I need a wee bit of help. Tonight is my final oral argument for moot court. The “plaintiff’s” name is Hendrik Mertens and throughout the past two weeks, people have been pronouncing it every possible way. “Hen-dricks”, “End-reek”, “Henry.” Every possible configuration of those syllables has been tried. I figure, as this is my last round of arguments, I should probably pronounce the name properly at least once. Any help would be appreciated.
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Hehe. Dutch Dopers. Didn’t mean it that way.
Hen, as in female chicken, drik, as in rick, with a d tacked on at the front. NO s at the end. Very simple. Or just call him Dirk
Agreed. Hen should start with an H sound and rhyme with “men.” Drik should rhyme with “brick.” If there is no s, don’t pronounce it like there is one.
Native Dutch here. Greebo Ogg nailed it, but, if you like, drop me an e-mail and I will e-mail you a WAV-file with the correct pronunciation of his full name, including Mertens.
(Hey, I’ve got all this cool audiostuff and I need excuses to use it!)
Wow. Thanks all. This is really going to help. I was using the Frenchie pronunciation “en-ree” for some reason. Now I’ll look like less of an idiot at the argument tonight. Thanks again.