o" and "u" are pronounced as the long vowels "aa", "ee", "oo" rsp. "uu" when they are in a so-called 'open' syllable. An open syllable ends with a single consonant and is followed by another vowel.
So examples are: "tAken", "gEven", "Uren".
NOT open syllables are: "lAchen", "wErken", "hEbben", "hEb".
But the "e" is pronounced as a mute "e" when the emphasis (stress) is not on the syllable (more about this in another lesson).
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The "a", "o" and "u" are also pronounced long when the are at the end of a word (or used as a single letter, but then the word would consist of this single letter, and would therefore end with the letter, so what am I getting on about?), like in "ja", "zo" and "nu".
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Finally the letters of the alphabet as promounced:
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X IJ Y Z

Spelling

Well, Dutch has all the usual letters of the alphabet, plus one.
That is: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz and ÿ (ij)
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Yep, that new letter "ÿ" is very hard to enter on a normal QWERTY keyboard.
That's why we normally use "ij" (an "i" and an "j") in typed documents (in handwritten documents usually the "ÿ" is used).
So "ij" actually counts as one letter in Dutch (we even have it in Scrabble :-).
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Of course, we also have the i and j as separate letters, but I can't come up with a word in which j follows i and isn't used as an "ij". So whenever you see "ij" in a word it's the ÿ.
For example: "hij" {he}, "IJsselmeer" (name of a lake).
The capital "ij" is written as "IJ"; so both letters are capitalized.
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The "y" is like in English, sometimes vowel, and sometimes a consonant.
It is only used in words derived from a foreign language, like Greek, e.g. "hypnose" {hypnosis} or "yoghurt" {yogurt}.
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As in most languages the first character of a sentence starts with a capital (well almost all of the time).
Also names of persons, geographical names start with a capital. Nouns don't normally start with a capital (it does so in the German language for instance).
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Sentences end with a "."
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The Dutch language has many diphthongs (two or more vowels forming one sound together). They are:
"aa", "aai", "au", "ee", "eeu", "ei", "eu", "ie", "ieu", "oe", "oei", "oi", "oo", "ooi", "ou", "ui", "uu"
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Dutch also has some sorta consonant diphthongs. They are:
"ch", "ng", "sch"
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Why have two things for the same sound? In the old times (before 1920) the "g" and the "ch" sounded different, this also is valid for other letters and diphthong, like "ij" and "ei" which have the same sound. We call "ij" 'long' and "ei" short.