Dutch intonation — the melody of the language — is what gives speech its natural rhythm and distinguishes fluent from foreign-sounding Dutch. Dutch uses a falling intonation for completed statements: the pitch drops at the end of a declarative sentence: “Ik woon in Amsterdam.” ↘. Questions without a question word use a rising intonation: “Woon jij ook in Amsterdam?” ↗. Wh-questions use a falling intonation: “Waar woon jij?” ↘.
Focus and contrast are expressed through intonation by stressing the key word differently. “IK heb dat gedaan” (I did it — not someone else), “Ik heb DAT gedaan” (I did THAT, not something else). The stressed word gets a higher pitch and sometimes longer duration. In Dutch conversation, this contrastive stress is used constantly and is crucial for understanding which part of a sentence carries new information.
Dutch has a characteristic intonation pattern in list items — a level pitch on each item followed by a final falling tone: “Ik heb brood—”↔, “kaas—”↔, “en appels”↘. Dutch also has a noticeably flatter, more even pitch range compared to English — less melodic ups and downs on unstressed words. Listening to Dutch radio news presenters is excellent for intonation modeling — they speak clearly, at moderate speed, with very consistent standard intonation patterns.