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A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation

Long and short vowels: aa and a

vowel length and how it is spelt

Topic 7 of 90 · about 8 minutes

Your goal

You can tell long vowels from short ones by how they are written and read and say pairs like man and maan correctly.

Er staat een boom voor ons raam.There is a tree in front of our window.

Mag ik je pen even?Could I borrow your pen for a moment?

Konijnen eten graag peen.Rabbits like eating carrots.

Done at 8 of 10 · about 4 min

Explainer video

Watch first – then practise

The essentials

RememberBefore a consonant: doubled is long, single is short.

Doubled means long, single before a consonant means short — man and maan are two words.

Signal words: aa
ee
oo
uu
ie
a
e
o
u

The form

How it is written and said

Each row gives the rule first, then examples in Dutch that show it.

a: short and dark	man, kat, bal
aa: long	maan, kaas, raam
e short – ee long	pen, bed – peen, been
o short – oo long	bom, pot – boom, rood
u short – uu long	bus, dun – muur, vuur
i short – ie	vis, wit – niet, bier
unstressed e: like the a in “about”	de, je, lopen

The rules one by one

The form this topic is about

A doubled vowel is long.
De maan is mooi vannacht.The moon is beautiful tonight.
A single vowel before a consonant at the end of a word is short.
Die man heeft een kat.That man has a cat.
Length alone turns one word into another.
Ik zie een boom, geen bom.I can see a tree, not a bomb.

More rules (2)

ie is one sound, a long “ee”, not an “i” plus an “e”.
Ik drink niet veel bier.I don’t drink much beer.
An unstressed e sounds like the “a” in “about”, and -en often loses its n in speech.
We lopen naar de markt.We are walking to the market.

Example sentences

6 more example sentences

De muur is wit.The wall is white.

Ik eet kaas met brood.I eat cheese with bread.

Thijs zit in de zon.Thijs is sitting in the sun.

Het water is koud.The water is cold.

Mijn been doet pijn.My leg hurts.

De bus is vol.The bus is full.

The trap English speakers fall into

Watch out

English gives you tricks Dutch does not have: the silent e that lengthens a vowel (“man – mane”). In Dutch a single vowel before a consonant is short, always, so writing man where you mean “moon” gives you a man. The moon is maan, cheese kaas, not kas, which is a greenhouse.

Wrong:De man schijnt vannacht.

Right:De maan schijnt vannacht.

Lesson

The full explanation

Read it all · about 1 min

As in English, the length of a vowel separates words: manis “man”maanis “moon”; bomis a bombbooma tree; penis a penpeena carrot English marks length in several ways: a doubled letter (“moon”, “tree”), a silent e (“tape”, “hope”) or nothing at all. Dutch uses one system and it is strict: when a consonant follows the vowel, doubled means long and single means short. There is no silent e.

The short vowels: a is a short, dark “ah”, further back in the mouth than the “a” of “cat” (kat is not “cat”); e as in “bed” (bed); i as in “bit” (vis); o as in British “pot” (pot); u is short and rounded, like the “i” of “bit” said with rounded lips (bus). The long ones: aalike “ah” in “father”eelike “ay” in “say” (but pure)oolike “oh” in “go” (pure)uulike “ee” with rounded lips

ie is not an “i” plus an “e”: it is the “ee” of “see”, usually somewhat shorter: niet, fiets. An unstressed e sounds like the “a” in “about”: de, je, lopen. In the ending -en the n is often dropped in speech: lopen then sounds like “LOH-puh”.

A closer look

Why ie, oe, eu and ui are never doubled

ie, oe, eu and ui are already two signs for one sound. There is no contrast between single and double for them, and their spelling never changes: boek – boeken, stoel – stoelen. They sound longer only before r: bier, boer, deur.

Exceptions and special cases1

Exception
When a long vowel stands at the end of a word
then a, o and u are written single (ja, zo, nu); only ee stays double (zee, twee).
Ga je nu ook naar zee?Are you heading to the sea now as well?
Why? At the end of a word the syllable is open and the vowel is long anyway. ee stays double so that you do not read it as the unstressed e of de.

Worth knowing2

Worth knowing
In Flanders the vowels stay pure
In the Netherlands ee, oo and eu glide slightly at the end — eea little towards the “ee” of “see”ootowards “oo” In Flanders they stay pure. Both are standard.
Het regent hier heel vaak.It rains here very often.
Worth knowing
The short a lies far back
The short a in kat or bal is made further back in the mouth than the “a” of English “cat”, with a hint of “o”. The long aa by contrast is bright. The gap between the two is bigger than anything in English.
Bram heeft een kat en een hond.Bram has a cat and a dog.

The verbs on this page, in every form: zijn · hebben · gaan · staan · zitten · mogen · zien · eten