Dutch alphabet

Categories: Latin-derived alphabets

The Dutch alphabet has 26 or 27 letters, five or six of which are vowels. The alphabet used for the Dutch language is based on the Latin alphabet.

The letters are:

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y or IJ (- IJ) - Z

The Q only appears in words borrowed from other languages. The X and Y also mostly occur in loanwords, but also in some words and names which harken back to older spellings.

Placement of the IJ is problematic: it usually replaces the Y and does so in the standard alphabet listing (the alphabet ends X, IJ, Z). However, in some cases is apended after the Y, making Z the 27th letter. Collation is even more confused, with IJ either being sorted as a combination I+J, among Y, after Y as an additional entry, or even after Z.

The vowels are:

A - E - I - O - U - and some consider IJ a vowel as well.

IJ is most often written with an I and J letter as a ligature 'IJ'. As a ligature, it is nearly always counted as a single letter, and therefore is always capitalized as one whole when needed: ijs (ice) is written IJs at the start of a sentence, and not Ijs. Because IJ consists of a vowel and a non-vowel, it is not clear whether IJ is a vowel or not.

Note however that in some southern (Flemish) dialects the IJ is incorrectly used as a digraph and counted as two letters, and the capitalization rule is therefore not followed. See IJ (letter) for more information on this letter, including status and collation.

"E" is the mostly frequently used letter in the Dutch alphabet, usually presenting a schwa sound. The least frequently used letters are "Q", "X", and Y.nl:Nederlands alfabet