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I don't know any Dutch i'm just posting it so if anyone knows dutch feel free to take over

I thought of doing this earlier. xd

Section 1 - Pronunciation

The Dutch pronunciation is fairly simple. There aren't too many sounds that you won't find in English.

Vowel Sounds

a - short Basically like A in father.

a - long (and aa) Same as above, but more prolonged.

e - short Like the E in deck.

e - long (and ee) Like the A in lane, normally. When it precedes an R, however, it's like in green.

[When the E is either unstressed within a word or at the end of a word, it makes a softer "uh"-like sound found in the name Terra (but much fainter).]

i - short Like the I in mix.

i - long Again, like in green.

o - short As in German, it's a sound stuck in between A in father and O in bone. More leaning toward the former, though.

o - long (and oo) Like the O in bone.

u - short Another "in-between" sound. Sounds like something in between U in dune and OO in look.

u - long (and uu) Like U in dune, only with a little more stress in the back of the throat - similar to German Ü.

"Umlauts" (I don't believe that's how the Dutch know them)

ë Same as E - used merely to separate vowels to keep them from forming one sound (for example, in drieëntwintig, both ie and ee can make one single sound, but the second E is meant to be pronounced independently, thus the diaeresis mark to help sort it out.)

ï Same as above, obviously, but for the letter I.

Note that Dutch has no alternate way of writing these two diaresis letters, like German does. You'll simply need to memorize ways to make them appear.

For Windows users, hold alt and punch in a combination of numbers on the right-hand (not the top row) number pad. Then let go of alt.

Ë alt+0203
ë alt+0235
Ï alt+0207
ï alt+0239

For Mac users, hold the Option key and press U, then press the desired letter for diaeresis. (I'm pretty sure that's how it goes, if anyone knows different, please tell me so that I can ammend that statement)

Diphthong Vowels

ie Like the E in green.

oe Like the OO in Moon. Much smoother and solid than the short/long Dutch U.

ou/au Like the OW in Moscow or the OU in house.

eu Put two sounds together. You can put the sounds "ah" and "ee" together to produce the long I you hear in English, right? Do the same thing; "eh" plus "ooh." Sounds kind of like a New Yorker pronouncing an O.

ij/ei Another "in-between" sound. It sounds something in between the A in lane and the I in vine. Sometimes it can be either one or the other, it really depends on the speaker. Note that IJ pretty much counts as its own letter, so a proper noun beginning with IJ capitalizes both the I and the J.

ui Some say it sounds just like eu, some say it's a combination of Dutch A and UU. I've always heard it as being like eu, so you should be safe with that.

Triphthong vowels (and a couple others)

aai Like the I in vine.

oei Sounds like the word we.

ooi Like the OY in toy.

eeuw Dutch long E + Dutch OE.

ieuw Dutch IE + Dutch OE.


Consonants

b Pronounced as an English B except when ending a word (or before the letters S and T), in which case it hardens into a P.

c When without an H following it, usually a K. Can act as an S or SH in obviously borrowed words, like coëfficiënt.

ch Always hard and guttural, like the "loogie-hawking" sound you make before spitting a good one across the school cafeteria... never like the soft German ch that you hear in the HY sound in the word 'humane.'

d Pronounced as an English D except when ending a word (or before the letters S and T), in which case it hardens into a T.

f Same as English F.

g Pronounced the same exact guttural way as CH, with the exception of the letter combination of NG, in which case it is as in the word 'long.'

h Usually like English H, but sometimes silent.

j Pronounced as an English Y.

k Same as English K.

l Same as English L, but with the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth rather than behind the top teeth.

m Same as English M.

n Same as English N.

p Same as English P.

q As in English, you'll never see it without a U. It would be pronounced as Dutch K+W (or k+v in English). This is much less common than actually seeing the letters KW to express this sound, however.

r It's guttural, almost like a gurgling sound made in the back of the throat, but not so soft as in German... think a voiced version of the letters CH. Quite a bit harsher than the German R.

s Never ever ever pronounce it as the English Z. It's always like the solid English S.

sch This is not in fact equivalent to German - rather than making a "sh" sound, it makes just what it looks like - the S sound with the guttural CH sound closely following it. Sounds weird, but not impossible to master.

sj Like English SH, as in ship.

tj Like English CH, as in chip.

t Mostly the same as the English T, with the exception of borrowed English words that have the suffix -tion.

v Like English F, but softer.

w Like English V, but softer.

x Rare, but like English X.

y Uncommon in Dutch, but usually like English Y.

z Sometimes will sound to be TS like the German Z, but usually pronounced as English Z.

As in many languages, the pronunciation isn't always rock solid and there are broken pronunciation rules here and there. Usually you don't come across them too much, so don't worry. Although some words will look extremely intimidating, practice always makes perfect, so don't give up.

More lessons soon to come.

Veel succes. (Much success/good luck)

Section 3 - Nouns

Dutch nouns as compared to German nouns are quite a bit more lax when it comes to gender, and especially when it comes to capitalization. Two things to know about the nouns:

A) Unlike German, capitalization is restricted to names and places... and of course the beginning of the sentence.
B) There are two genders in Dutch.

The definite article "the" that we use in English is affected by gender. The "the" used for feminine nouns (more widely known as 'common' nouns) will be "de," and the "the" used for neuter nouns is "het" (there's no masculine - weird, huh?)

De (Said like 'duh')
Use it with common nouns (there's no real way to tell most of the time which nouns are common and which are neuter):
de naam (name)
de broeder (brother)
de vader (father)
de trein (train)
de hond (dog)

To say the indefinite article "a" instead of 'the,' use "een." This article doesn't have a second form for gender difference - it's the same for both de and het words. (een naam, een hert, etc.)

[Pronunciation note: The word "een" is one of those pronunciation rule-breakers I mentioned earlier. Instead of 'ayn,' the EE is dulled to sound like the OO in the word book. This helps Dutchfolk in casual conversation to speak faster.]

Het (Said like 'heht')
Het is used for the less common neuter words:
het hert (deer)
het lied (song)
het bier (beer)
het water (water)
het sap (juice)

'Het' can also mean 'it' (ik zie het - I see it)

[Pronunciation note: (Yes, another one..) Het is usually pronounced as it looks when used as the article itself, but when it's used as the word "it," it loses its luster - the H becomes silent and the E turns into that same OO/book sound as happens in "een." Sounds like the word 'foot' without the F.]

(Remember that the indefinite article "a" is still "een".)

In another lesson I will go over the personal pronouns.

I = ik (ick)
You = u/jij (ooh/yay)
He = hij (hay)
She = zij (zay)
We = wij (vay)
You = jullie (yooh-lee)
They = zij (zay)

im new did u guys already have hebrew as a language of the month??

I would do the samr thing if I could teach. xd

You're right, I did make it sound like that... fixed it to say the other way around, though.