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Re: Pronounce this Dutch name: Tijs
The closest I can comfortably get is Tace, to rhyme with mace, ace, place ... not totally identical with the Dutch sound, but every Dutch person would udnerstand it.Matthew in posh Dutch would be something like Mattheus = ma-TAY-us, with the TAY like the Scottish river, rhyming with hay, play etc. And in the language of everyday conversation it becomes Matthijs = ma-TACE as I said above. And that shortens to Tijs! (By the way, that -ij- combination is a diphthong, sometimes written as the letter y. So you sometimes see Thys, and the Ysselmeer.)
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