Dutch pronunciation: korte EI vs lange IJ, part 1

[@DikWhite]

Thank you. I'm half Dutch and grew up bilingual. When I started watching this video I wondered whether I had always incorrectly assumed ei and ij were pronounced the same. Thanks for putting my mind at rest. By the way, when the ij comes at the beginning of a word it is always written as IJ as in IJmuiden or IJsselmeer. I thought that was worth adding here.

[@alexisericson241]

Woah people do treat it like a letter unto itself then!

[@etiennedevignolles7538]

@@alexisericson241 I used to have a typewriter which had "ij" as a single letter!

[@ronaldderooij1774]

The short and long IJ are called that way because originally (40 years ago) the ij was one letter instead of two and it was written with a tail below the writing line. So therefore "long". The short ei remained above the writing line, so it was called "short". Officially it the ij is a separate letter and is unique to the Dutch language, just like the "ß"is unique to German. However, with all the computer keyboards nowadays, it is easier to replace it with "ij".

[@richardbrinkerhoff]

I had a typewriter at my first job that had a separate key for the ij where the two letters were written as one.

[@ronaldderooij1774]

@@richardbrinkerhoff Ja, met de rechterpink te bedienen.... rampzalig.

[@richardbrinkerhoff]

@@ronaldderooij1774 Het was 46 jaar geleden, dus ik weet niet meer met welke vinger.

[@AverageSilenceEnjoyer]

Damn i used 6min watching this when instead you couldve just said "theyre the same"

[@SilverSkySE]

Yup they are pronounced exactly the same, in order for you to know which one to write, you need to know the vocabulary by heart.

@@SilverSkySE i verwacht dan geen reactie

[@L.A.ismyname]

lol

[@kokorox61]

Jeeez, 7 minutes just to say that they're pronounced exactly the same. LOL

[@Definitely_not_pi]

Yep

ja man

[@nhunka44]

I've heard people in Den Bosch say "ij" as we say the word "eye" or "I" in English. The way Bart pronounces is sounds more like the sound in "hey"

[@dominikam7508]

Hi. The same problem with people from Haarlem / Amsterdam. On the other hand my flemish teacher has taught me the same pronunciation as in tge video. Honestly, I don't know which of these I should follow. Weird thing that no one is able to explain these differences.

[@koen293]

@@dominikam7508 I think this is because of (regional/local) dialects, of which we have many in the Netherlands.

[@rrbrambley]

This is exactly the reason I came to this video. I cannot figure out which sound I should be using. If I say it like "eye," is it okay to always pronounce it this way? For example, I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say hij or mij with the "eye" sound, but only instead as Bart says it in this video. Can someone please address this?

[@richardbrinkerhoff]

@@rrbrambley English 'eye' sounds like aai to a Dutchman. It's definitely not the same pronunciation as ei or ij.

[@etiennedevignolles7538]

I loved this video (I've just started trying to learn Dutch). And I have subscribed for more of this.

[@teleclipse8489]

i'm not learning dutch, but my last name is 'cosijn' and i've wanted wanted to know why it was pronounced so differently to it's spelling. interesting video! :)

[@gijsbrans2338]

holographic cloud its not that different, the dutch soilund for "i" and "j" right behind each other almost sound like the "ij" sound so its really more of a simplification in the pronunciation that has been created over time.

[@ArmArmAdv]

Bedankt! These two sound so similar.

[@cherylunrestricted7816]

Bedankt :)

[@timpeters7852]

Ik heb me altijd afgevraagd waarom we nog niet een van de twee hebben afgeschaft.

[@benw9949]

Two notes: (1) The leading sound is somewhere between English short E (bed, let, egg,), English short A (apple, cat, ash), and a schwa E, (up, but, the last sound in sofa, and so on). Like UH-EE, EH-EE, AE-EE with their first sounds all blended together. But AA/AE (apple, cat, ash) + EE sounds most like it, even if technically, it's EH-EE. (2) If the only phonetic difference between korte and lange EI/IJ is duration, prolonged for the long one, then my goodness, just say so. Much simpler.

[@Niels-3]

Native Dutch speaker here. There is no difference in duration between ei and ij. The reason ij is called 'de lange ij' is because the letter j is vertically longer, lol.

[@kdub1242]

To my uneducated ear, the Dutch language rather sounds like a "kinder, gentler" German.😉

[@thales361]

Bart you are awesome! I am studying the 1000 most common words and using Duolingo to learn Dutch from scratch, after I have some good ground I will start the #dutchgrammar, your teaching skills, voice and programs are awesome! Dankjewel! =) By the way, do you think it is necessary to begin with the #dutchgrammar1 if I already studied for like 4-6 months (everyday at least 30min, sometimes more than 1 hour)? Or should I just dare and go to #dutchgrammar2 ?

[@amandahicks9858]

w is u

[@salimjamal8799]

dank u bart. ik ben een van uw studenten, ik vind het leuk

[@gijsbrans2338]

Salim Jamal you're comment is gramatically perfect, and yet i can make up from it you're not natively dutch. I think the main problem is that you could have finished your sentence in a better way, as well as "dank u wel" will sound better than just "dank u". it is not necessarily a problem but maybe something you want to look at if you want to become really good at dutch.

[@MarksmanSnir]

Yours isn't grammatically perfect, though :(

[@anaisaerksen]

I was just thinking about that when studying my vocabulary today. Thank you :)

[@noushindamirchi775]

Wat leuk 👌

[@pedrosaavedra437]

Bedankt 🙂

[@sandralechner2974]

tiny little little spelling mistake in the English subtitle; min 1:55-2:03 litterally instead literally German subtitle is done

[@joalexsg9741]

Thank you so much!

[@anjapalmer8305]

Kan u mischien alstublieft de nederlandse verkortingen leren?(( Woon 50 al jaar in Zweden . Ben wel heel veel vergeten)) dit berrichtje ook verkeert?

[@huiyuanzhu2585]

Heel erg helpen 👍

[@DDM1995]

De lange ij is called lange ij omdat die j er lang uitziet toch? Maar dan heb je ook nog woorden als "Heerlijk" en "Moeilijk" waar de ij als een sjwa klinkt.

[@amcaesar]

Try telling that to south Amsterdam residents who pronounce the arena neighborhood as "Ballmer."

[@mykolapokhylets3105]

Actually, I do hear a subtle difference between ei and ij, The latter sounds a bit closer to ai.

[@mehreteabte1139]

bedankt.Bart Tot deel 2.

[@fs2728]

Are there people in the Netherlands who still make a difference between ij and ei? Cause they were different in old german: ij was a long î and ei was a real diphthong.

[@NamNguyen-hz9tn]

Heel erg bedankt

[@inhhongthang6563]

so they are the same?

[@itinglin8290]

Hi Bart, thanks for the excellent video. I have a question though regarding pronunciation for ij, I notice that some people when saying "vrijdag" like English Friday, and "kijken" the ij is pronounced as English i. Can you explain why?

[@Sloanexhd]

There are loads of dialects so it's probably the accent.

[@gijsbrans2338]

Iting Lin that might be a dialect, we have a shit ton of those in the netherlands. but in proper dutch the "ij" should be pronounced like in this video.

[@michaelyemane2063]

zeer bedankt

[@brasil366]

heel goed !!!!!

[@rcidcobo]

too long for such a simple fact :-)

[@elisabird6245]

I´d love a teeshirt like Bart has.

[@esunisen3862]

Dutch: ei, ij French: è, ê, est, aie, aies, ais, ait, aient,...

[@Kokurorokuko]

Hey, Bart. I noticed a lot of native speaker pronounce these difthongs more as /ai/. I said "Hij is goed" or something like that to a Dutch speaker and they didn't understand me.

[@Thomas.c4647]

Actually it is closer to 'ae-i'. The amount of speakers pronouncing a-i are still a minority, but it is gaining ground. Ei and ij might one day be pronounced like 'eye' in English.

[@ochampagne1157]

bedankt!

[@naniyoo6247]

bedankt

[@miguelangel6368]

agrega por favor subtitulos en español

[@zeyaddaoud3503]

ik wil u iets vragen waarom u heeft gestopt met de viedoes van seizoen 2 als u blieft verder gaan u viedoes is gaaf

[@ogulcanyldrm8409]

bart turkish cc please

[@aeiouaeiou100]

What's the difference? There's no difference. The end.

[@PS-cw1dq]

In most parts of The Netherlands these vowels do not sound the same.

[@Niels-3]

That's not true at all.

[@PS-cw1dq]

@@Niels-3 so please enlighten me

[@PS-cw1dq]

@@Niels-3 Waar jij hebt leren praten klinken de ij en de ei wellicht hetzelfde, maar in bijvoorbeeld de Achterhoek niet hoor.

[@往事咖啡]

Dit filmpje is kort en makkelijk

[@PS-cw1dq]

Mirjam van Bijsterveldt, or Beisterveldt, or Beijsterveldt. You see that this vowel comes in more than one appearance 🤣

[@Frahamen]

is het niet "mijn klein, grijs autotje" ipv 'mijn kleine grijze autotje"?

[@xAquamarinax]

Frahamen no, the written version in the example is correct. When you use it as an adjective you usually add an e. If it is used by itself then you don't. For instance, mijn kleine, grijze autootje VS mijn auto is klein en grijs

[@jessezandstra1]

Nee, omdat autootje een 'het' woord is vanwege de verkleining. Je zegt ook het kleine kind, niet het klein kind.

[@PS-cw1dq]

Ik heb een klein grijs autootje, het is mijn kleine grijze autootje.

[@lordronn472]

I know how to pronounce IJ because of Rebecca Romijn

[@deliefsteroos4449]

haha, interessante video! ;)

[@Definitely_not_pi]

Now you finally know ij is not pronounced as an itch and ei not etch

[@aamirkhan6692]

5 mins just to say they are both the same 🤔

[@thuglifewestside3397]

een naam vertaal je toch nie meneer klein blijft toch mister klein en meneer rijk blijft mister rijk

[@vladimirchorchordin5615]

Heerlijk, leiden of lijden? ;-)

[@sovideo_]

You realise you deal with a stupid language teacher, when they say one in long, one is short, but they are the same :D It is actually a diphthong , where the main vowel is short/long and the semivowel is what a semivowel is :) The stupid teacher seems to now know the original pronunciation of the Latin letter E, thus delivering confusing information. The original Latin E is like in Italian, Spanish, Romanian. The Dutch E is a little funnier, but you can fairly approximate it with the Latin E. Then you just have the diphthongs [ei] and [e:i], with a funnier Dutch [e].

[@Niels-3]

The reason ij is called 'lange ij' is because the letter j is vertically longer. It has nothing to do with pronunciation. Ironic how you call Bart (a native Dutch speaker no less) stupid while you're the one who misunderstood

[@TaylorHailee]

IJ EI

[@giorgosmalfas7486]

I cannot perceive any difference at all. Please do not call me deaf or stupid, because I 'll be tempted to reciprocate the compliment.

[@Legac706]

De pijp

[@mostafakayal632]

bedankt