A Conversation for The Genius of Vincent van Gogh

pronunciation

Post 1

Jeroen Hendrix

An attempt.

Amsterdam people are used to it: being asked `where is the van Go-w museum'. The pronunciation is wrong, but they have heard it so many times that they understand without difficulty.

Netherlandic (Dutch in short, but incorrect) is difficult to pronounce for Engish-tongued. Yet have a try at pronouncing the name of a famous painter.

Van Gogh is pronounced: vaun GoG. Of course, this doesn't help.

- The a in van is pronounced almost as the au in laugh
- The G (the most difficult letter) is pronounced as if you are clearing your throat. If you are Spanish or Arabic, this shouldn't give you any problems
- The h at the end isn't pronounced at all. Just try to end with the G mentioned above
- The o is pronounced as the o in lot or cost

Happy tongue-breaking! (It will arouse a lot of oh's and ah's among Dutch people if you get it right)


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