[The Face of Dutch]

Pronouncing the 'N' at the End of Dutch Words

Many people in Holland, especially in the West, don't pronounce the N at the end of words. I consider that sloppy and incorrect, but I have to admit to a certain softening of my final N's
De mensen praten plat. - De mense prate plat. (ca 20K)

From the Dutch and Belgian Government Publication on The Preferred Spelling of the Dutch Language:
'In Dutch we find lope, loopm and lopen; the standard pronunciation is lopen.'

Uit: 'Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal' ('Het Groene Boekje'), p17:
'Het Nederlands kent lope, loopm en lopen; de standaarduitspraak is lopen.'
lopen lope loopm

(Dutch Government Printing Office 'Staatsdrukkerij,' Den Haag 1995
Belgian Government Printing Office 'Standaard Uitgeverij,' Antwerpen 1995)

I myself try to pronounce all final N's in Dutch, and I recommend you do too, but of course we live in the free world.
To students, I recommend to pronounce the final N's, because dropping them just adds another rule, it will make learning Dutch harder. You'll have to write those N's and you'll see them written, so adding another exception to the fairly phonetic pronunciation of Dutch just increases the level of difficulty.

Here's a long discussion of the topic. The moderator is a bit quick to find fault with my page. It's a Dutch trait. The 'K' remark is also beside the point.
Anyway, as Multatuli says in the Max Havelaar (1860, generally considered the greatest Dutch novel): "Don't tell someone from Amsterdam that he speaks the accent." ( ... zeg dat hij een amsterdams accent heeft - wat nooit een Amsterdammer toestemt - ... (p. 100))

Marco Schuffelen - email