Pronunciation is more than individual sounds — the overall rhythm (ritme) and intonation (intonatie) of Dutch speech patterns matter enormously for naturalness. Dutch is a stress-timed language (like English and German), meaning stressed syllables occur at roughly regular intervals and unstressed syllables are compressed between them. This gives Dutch its characteristic rhythmic feel, different from syllable-timed languages like French or Spanish.
Dutch sentence intonation: statements typically have a falling intonation at the end (dalende intonatie). Yes/no questions without a question word use rising intonation (stijgende intonatie): Ga je mee? (Are you coming?) — rising on mee. Wh-questions (wie, wat, waar, wanneer, hoe) use falling intonation like statements: Waar ga je naartoe? — falling at the end. Tag questions rise: Je komt toch? (You are coming, right?) — rising on toch.
Dutch also uses focus stress (nadruk) to highlight new or contrasted information. Compare: IK ga naar Amsterdam (I — not someone else — am going to Amsterdam) versus Ik ga naar AMsterdam (Amsterdam — not Rotterdam — is where I am going). This focal stress is used much more deliberately in Dutch than many learners realise. Flat, even stress on every word is one of the clearest markers of a non-native speaker. Listen for how native speakers emphasise and de-emphasise words in natural speech — and copy that.