Dutch spelling rules: long and short vowels, ei or ij, and more
Why is it maan but manen, and bak but bakken? Learn the key Dutch spelling rules for vowels, consonants, ei/ij, the trema and capital letters.
Dutch spelling looks chaotic at first. Why is one boom (tree) but two bomen? Why is one kat (cat) but two katten? Why does huis become huizen? The answer is that Dutch spelling is mostly about sound: the letters change so that the pronunciation stays the same. Once you understand a few rules, you'll see they are remarkably consistent.
Open and closed syllables
This is the single most important rule in Dutch spelling. Split a word into syllables:
- A closed syllable ends in a consonant: maan, bak, boom.
- An open syllable ends in a vowel: ma-nen, bo-men.
A vowel at the end of an open syllable is automatically long. That means you don't need to double it. In a closed syllable you do need two letters to show a long vowel.
| Long vowel | Closed syllable | Open syllable |
|---|---|---|
| aa / a | de maan (moon) | de manen (moons) |
| ee / e | het been (leg) | de benen (legs) |
| oo / o | de boom (tree) | de bomen (trees) |
| uu / u | de muur (wall) | de muren (walls) |
The same thing happens in verbs and adjectives: ik maak → wij maken, ik loop → wij lopen, groot → een grote auto.
At the very end of a word, a, o and u are written single: ja, zo, nu. Long ee stays double at the end of a word, because a single final e is pronounced as a weak "uh" sound: de zee (sea), twee (two), but de (the).
Vowel pairs like ie, oe, eu, ui, ei and ij never change: de knie → de knieën, het huis → de huizen.
Doubling consonants
What if you have a short vowel and add an ending? If you wrote kat + en as katen, the a would be in an open syllable and become long. To keep the vowel short, Dutch doubles the consonant, which closes the syllable again: kat-ten.
- de kat → de katten — the cat → the cats
- de bus → de bussen — the bus → the buses
- de pen → de pennen — the pen → the pens
- ik bak → wij bakken — I bake → we bake
- dik → een dikke man — fat → a fat man
Two exceptions to know:
- No doubling after an unstressed "uh" sound, as in the endings -ig, -lijk and -el: aardig → een aardige man (a nice man), ik wandel → wij wandelen (we walk), never aardigge or wandellen.
- Ch is never doubled: lachen (to laugh), not lachchen.
F/v and s/z
Dutch words almost never end in v or z. When a v or z sound ends up at the end of a word, it's written f or s. Add an ending, and the v or z comes back.
| Short form | Long form |
|---|---|
| de brief (letter) | de brieven |
| lief (sweet) | een lieve hond |
| ik leef (I live) | leven |
| het huis (house) | de huizen |
| ik lees (I read) | lezen |
| de prijs (price) | de prijzen |
This is a tendency, not a law. Some words keep their f or s: de fotograaf → de fotografen, de kous → de kousen (sock), de dans → de dansen. A dictionary will tell you. The rule also matters for the d/t rule: verhuisd ends in -d because the infinitive is verhuizen.
Same sound, different spelling: ei/ij, au/ou, ch/g
Some pairs of spellings sound exactly the same in standard Dutch. There's no rule to tell them apart. You simply have to learn each word with its spelling.
Ei and ij both sound roughly like the vowel in English "eye", but a bit flatter.
- With ei: het ei (egg), klein (small), de trein (train), het meisje (girl)
- With ij: het ijs (ice cream), de tijd (time), mijn (my), de wijn (wine)
IJ counts as a single letter, so at the start of a name both letters are capitalised: IJsland (Iceland), het IJsselmeer.
Au and ou also sound the same, as in English "how".
- With au: de auto, de saus (sauce), blauw (blue)
- With ou: koud (cold), oud (old), de vrouw (woman)
Ch and g are pronounced the same way in most of the Netherlands: the throaty sound at the back of the mouth.
- With ch: acht (eight), lachen (to laugh), de school
- With g: goed (good), de dag (day), morgen (tomorrow)
Two notes: -isch at the end of a word is pronounced like -ies: logisch, praktisch. And in loanwords, g can sound French: de garage. For more on sounds, see the Dutch pronunciation guide.
The trema: ë and ï
The two dots on ë or ï are called a trema. They don't change the sound of the letter. They tell you that a new syllable starts here, so you don't read the vowels together.
- de ruïne — the ruin (ru-ï-ne, not ui as in huis)
- België — Belgium (Bel-gi-ë, not ie)
- tweeëntwintig — twenty-two (twee-en-twintig)
- de zee → de zeeën — the sea → the seas
- het idee → de ideeën — the idea → the ideas
- geïnteresseerd — interested
You'll see the trema most often in plurals of words ending in -ee or -ie, in country names like Italië and Australië, and in numbers like drieëntwintig (twenty-three).
Hyphens in compounds
Dutch writes compound words as one word: de voordeur, het ziekenhuis. But when the end of the first part and the start of the second part are two vowels that could be misread as one sound, you use a hyphen instead of a trema.
- de zee-egel — sea urchin
- het auto-ongeluk — car accident
- het thee-ei — tea infuser
- de radio-uitzending — radio broadcast
If the two vowels can't be misread, there's no hyphen: het fotoalbum.
Tip: Trema inside a word or plural (ideeën), hyphen between the parts of a compound (zee-egel).
Capital letters
Dutch uses fewer capital letters than English.
Lowercase: days, months and seasons.
- Ik werk op maandag en dinsdag. — I work on Monday and Tuesday.
- Mijn verjaardag is in april. — My birthday is in April.
- In de zomer gaan we naar Frankrijk. — In summer we're going to France.
Capitalised: names of countries, languages and nationalities, and adjectives made from them.
- Ik spreek Nederlands. — I speak Dutch.
- Hij is een Nederlander. — He is a Dutchman.
- Ze is een Nederlandse. — She is a Dutch woman.
- Ik hou van Franse kaas. — I love French cheese.
Holidays are capitalised too: Pasen (Easter), Koningsdag. The pronouns ik and u are lowercase in the middle of a sentence.
One curious rule: if a sentence starts with a shortened word like 's or 't, you capitalise the next word: 's Avonds kijk ik tv. — In the evening I watch TV.
Quick summary
- Long vowel in a closed syllable: double (maan, boom). In an open syllable: single (manen, bomen).
- Short vowel + ending: double the consonant (kat → katten, bak → bakken).
- Words end in f and s, not v and z: brief → brieven, huis → huizen (with some exceptions).
- Ei/ij, au/ou and ch/g sound the same: learn each word's spelling.
- A trema marks a new syllable: ruïne, België, ideeën.
- Compounds with clashing vowels get a hyphen: zee-egel, auto-ongeluk.
- Days and months are lowercase; languages and nationalities are capitalised.
Practise it
Practise nationalities and languages in Introducing yourself, lowercase months and seasons in Months and seasons, and spot the trema in numbers like tweeëntwintig in Numbers.