This week we have the pleasure of hosting an interesting post from a guest writer named Martha Simons writing about Precipitevolissimevolmente: 20 Hard-To-Pronounce European Words and Their Meaning
Martha Simons is a freelance writer and editor. She has a solid experience in marketing and is fluent in 4 languages. Martha’s goal is to help people around the world communicate more effectively and benefit from it. She currently works at TranslateShark.
Precipitevolissimevolmente: 20 Hard-To-Pronounce European Words and Their Meaning – GUEST POST
from Martha Simons
Precipitevolissimevolmente meaning as fast as you can is considered to be one of the lengthiest and equally hard-to-pronounce words in the Italian language. Well, when it comes to the notoriously difficult-to-pronounce words, not only Italian, but all the European languages have a plethora of them.
While all the European languages are exceptionally beautiful and exotic to hear, there are certain words in every language that can be a real ordeal for foreigners and sometimes even for natives to pronounce.
Brace yourself! Here’s a short list of what we think are the top 20 hard-to-pronounce European words along with their meanings. Read on and see how many of them you can pronounce correctly!
- Streichholzschächtelchen
Streichholzschächtelchen is a particularly difficult to pronounce German word meaning “small matchbox”. Although the length of the word isn’t really proportionate to what it means, this one simple word is enough to test even the most advanced language learners.
- Eichhörnchen
While we are talking about German words, Eichhörnchen definitely deserves mention. Eichhörnchen refers to a squirrel, which is an equally difficult word to pronounce for many English speakers.
- Schlittschuhlaufen
Schlittschuhlaufen is the German word for ice skating. We bet most of you out there will find actually going ice skating much easier than pronouncing it in German.
- Rechtschreibung
Pronouncing ‘spelling’ can be a real feat for non-Germans when the sheer mass of letters in the word is 15 characters. Rechtschreibung, which refers to spelling or orthography, is one of the hardest to pronounce words.
- Cabeleireiro
Cabeleireiro is the Portuguese word for a hairstylist or barber. What makes it tricky to pronounce is the fact that “lei” and “rei” come together in the word and have a similar pronunciation like the “ay” in the word “lay”.
- Heureuse
Heureuse is one word whose pronunciation you ought to learn if you are visiting France. The word translates to happy or joyful, which is very commonly used in day-to-day conversations.
- Bezwzględny
Bezwzgledny, meaning ruthless constitutes five consonants and five sounds. Its pronunciation is bound to be tricky, right?
- Szczebrzeszyn
Szczebrzeszyn is a small city in Zamosc County, southeastern Poland. Apart from that, Szczebrzeszyn is also the beginning of one of the most popular Polish tongue-twister.
- Otorhinolaryngologist
Medical terms are known to be tricky, but Otorhinolaryngologist takes the cake. It refers to an ear, nose, and throat scientist. The only way to pronounce this word correctly is by breaking it down. Try saying oto-rhino-laryng-ologist.
- Arrivederci
Saying goodbyes can be difficult but saying goodbye in Italian is literally challenging. Arrivederci is the Italian word for goodbye until we meet again.
- Chiacchierare
Chiacchierare is another Italian word, which means to chat. Although the word sounds just like it is spelt, its pronunciation becomes especially difficult due to the fiddly sounds of ‘c’ and ‘ch’ which are repeated twice in the word.
- Rocambolesco
Rocambolesco, meaning fantastic or incredible, is derived from French writer Alexis Ponson du Terrail’s character Rocambole who was a daring adventurer. He inspired the word rocambolesque and Rocambolesco is the Italian extension of this word that roughly translates to exciting.
- Sovramagnificentissimamente
First cited by Dante Alighieri, Sovramagnificentissimamente is a 27 letters word meaning “in an incredibly magnificent manner”.
- Anticostituzionalmente
Anticostituzionalmente is one of the longest Italian words, which is widely used on a daily basis. It refers to anticonstitutionally and has a pretty difficult pronunciation.
- Particolareggiatissimamente
Particolareggiatissimamente is yet another Italian word, which is incredibly hard to pronounce. It means “in an extremely detailed way” and really sounds like a tongue-twister when you say it.
- Stuzzicadenti
Stuzzicadenti is Italian for a toothpick. The letter combinations in the world can really give a non-native speaker a tough time pronouncing it.
- Fünfhundertfünfundfünfzig
Although just a three-digit number, when you say five hundred fifty-five in German it seems more like a phrase. To pronounce it correctly, you need to break it down to Funf-hundert-funf-und-funfzig.
- Floccinaucinihilipilification
Floccinaucinihilipilification, refers to the act of equating the worth of something to being valueless or the habit of doing so. Apart from being a hard-to-pronounce word, it is also the longest non-technical word coined in the English language.
- Serrurerie
Serrurerie meaning locksmith is probably the hardest French word to pronounce. Not only the foreigners find it difficult to master the use of so many French in one single word but even those having decades of practice in phonetics classes fail to pronounce it correctly.
- Następstw
Nastepstw is the Polish word for consequence featuring a cluster of four consonants, which makes it extremely difficult to pronounce.
Good luck pronouncing these!
We would also love to hear the words that you find most difficult to pronounce. Don’t forget to share.
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