The International Phonetic Alphabet writes down exactly how a word sounds. Type any Afrikaans word below to get its IPA transcription, or scan the 12 worked examples in the table.
The Afrikaans IPA translator converts any Afrikaans word into its International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription. Type a word, press Transcribe, and Lingo7's NLP service returns the phonetic symbols that show exactly how it is pronounced. The table below lists 12 common Afrikaans words already transcribed, so the page is useful even before you type.
Worked examples, as of July 2026.
| Word | IPA |
|---|---|
| ja | /jɑː/ |
| nee | /neː/ |
| dankie | /daŋki/ |
| asseblief | /asəblif/ |
| huis | /ɦœys/ |
| water | /vɑːtər/ |
| hond | /ɦɔnt/ |
| kat | /kat/ |
| boom | /bʊə̯m/ |
| son | /sɔn/ |
| brood | /brʊə̯t/ |
| kind | /kənt/ |
Knowing how a word sounds is only the first step. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Afrikaans with tap-to-hear native audio and sentence-aligned translation, so pronunciation and meaning stick together. Free to start.
The International Phonetic Alphabet gives every distinct speech sound its own symbol, so /ʃ/ is always the sh sound whatever the spelling around it. Once you can read IPA, a transcription tells you how a word sounds without hearing it first.
When you type a Afrikaans word, the tool sends it to Lingo7's NLP service, the same phonetics engine that powers transcription inside the app. It returns the IPA for that word, which appears above the examples. The baked table stays useful even when you are offline or just browsing.
Spelling and sound drift apart in every language, Afrikaans included. Reading with audio is how you close that gap: you see the word, hear a native voice say it, and the IPA stops being abstract. That is exactly what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
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You look up each word's transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet, where every symbol maps to one distinct sound. In Afrikaans, ja is /jɑː/ and nee is /neː/. This tool transcribes any Afrikaans word you type, and the table above shows 12 common words with their IPA.
In Afrikaans, ja is written /jɑː/ in the IPA. The symbols stand for individual sounds rather than letters, so you can read the pronunciation straight off the transcription. Type any other Afrikaans word above to see its IPA.
The transcriptions come from Lingo7's NLP phonetics engine, the same one used inside the app. They reflect standard Afrikaans pronunciation. Regional accents vary, and some words have more than one common variant, so treat the IPA as a reliable guide and confirm the finer points with native audio.
IPA takes the guesswork out of spelling. Once you can see that two Afrikaans sounds are genuinely different, you stop merging them. Pair the symbols with real audio and read words in context, and pronunciation becomes muscle memory instead of a rule you recite.