Een and en
I have a question on the pronunciation of these two words. My instinct on reading the words is een as in been and en as in end (British English pronunciation). But on listening to the audios een is not pronounced like that.
So I'd be grateful if someone could clear up how these two words are pronounced.
I think you are right about "en".
For "een", it is never pronounced as in "been" however. There are two possible readings :
- When used as indefinite article (een man), it's a bit like the "an" in "an hour"
- When used a numeral (more often written as één), it's a bit like "ane" in "lane"
I should note that I am a Flemish speaker, but I think that part is the same between Flanders and the Netherlands.
"Een" and "been" do rhyme when "een" is used like the number one.
You only need to write "één" with diacritics when it's in front of a noun to distinguish it from the version that means a/an. When it's not in front of a noun, you just write it as "een". For example, "een is meer dan twee" is correct as you cannot confuse it with the article.