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A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation

ui, ij, eu, oe: the unfamiliar vowel signs

vowels and spellings that English does not have

Topic 3 of 90 · about 8 minutes

Your goal

You can pronounce ui, ij, eu and oe in words like huis, leuk and boek.

Mijn moeder leest een boek.My mother is reading a book.

Wat een leuk huis!What a nice house!

Doe de deur maar dicht.Just close the door.

Done at 8 of 10 · about 4 min

Explainer video

Watch first – then practise

The essentials

Rememberoe is “oo”, u is a rounded “ee”, eu is “fur” — and ui you have to hear.

oe is “oo”, eu is like “fur”, u is a rounded “ee” — and ui has no English counterpart at all.

Signal words: oe
eu
uu
ui
ij
ei
ou
au

The form

How it is written and said

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

oe: like “oo” in “boot”	boek, goed, moeder
eu: like the vowel of British “fur”, lips rounded	neus, deur, leuk
uu and u: “ee” with rounded lips	muur, vuur, nu, bus
ij and ei: the same sound, starting with an open e	mijn, tijd, klein, trein
ou and au: like “ow” in “cow”	oud, koud, blauw
ui: rounded, gliding, no English equivalent	huis, uit, buiten

The rules one by one

The form this topic is about

oe sounds like the “oo” of “boot”.
Het boek is goed.The book is good.
eu sounds like a long vowel as in British “fur”, said with rounded lips.
De deur is open.The door is open.
ij and ei sound the same.
Mijn trein is bijna hier.My train is nearly here.

More rules (2)

ou and au sound the same, a bit like “ow” in “cow”.
Het is koud en de lucht is blauw.It is cold and the sky is blue.
ui is a sound of its own.
Ik ga naar huis.I’m going home.

Example sentences

6 more example sentences

Ik heb geen tijd.I haven’t got time.

Fleur woont buiten de stad.Fleur lives outside the town.

In de soep zitten een ui en een ei.There is an onion and an egg in the soup.

Mijn neus is koud.My nose is cold.

We gaan uit eten.We’re going out to eat.

De muur is oud.The wall is old.

The trap English speakers fall into

Watch out

The Dutch boek looks like “book” and the Dutch u looks like the “u” of “put” — both are traps. The sound of “boot” is written oe, and the Dutch u is a rounded vowel English does not have. If you spell by ear in English terms you get buk, which does not exist; and a Dutch ear hears buk as something quite different.

Wrong:Het buk ligt op tafel.

Right:Het boek ligt op tafel.

Lesson

The full explanation

Read it all · about 1 min

Four signs deceive an English eye. oe is the “oo” of “boot”: boek (book), goed (good), moeder (mother) — the words look like “book” and “good”, but the vowel is the one in “boot”, and goed is “khoot”. eu is close to the vowel of British “fur”, said with rounded lips and no r: neus (nose), deur (door), leuk. uu is “ee” with rounded lips: muur, vuur; the short u in bus or dun is like the “i” of “bit” said with rounded lips.

ij and ei sound the same: a diphthong that begins like the “e” of “bed” and glides towards “ee”, a bit like English “ay” in “day” but starting more open. It is not the English “eye”: mijn is not “mine”, and tijd is not “tide”. Which spelling a word has you learn with the word. ou and au also sound alike, roughly like English “ow” in “cow” but with a rounder start: oud, koud, blauw.

ui has no English counterpart. Start with rounded lips as for the vowel in “fur”, open the jaw a little, and then glide towards a rounded “ee”: huis, uit, buiten. It is neither “oo-ee” nor “oy”. A good pair to practise: ui (onion) and ei (egg).

A closer look

ij or ei? English can help

Where English has a long i that comes from an old long i, Dutch usually writes ij: mijn– minewijn– wineijs– icetijd– tide (time)

Where English has a long o (“stone”, “bone”, “whole”, “one”) Dutch often has ee: steen– stonebeen– boneheel– wholeeen– one It is not a fixed rule but a good first guess.

Exceptions and special cases1

Exception
When ij stands in the ending -lijk
then it sounds like an unstressed e: eigenlijk, vriendelijk, makkelijk.
Dat is eigenlijk heel makkelijk.That is actually quite easy.
Why? The ending is unstressed, and unstressed vowels shrink to the weak sound of “about”. The ending is the same as English “-ly”: vriendelijk is “friendly”.

Worth knowing2

Worth knowing
ij and ei in Flanders
In Flanders ij/ei often sounds narrower, almost like a long “ay” with a small “ee” after it; in the Netherlands the sound opens further towards “a”. Both are standard and understood everywhere.
Het is tijd voor de trein.It is time for the train.
Worth knowing
ieuw, eeuw and uw
When a w follows ie, ee or u, the vowel glides into a short “oo”-like w: nieuw, eeuw (century), duwen. The w is not said as in English “new”, but soft and short.
Ik heb een nieuwe fiets.I have a new bike.

The verbs on this page, in every form: zijn · gaan · doen · wonen · zitten · lezen