About differences in pronauntiation of letter "G"

[Cuyp]

Hoi!

I see that sometimes "G" is pronaunced as in "gracht" and sometimes as in "jonge".
Is there any rule about that?
Bedankt!

[Bert]

Hoi,

The pronunciation of the Dutch 'g' depends on the one hand on its place within the word and the adjacent letter(s)*, on the other hand on the speaker's origin (as you go southwards, the 'g' becomes generally softer).

* E.g. in 'mening' the 'g' is quite soft, in 'weg' it's much harder (kind of 'chr').

I don't know if there is a rule but both in your example and in that of mine the softly pronounced 'g' is coming directly after an 'n'. By the way, when I learn a new word I learn also its correct pronunciation. On woorden.org you can find each word's pronunciation.

Groetjes,
Bert

[ngonyama]

You should look at the combination "ng" as a separate sound. It is a velar nasal IPA: /ŋ/ as in English sing. Dutch never has this sound at the beginning of a word (in contrast to my avatar: ngonyama is Xhosa).

[Shazzy]

I would love to hear the sound of how your name is prounced Ngonyama as it's very unsual! Also are there any soundbites on this site with reference to the "g" I struggled with this for a long time such as "graag" and "negen" for example but think I am more or less ok with the "g" sound now but there are other sounds which are much harder and still need constant practice. Sometimes I like to go back to the basics and practice these as in my course I have had very little speaking practice Anyone struggling with this my advice just keep practicing and you will eventually get there.

Shazzy

[Cuyp]

Hoi meisjes&jongens!

Thanx for input.It seems that this "ng" thing could be kind of a guideline.As of pronauntiation,i am quite lucky.I have an "ear" for such stuff.
Also i am familiar with German which makes learning Dutch a lot easier.Both are Germanic lanugages.It was interesting to see that wiki refers to Dutch as:"de duitse taal der nederen landen"-kind of a back to the tribal roots thing