How to pronounce V and W in Dutch and Flemish

Have you also always struggled with the different pronunciations of "v" and "w" in Dutch or Flemish? Not to worry, I'm here to help. There's also a nifty trick at the end of the video to make your life a lot less complicated (with regards to learning Dutch at least).

If you are a beginner learning Dutch I also recommend you to watch my two videos about how to say the alphabet in Dutch Dutch and Flemish Dutch:

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[IvoB]

Excellent video. I'm Dutch and pronounce the 'w' the English way but I also live in the very south of the Netherlands. I actually wasn't even aware my more northern fellow Dutchmen pronounced it differently before watching this video, but I can now see that it's true. It just wasn't really that noticeable to me

[onlyoneamong]

Although you say that Flemish w and English w sound the same, I could still hear a slight difference. Flemish w sounds more like a very, very soft English v. I guess you can't probably hear yourself but since my ear is tune to English I can hear a difference. But hey! Don't worry about it! I'm glad that Flemish w has its own pronunciation cause that's makes Flemish interesting! I don't want all languages to sound the same for I appreciate variety! Thanks for sharing!

[annaamsterdam]

I'm Dutch from The Netherlands and I am really happy with these videos! High quality, really well explained. I use these videos with my Flemish and Netherlands-Dutch students. Very useful! Thanks Nout!

[benjaminwinser]

Heel hartelijk bedankt! Ik ben chileens, maar ik ben aan het leren Nederlands. Dit is heel bruikbaar!

[Phagocytosis]

Very interesting, and it does sound right, from my understanding as a Dutch Dutch speaker. One thing I would add is that even in the Netherlands, the letter V is pronounced as a proper V, not so much as an F, when it shows up in the middle of a word, rather than at the start, as in the examples you gave. In "gaven", for example, it wouldn't really be pronounced as an F even up here.

[bangbgood]

I notice that in Nederlands Limburg, they also pronounce the "W" as English speakers or Flemish people do and also in parts of Noord Brabant and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. So the pronunciation border seems a bit more permeable than the national one.

[nohahelmi]

Interesting..
I want to learn Flemish but I have a ( Netherlands) Dutch app for my kid
And we noticed they say Wortel(= carrot) with the German W ( = English V) at the same time I know that the word "Weg " is pronounced Like English w when in Belgium
So it was confusing
But now it's clear
Flemish V and W are the same as English
Netherlands V and W are like German V and W

[xolang]

Thank you fery much! 😉

I'd say V in "hollands" simply sounds like F. 
This affects Indonesians who were colonized by Dutch. 
Even today we pronounce V exactly the same as F, and since many Indonesians pronounce F like P, this also happens to V as well. 

Thus you end up having words like:
Nopember
Pebruari
tipi (when pronouncing TV (television))

this contrasts to the Malaysians who I reckon pronounce V like in English since they were colonized by the Brits.

For those who don't know, the standard language of Malaysians and Indonesians are -–despite the different names– practically the same. Comparable to standard Belgian and standard Netherlands Dutch in fact.

[Total_c]

Nice video, like how you explain the details for every pronunciation. i learn the dutch variant mostly and i find the pronunciations of these letters to be similar to those in german :)

[Edine]

it would be amazing if you make a same video for the G sound! Thank you Nout

[sageserpent-open]

I was told to pronounce the Dutch 'v' as an English 'f' to start with and then start vibrating the throat to end like an English 'v' - albeit by a Fleming! I sometimes wonder if German speakers do this too to some extent with their 'v', I recall German speakers saying my pronunication of 'v' (faʊ̯) should sound less harsh than 'f' (ʔɛf).

[diazen]

Let me see if I understand, so in flemis variant the V is pronounced like the V in english, an the W us pronounced like a W in english, in the Netherlands, the V is pronounced like an F and the W is pronounced quietly similar to a V, it's right?

[ezrafischer]

Would it be fair to say that 'v' in Dutch is pronounced somewhere in between an English 'v' and 'f' sound?

[dannaarde]

Wow, thanks for this video. It helps a lot !!!!

[willalstonjr]

Nice...and thank you! That was an excellent, clear, and concise answer to my question about the pronunciation of those two consonants in the Netherlands and in Belgium. :)

[carlosfranco]

So, in flemish language, waffle will be pronunced like the same way in english: the sound of w is like a spanish u (oo in english). Not like a consonant v. Is that correct?

[jaqubp]

Thank you so much for the video, Nout. This is super helpful! Italki says you're not accepting lessons requests anymore? Will you resume taking on students in the future?

[BobWitlox]

Your Netherlands Dutch accent sounds like a Goois accent to me (especially the R sound), which is a very distinct (non-standard) accent. The devoiced v differs from region to region in the Netherlands. Many people from around Amsterdam speak with a devoiced v and z. So they say flug and son, instead of vlug and zon. Very annoying. It just sounds wrong to me. I'm from Noord-Brabant, my v is somewhere inbetween the Flemish voiced v and the devoiced Hollandic v. And I roll my R's, maybe a bit less pronounced as in Flanders, but closer to the Flemish R than the Gooise R.

[yttrv]

Does it sound acceptable to use the standard German (f, v) pronunciation?

[ARMA]

Are there cases in which a word with v means something different than w? Can you please give us these examples?