In Dutch, we have voiced and unvoiced consonants. The Dutch themselves often refer to them as 'hard' (unvoiced) and 'soft' (voiced) consonants. A soft consonant is called 'voiced' because you need to use your voice (vocal cords) to produce a sound. A hard (unvoiced) consonant can be produced even without using your voice.
Each voiced consonant has an unvoiced counterpart. Examples are _b_ and _p_ and _d_ and _t._
As in many languages, including the English one, voiced consonants are sometimes replaced by their unvoiced counterparts. Take the English word _thief_. In the plural, _f_ turns into _v_: thie v es.
Soft consonants _v_ and _z_ turning into hard _f_ and _s_
A Dutch word never ends in the soft consonants _z_ or _v_. Instead, we use their hard equivalents _s_ and _f._
Take, for example the word bazen (bosses)
To get its singular, we subtract -en:
baz
You probably noticed that the long vowel turned into a short one (see [rules for keeping words short/long](#/lesson/SpellingAndPronunciation.19)), so we add an extra _a_:
baaz
Following the rule that a Dutch word never ends in a _z_ or _v_, we replace z by s:
baas
Examples:
Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular
scherven (scatters) | scherf | druiven (grapes) | druif
reuzen (giants) | reus | leuzen (slogans) | leus
We apply the same principle to verbs. As you will read later on, to derive the verb stem from an infinitive, you have to subtract -en.
Infinitive | Stem | Infinitive | Stem
durven (to dare) | durf | blijven (to stay) | blijf
wijzen (to point) | wijs | lezen (to read) | lees
There are two more voiced-unvoiced consonant pairs: The voiced consonants d and b have t and p as their unvoiced equivalents. If d is at the end of a word, we pronounce it as t, b is pronounced as p. However, they are not actually replaced by their hard counterparts.
We could identify a third pair: Voiced g and unvoiced ch. Most Dutch speakers do not make a distinction between the two of them.