The Dutch alphabet: letter names, sounds and spelling aloud
Learn the Dutch alphabet with letter names, the sounds each letter makes, the IJ, the spelling alphabet and how to spell your name aloud in Dutch.
Sooner or later someone will ask you Hoe spel je dat? — How do you spell that? At the doctor's, on the phone with the bank, at the town hall. Your name, your street, your email address: you'll need the Dutch letter names, and they're not the same as the English ones. The good news is that the Dutch alphabet uses the same 26 letters as English, and most letter names are short and regular.
The 26 letters and their names
The pronunciation hints use English sounds as a rough guide. Tap the Dutch names to hear them.
| Letter | Dutch name | Sounds roughly like |
|---|---|---|
| A | a | "ah", long |
| B | bee | "bay" |
| C | cee | "say" |
| D | dee | "day" |
| E | ee | "ay" |
| F | ef | "ef" |
| G | gee | "khay", with a throaty g |
| H | ha | "hah" |
| I | ie | "ee" |
| J | jee | "yay" |
| K | ka | "kah" |
| L | el | "el" |
| M | em | "em" |
| N | en | "en" |
| O | oo | "oh" |
| P | pee | "pay" |
| Q | ku | "kü", the Dutch u sound |
| R | er | "air" |
| S | es | "ess" |
| T | tee | "tay" |
| U | u | no English equivalent: say "ee" with rounded lips |
| V | vee | "vay" |
| W | wee | "vay" with softer lips |
| X | iks | "iks" |
| Y | ij (griekse ij) | "ey", like ei |
| Z | zet | "zet" |
The letters English speakers mix up most are the vowels. Dutch e sounds like English "a" ("ay"), and Dutch i sounds like English "e" ("ee"). So when a Dutch person spells Pieter, you hear: "pay – ee – ay – tay – ay – air". It's worth practising your own name until the vowels come out automatically.
Also watch g and j: Dutch gee starts with the throaty sound from Scottish "loch", and jee starts with a "y" sound.
The IJ: almost a letter
Dutch has a special combination, ij, which behaves partly like a single letter. It sounds the same as ei, roughly like English "ay" in "day" but more open.
- At the start of a word, both letters are capitalised: IJsland (Iceland), het IJsselmeer, IJmuiden.
- When spelling, Dutch speakers distinguish the two spellings of the same sound: ij is called the lange ij (long ij), and ei is the korte ei (short ei).
- The letter y is called griekse ij (Greek ij), or ypsilon. It mostly appears in loanwords, names and a few older spellings: de baby, het systeem, de yoghurt.
So you might hear: Is het met een lange ij of een korte ei? — Is it with a long ij or a short ei?
What sounds the letters make
Knowing a letter's name is not the same as knowing how it sounds in words. Here are the letters that behave differently from English. For a full guide, see the pronunciation guide.
| Letter | Sound in Dutch words | Example |
|---|---|---|
| g | throaty sound, like "ch" in "loch" | goed (good) |
| ch | the same throaty sound | lachen (to laugh) |
| j | like English "y" | ja (yes) |
| w | between English "v" and "w" | water (water) |
| v | close to "f" in many regions | vis (fish) |
| r | rolled, or throaty at the back | rood (red) |
| u | short, like "u" in "hurt" without the r | bus (bus) |
| uu | long "ee" with rounded lips | muur (wall) |
| oe | like "oo" in "food" | boek (book) |
| ie | like "ee" in "see" | niet (not) |
| ui | no English equivalent | huis (house) |
| sch | "s" + throaty ch | school (school) |
A double vowel (aa, ee, oo, uu) is long. A single vowel is short in a closed syllable (man) and long in an open one (ma-nen). That's why maan (moon) becomes manen in the plural. More in Dutch spelling rules.
Spelling your name aloud
Here's what a typical exchange sounds like on the phone:
- Wat is uw achternaam? — What is your surname?
- Jansen. — Jansen.
- Hoe schrijft u dat? — How do you write that?
- J-a-n-s-e-n. — J-a-n-s-e-n.
- Met een s of met een z? — With an s or with a z?
- Met een s. — With an s.
Useful words when spelling:
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| een hoofdletter | a capital letter |
| een kleine letter | a lowercase letter |
| aan elkaar | written as one word |
| een spatie | a space |
| een streepje | a hyphen, a dash |
| een punt | a dot, full stop |
| een apenstaartje | the @ sign (literally "little monkey tail") |
| een trema | the two dots on ë, ï |
- Mijn e-mailadres is anna punt devries apenstaartje gmail punt com. — My email address is anna.devries@gmail.com.
- De Vries, met een hoofdletter D. — De Vries, with a capital D.
Double letters are simply spelled out: Bakker is "bee – a – ka – ka – ee – er". You'll also hear people say twee k's (two k's).
The Dutch spelling alphabet
On the phone, letters like b, p, d and t are easy to confuse. Just like English speakers say "B for Bravo", Dutch speakers use names. In practice, many people use the international alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie) or simply make up a word on the spot. But you'll still hear the traditional Dutch spelling alphabet, especially from older people and on the phone with companies.
| Letter | Word | Letter | Word |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Anton | N | Nico |
| B | Bernard | O | Otto |
| C | Cornelis | P | Pieter |
| D | Dirk | Q | Quotiënt |
| E | Eduard | R | Richard |
| F | Ferdinand | S | Simon |
| G | Gerard | T | Theodoor |
| H | Hendrik | U | Utrecht |
| I | Izaak | V | Victor |
| J | Johan | W | Willem |
| K | Karel | X | Xantippe |
| L | Lodewijk | Y | Ypsilon |
| M | Maria | Z | Zaandam |
The list has several versions, so don't worry if you hear alternatives such as Anna for A, Jan for J, Rudolf for R, Tinus or Teunis for T, or Zacharias for Z. The ij sometimes gets its own word: IJmuiden. Belgium uses a different list again. What matters is that the word clearly starts with the right letter.
- Dat is een d van Dirk. — That's a d as in Dirk.
- P van Pieter, niet b van Bernard. — P as in Pieter, not b as in Bernard.
Notice the little word van: Dutch says "d of Dirk", where English says "d as in Dirk" or "d for Dirk".
Accents and special characters
Dutch uses few accents, but two are worth knowing:
- The trema (¨) shows that a vowel starts a new syllable: België (Bel-gi-ë), ruïne (ruin), ideeën (ideas).
- Accent marks (é, è) appear in loanwords (café, crème) and are used to add emphasis: één (one, as opposed to the article een), Dat is dé plek. — That's the place.
Quick summary
- Dutch has the same 26 letters as English, but different letter names.
- Watch the vowels: Dutch e sounds like English "a", Dutch i like English "e".
- ij is almost a letter: capitalise it as IJ and call it lange ij; ei is korte ei; y is griekse ij.
- Ask Hoe spel je dat? or Hoe schrijft u dat?, and use hoofdletter, spatie, streepje and apenstaartje.
- In the spelling alphabet, say d van Dirk, p van Pieter.
- The trema separates vowels (België); accents show emphasis (één).
Practise it
Spell your name and introduce yourself in Introducing yourself, use polite phrases in Greetings, and practise classroom language like Hoe spel je dat? in In the classroom.