A syllable is one beat of a word: ma-nen has two beats. If long and short vowels are still new to you, start with Short and long vowels.
The pattern
A long vowel that ends a syllable is written with one letter: ma-nen. A long vowel in a syllable that ends in a consonant is written with two: maan.
- Open syllable: it ends in a vowel, like ma in ma-nen.
- Closed syllable: it ends in a consonant, like maan or boom.
- In most words, one consonant between two vowels starts the next syllable: ma-nen, bo-men.
- The same rule covers plurals (boom, bomen), verbs (ik loop, wij lopen) and adjectives (groot, een grote tas).
- This pattern is for long a, e, o and u. The spellings oe, eu, ui and ij stay the same (boek, boeken; tuin, tuinen), and ie has a few rules of its own (see vowel combinations).
Examples
| De maan is vanavond heel mooi. | The moon is very beautiful tonight. |
| Jupiter heeft veel manen. | Jupiter has lots of moons. |
| Voor ons huis staat een boom. | There is a tree in front of our house. |
| In het park staan veel bomen. | There are lots of trees in the park. |
| Ik loop elke dag naar mijn werk. | I walk to work every day. |
| Mei en Bas lopen naar het station. | Mei and Bas walk to the station. |
| Ons huis is niet groot. | Our house isn't big. |
| Ahmed heeft een grote tuin. | Ahmed has a big garden. |
Why it works this way
Dutch reads a single vowel followed by a consonant in the same syllable as short: man (man), bom (bomb). So a long vowel that is closed in by a consonant needs a second letter as a signal: maan, boom.
In an open syllable nothing follows the vowel, and a single a, e, o or u there is normally read as long. A second letter would add nothing, so Dutch drops it: ma-nen, bo-men. An unstressed e can also be the neutral sound you hear in de, like the last e in gro-te.
Compare de man (the man) with de maan (the moon), and de mannen (the men) with de manen (the moons). In man-nen the double n closes the first syllable, which keeps the a short. That trick is the next step: Doubling consonants after a short vowel.
The rule also works in reverse. Take -en off lopen and you get lop, a closed syllable, so you write ik loop. More in Finding the stem of a verb.
Remember: an open syllable is an open door, and a long vowel can stand there alone. A consonant shuts the door, and the vowel needs a second letter to stay long.
One honest exception: a long e at the very end of a word is written ee, as in zee (sea), twee (two) and thee (tea). A single e there would look like the neutral e in de.
Watch out
FoutIk zie veel boomen.
GoedIk zie veel bomen.
bo ends in a vowel, so one o is enough
FoutIk lop naar huis.
GoedIk loop naar huis.
the syllable ends in p, so the long o needs two letters
FoutWij woonen in Delft.
GoedWij wonen in Delft.
wo-nen is open
FoutIk koop een groote tas.
GoedIk koop een grote tas.
gro-te is open, ending included
Quick check
- Write the plural: een raam, twee ...
- Fill in the gap: Ik ... (slapen) goed.
- Choose: Lotte heeft een (gele / geele) jas.
- Fix the sentence: Yara en Carlos maaken soep.
Toon de antwoorden
- ramen: ra-men is open, so one a.
- slaap: the syllable ends in p, so the long a needs two letters.
- gele: ge-le is open.
- Yara en Carlos maken soep.: ma-ken is open.
Use it today
Next time you are in the supermarket, find three products with a long vowel, like de peer or de tomaat, and write the plural on your shopping list: peren, tomaten. Clap the syllables as you write them: pe-ren, to-ma-ten.