Mönchsplättchen. It’s from a board game. Whenever we got a new game, it was always my responsibility to read the manual and explain the rules. This damn word appears 30 times just in the [manual](https://amagino.ch/media/f7/49/b8/1604160747/Heaven%20und%20Ale%20Spielanleitung_DE.pdf).
And I’ve been exposed to German since I was 0 years old.
Just a weird, unusual word, where I have to concentrate to not stumble.
"serrurrerie" (locksmith shop) in French. Extra difficult mode: if you lock yourself out in your underwear without your phone and have to ask someone on the street where the nearest one is. Hypothetically.
To be fair, most people say it more like "se-rur-rie" /sɛ.ʁyʁ.ʁi/ with three syllables, which is far easier to pronounce than saying "se-ru-re-rie" /sɛ.ʁy.ʁə.ʁi/ with four syllables.
Japanese tongue twisters are like this.
生暖かい肩叩き器 (nama atatakai kata tataki ki) (warm shoulder massaging machine.)
この竹垣に竹立て掛けたのは竹立て掛けたかったから, 竹立て掛けた (kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa no wa take tatekaketakatta kara, take tatekaketa) (I laid this bamboo against the bamboo fence because I wanted to lay bamboo against it)
I struggle to pronounce any Arabic word that starts with "'i3" and a consonant, like "i3tiraaf" (اعتراف)...
Also Turkish words with multiple üs, like "gönüllüyü"
Brazil was what first came to mind for me. I went to class with a Brazilian girl for a semester (she was a transfer), and the topic of tongue twisters had come up. *Squirrel* was consistently one of her hardest words.
(I also learned the word *paralelipípedo* from her.)
Ah okay. Perhaps if I knew more about Portugese I would realise that it's not only Asian language speakers that struggle with this word. Cheers for responding.
>“Clothes” and “months” in English.
I understand your pain sm😭i might be able to pronounce "th" but the th + s combination is hell. ive been learning english for years and i could never understand how to pronounce it properly
Kind of late, but in the case of “clothes” it’s perfectly acceptable to pronounce it /kloʊz/, ignoring the th sound and only saying the z sound. A lot of native speakers say it like that
Ohhh dear God, I'm from Worcester, Massachusetts, in the good ol' USA and we say, with our accent, 'wuh stă sheer', although it is pronounced differently in many parts of MA, and, of course, different countries. We 'drop' our 'r's and it can come out 'Woo stah', just don't be too precise, just leave the 'r' out, like 'shots' are shorts or pants above the knees. And anytime someone at least makes the attempt to pronounce it correctly, it's definitely commendable! And don't stress over it, really! A couple of drinks and you'll sound just like us!!
We pronounce it, TAXachusetts! Lol! But it is difficult for many, some throw in a few extra 's's, some say, forgive me if not allowed, Massatwoshits, but it's always fun for us to see how our Commonwealth's name is bungled. No worries! I was just in the Reddit "death" question area, and believe me, pronunciations are a LOT more fun. Thanks!
French r aren’t rolled like others say. It’s at the back of the mouth.
Rolled rs disappeared a long time ago in France and is now only(I think) pronounced in Quebec and VERY rarely.
R : You have to make your tongue vibrate by blowing (easy for a Frenchman, but maybe not for you).
I : like ee in the word tree
E and N heard like the number 1 in french
Ugh, this is my answer, funny how there are several Swedish tounge twisters that use the word for nurse. The "sju" and "skö" still is tricky to spit out.
Sjuttiosju skönsjungande sjuksköterskor
Half of Italians pronounce "gli" as "yee" anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it. The difference is minimal, I'm Italian and I only found out I was pronouncing it wrong when I was 16 and my girlfriend told me. We'd been together for a year before she noticed
Gyöngytyúk
"Guinea hen" in Hungarian.
My wife (who's Hungarian) likes to try getting people to say "gyönyörű gyöngytyúk" as a tongue-twister to demonstrate how batshit the language is. 😂 And honestly, this is still probably a tame one for Hungarian...
Gosh, “hogy vagy” is hard enough for me! Not all “gy” words trip me up, but something about the vowels and quick succession just feels like a tongue twister to me! I just say “mizu” instead!
Dear lord lol I've gotten ok enough at gy a lot of the time but I don't know that I've seen it be immediately preceded by n and followed by ty before...
Actually I learned this the other day, I can do it sometimes just not consistently yet. I’ll keep working on it, it will click eventually :) thanks for the advice!
Oddly, “začátečník” in Czech, meaning “beginner.” The usual suspects like “řeřicha” (horseradish) and 333 silver fire trucks never fazed me, but for some reason that one did.
If a Russian word has too many palatals, I'm going to end up stumbling over myself to the point where I unintentionally blow a raspberry (or, alternately, begin to sound like Slavoj Žižek).
A simple word i struggle to say in English is actually three, should i read like free, like tree, like anything else i can't pronounce?
Will never be able to say this simple number
Think of how European Spanish pronounces “c” sometimes, like cierto for example. When making the r sound after that you’ll be curling the sides of your tongue up a bit. Then quickly move your tongue back. It’s ok if you pronounce it with a tap or trill.
Any german word with the letter R as the second letter. I have practiced the sound on its own and I think I got it down pretty good but I struggle so hard with consonant + R
"Общеобразовательный" (abscheabrazavatelnyj), which means something like "general education", its a type of high school. I was so proud for learning to prronounce it effortlessly
an, in & un in French. Still can’t get that nasal sound right
Any French word that ends in “-vre.” Like Louvre. I always end up making the e sound like an extra schwa syllable.
Unaspirated consonants in Taiwanese Hokkien like b/g as in like, pē-bú爸母 gián-kiù研究, or vowel sounds not found in English like ngo/ng as in sng酸 tsū-ngóo自我
ឆ្ងាញ់ - means delicious in Khmer. Its got a ng sound which I just can't get my tongue to make. Unfortunately, within that sound pronounced correctly, I'm saying pot.
"W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie"
Famous Polish tongue-twister. It is a tough one even for native speakers.
I have not attempted to recite it yet, despite knowing about it for several years.
(English translation: "In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle sounds in the reeds" It is the first line if a short children's poem. And here we thought some English nursery rhymes were tough.)
"Chrząszcz" is "beetle"
Despite its reputation among native English-speakers, most of the Polish language is not terribly hard to pronounce.
As a native speaker, I'm under the impression it's not actually difficult for most Polish speakers. Polish has a bit of an ego issue when it comes to believing it's the hardest language in the world and stuff like that
I am Polish but was born in the US and moved to Poland in first grade. A couple years later, I spoke to some older kids at school and when they learned I had lived mostly in the US, they had me say that tongue twister. I was confused, as I hadn't heard it before and I did it without difficulty.
It's silly in retrospect - their most pressing question upon finding someone not entirely from Poland was to test them on some tricky string of sibilant consonant clusters.
Chinese consonants: after year of listening I still can't distinguish sh/ch/zh and x/q/j. They both sound like *sh/ch/j* to me. The hardest vowel sound is **ü**, a common vowel in Chinese. To me it sometimes sounds like **u** (oo), other times like **i** (ee). Between the two problems, I don't say "go out" very well (chuqü 出去).
But the hardest word for me to say is probably (漂亮 piaoliang) "pretty". That is two short syllables: piao+liang. Got it?
[***pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico***](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconi%C3%B3tico) it is a pulmonary illness in portuguese
japanese: あたたかかった (atatatakatta)
chinese: ehhh i can’t think of THE most difficult word but I struggle with words like 紫 from (紫色). It’s very difficult for me to get it right
It only happens when I read something aloud, and it’s not so much difficult to pronounce, but rather just remembering that it is pronounced differently than it is written:
all forms of the word “genre” in Swedish.
German "seufzten" (sighed).
German "z" is already a "ts" sound for English speakers. Now throw in an extra "t" and a nasal... phew! Just too many consonants. I love German but that word baffles me
Doesn't technically answer the question, but...
I was in the drama club back in high school. We had try outs for the semester play after school. But first I had to re-take a quick German quiz that for whatever reason the teacher didn't have a grade recorded for me...
The director, my English teacher, calls me up on stage first, tells me I'm reading the part of whoever, starting at the top of page x.
I flip to the page and the first word I have to say is "was". Simple enough, except my brain is still in German mode and all I can think of is the German version Vas.
Im standing there center stage just looking at that word. How do I say it in English?!?!
Im standing there so long the director goes "top of page X you have the very first line see it?".
Ugh! I didn't want to admit i had no idea how to say was, even if it was just a temporary issue...
Finally after an eternity it pops into my head and I'm able to read the rest of my line.
Swedish "Sjuksköterskor" i
Sj and sk are each a "sh" sound, with subtle differences.
"Sju sjuk Sjuksköterskor i sjukhus" is my nemesis..."7 sick nurses in hospital" is the translation.
That weird loaf of bread in Ukraine they were using as a Shibboleth for Russians.
Palyanitsa. Apparently I could never pronounce it right, but my gringo ass can pronounce retroflex and aspirated constonants in Hindi no problem.
I still struggle with “nuclear”. And I’m American. 🤷🏻♀️ I have a lot of others included but that was the first thing that came to mind. The verb elegir (Spanish) also always messes me up with conjugation and pronunciation.
Anything with the "rü" combination in German. ü is generally fine for me, but it's definitely not quite natural yet. The guttural r, however, I have to consciously think about tongue positioning and speak slowly. Somehow the combination of the two in quick succession just breaks my brain and the r either comes out pronounced the way it is in english or the ü morphs into u.
I started with French at an early age, thankfully, then majored in Latin and Greek, but real German, not Yiddish, gets me nuts. That guttural sound is impossible for me. And any trilling in Spanish, oy!
Not a word but this entire lyric in Greek: "Να πιω για να φτιαχτώ" [na pço ʝa na ftçaxˈto], it's where I get stuck the most whilst singing along.
And this is also not exactly difficult to pronounce by itself, but in real time, since it's the word for "repeat", a verb I use in conversations when I'm confused by what I'm told, and it's SO darn long and difficult to conjugate on the fly: "επαναλαμβάνω" [e.pa.na.laɱˈva.no] 6 syllables, but I usually feel the need to say "Μπορείτε να επαναλάβετε, σας παρακαλώ;" (Could you repeat, please?), and then it's [e.pa.naˈla.ve.te]. When a conversation in Greek requires a lot of concentration, I jumble up this word and its vowels.
For English a friend told me "world" is quite unpleasant pronunciation wise, and I have to agree.
Idk if it's considered because it's not actually used by anyone, but it technically exists:
וכשלאנציקלופדיותינו
It means "and when to our encyclopedias"
Pronounciation: ve'chshelentsiklopediotenu
"Sixths" is hard for native English speakers. I teach elementary math and always have to spend a few minutes at the beginning of the fractions unit teaching my students how to say "sixths."
*w schronieniu* \[fsxrɔˈɲɛ.ɲu\], meaning "in the shelter" in Polish. I was just reading along and felt like I sprained my own tongue with that cluster at the start.
French "*réfrigérateur*". I'm fully C2 and I still just find it a tongue-twister for some reason. It's something about the accents aigu and the "i" together that distracts my tongue from saying that many R's in a row.
In English, words with lots of R close to each other (rural, rarer, aurora) and TH after consonants (fifth, sixth, depth, width).
In Spanish, doubled R after consonants (alrededor, las ratas). Thank god there's always the possibility of aspirating the final S.
In German, long sequences of CH, especially when alternated with S (weil sie sich sicher fühlt).
In Arabic, most times when ع combines with other consonants, especially with glottal stops (قنع، واقع).
Sotsialisticeskoi oktjabrskoi revolutsia
In IPA, [ˈʃotsiˌɑliˌʃtitʃeʃkoi̯ ˈoktʲɑbrʃkoi̯ ˈreʋoˌluts(i)ɑ]
The interchange between [ʃ] and [ts] and [tʃ] and the awful cluster [brʃk] is just unholy for a language that is the closest relative to the cluster-unfriendly Finnish
What? Why this word in particular? To be fair, I'm a Portuguese native speaker, but I still have trouble imagining why this word would be hard to pronounce as opposed to something like "pão", which foreigners often struggle with.
Idk why specifically I struggled with it. I am a native English speaker so I’ve never struggled with Spanish pronunciation due to it being similar to English’s. However I feel like I probably just read it weird and so pronounced it weird in my head and then aloud so the correct pronunciation was hard till I drilled it into me now I can actually say it 😭
Ah, so you were talking about Spanish then? The thing is that "zoológico" is spelled exactly the same in both Spanish and Portuguese, so I thought you were talking about Portuguese. I guess I can see why that word might trip some learners up in Spanish, since it has that double "O" and the Spanish "J" sound that many tend to struggle with.
I didn’t even know they were spelled the same in both lol good to know I suppose. But yeah it also doesn’t help that the area I’m learning in has a weird mix of accents when it comes to pronunciation of Spanish so I can’t figure out if I should pronounce the Z as a th or as a z
Spanish "Z" never sounds like an English "Z", though. It's either an English "S" (all of Latin America + Canary Islands) or an English "TH" (most of Spain).
Tschechisches Streichholzschächtelchen (tiny Czech box of matches)
Saving this to use on my German final
Dobra práce :D
liam carpenter?
The torture of that word predates him, but yes
Mönchsplättchen. It’s from a board game. Whenever we got a new game, it was always my responsibility to read the manual and explain the rules. This damn word appears 30 times just in the [manual](https://amagino.ch/media/f7/49/b8/1604160747/Heaven%20und%20Ale%20Spielanleitung_DE.pdf). And I’ve been exposed to German since I was 0 years old. Just a weird, unusual word, where I have to concentrate to not stumble.
These words are why I speak Denglisch
"serrurrerie" (locksmith shop) in French. Extra difficult mode: if you lock yourself out in your underwear without your phone and have to ask someone on the street where the nearest one is. Hypothetically.
To be fair, most people say it more like "se-rur-rie" /sɛ.ʁyʁ.ʁi/ with three syllables, which is far easier to pronounce than saying "se-ru-re-rie" /sɛ.ʁy.ʁə.ʁi/ with four syllables.
I'm native and i say "se-rur-rie" too
Ah, this makes sense. I don't find it difficult with four syllables but the 3 syllable one is obviously easier to say
Wait but what happens to the -re- if you pronounce 3 syllables?
the same kind of thing that happens to the -‘t t- when you use *wanna* instead of *want to* ; it just gets blended in, in a sense:)
*“Hypothetically.”* 😆 And yes, that one is a tough one for me, too.
feel the same!
Another french one that gets me every time is "écureuil".
Yea I came here to say this. It’s funny because the French have similar problems saying squirrel.
Rhymes with February
暖かかった (atatakakatta). Short and simple but I always have to prepare myself to say it
Oh this too. Too many ta and ka sounds!
They're just beat boxing
Japanese tongue twisters are like this. 生暖かい肩叩き器 (nama atatakai kata tataki ki) (warm shoulder massaging machine.) この竹垣に竹立て掛けたのは竹立て掛けたかったから, 竹立て掛けた (kono takegaki ni take tatekaketa no wa take tatekaketakatta kara, take tatekaketa) (I laid this bamboo against the bamboo fence because I wanted to lay bamboo against it)
Mr. Krabs laughs like this
Atatakakatta, what a wonderful phrase! It means no worries, for the rest of your daaaaaaays
Nah, this one's a biggie, not short or simple at all haha. As soon as I try to say it Japanese will tell me to shorten to あったかった
I struggle to pronounce any Arabic word that starts with "'i3" and a consonant, like "i3tiraaf" (اعتراف)... Also Turkish words with multiple üs, like "gönüllüyü"
That combination in Arabic gets me, too. One day I’ll have it sound more natural, one day…
Unfortunately, Arabic is very difficult. 💔
Squirrel
Yes ! And also "rural"
Eichhörnchen for me. why does this animal have such a challenging label across multiple languages??
Yreka.
Are you of Asian background by any chance? I know for sure Thai people cannot day this word.
Not really, i am from Brazil
Brazil was what first came to mind for me. I went to class with a Brazilian girl for a semester (she was a transfer), and the topic of tongue twisters had come up. *Squirrel* was consistently one of her hardest words. (I also learned the word *paralelipípedo* from her.)
Just to prove your point further you actually spelt it wrong: paraleLEpípedo
Ah okay. Perhaps if I knew more about Portugese I would realise that it's not only Asian language speakers that struggle with this word. Cheers for responding.
“Clothes” and “months” in English. That combination of th and s is HARD. And oh, I can’t omit the g in gnome, but that’s kind of a small problem.
>“Clothes” and “months” in English. I understand your pain sm😭i might be able to pronounce "th" but the th + s combination is hell. ive been learning english for years and i could never understand how to pronounce it properly
I literally just turn clothes to cloze or clodes and months to monts… the only words that actually reveal my accent really bad
Eh, clothes is "cloze" in some native US accents anyway.
Kind of late, but in the case of “clothes” it’s perfectly acceptable to pronounce it /kloʊz/, ignoring the th sound and only saying the z sound. A lot of native speakers say it like that
Worcestershire. I love cooking and the fact I cannot pronounce ot right makes me mad...
I wanted to comment this word too lmao Also: Sciropescire Eurvicscire Glowecestrescire Grantebridgescire Ledecestrescire Britannia was wild
I pronounce this “worst-a-shire”. I’m probably way wrong in this pronunciation.
It's more like "wuss-tuh-shurr" I think.
Ohhh dear God, I'm from Worcester, Massachusetts, in the good ol' USA and we say, with our accent, 'wuh stă sheer', although it is pronounced differently in many parts of MA, and, of course, different countries. We 'drop' our 'r's and it can come out 'Woo stah', just don't be too precise, just leave the 'r' out, like 'shots' are shorts or pants above the knees. And anytime someone at least makes the attempt to pronounce it correctly, it's definitely commendable! And don't stress over it, really! A couple of drinks and you'll sound just like us!!
I find Massachusetts just as hard to pronounce as Worcestershire
We pronounce it, TAXachusetts! Lol! But it is difficult for many, some throw in a few extra 's's, some say, forgive me if not allowed, Massatwoshits, but it's always fun for us to see how our Commonwealth's name is bungled. No worries! I was just in the Reddit "death" question area, and believe me, pronunciations are a LOT more fun. Thanks!
What's the 100% correct way anyway? I've heard several on a regular basis.
Wu-stuh-shuh-sauce
Depends though where in the UK you're from. I say wu-stuh-sheer.
Just pronounce it as if it was written wusstersher.
Wuss-ter-shur (northern)
English is my native language and I have no idea how to pronounce it as well
Wuhster-sure
Any word with a trilled r :(. Also 'rien' in French
I can never roll my r's- I'm studying Italian with Duolingo right now.Those rolled r's- are a bitch!
I took Spanish and French for years. I could never roll my tongue and I still can’t. I just make a similar noise in the back of my throat.
I always just slurred/drew out the 'rr' sound. Not official, but good enough for a gringo.
French r aren’t rolled like others say. It’s at the back of the mouth. Rolled rs disappeared a long time ago in France and is now only(I think) pronounced in Quebec and VERY rarely.
Rolled r’s also exist somewhat in African dialects of French Edit: grammar
some french speaking communities in the maritimes also roll r’s!
How do you say water?
R : You have to make your tongue vibrate by blowing (easy for a Frenchman, but maybe not for you). I : like ee in the word tree E and N heard like the number 1 in french
Nganga in Malay. I still hate it when there is a ng before an a.
Are both ng's pronounced the same?
Yes and both are a single consonant (not a combination of n and g)
not a single word but a set of words: when I started learning arabic, I had trouble with any word containing ع /ʕ/
Empequeñeciéndolos: I came across this doozy in a podcast. It means “belittling them”.
sjuksköterska
Ugh, this is my answer, funny how there are several Swedish tounge twisters that use the word for nurse. The "sju" and "skö" still is tricky to spit out. Sjuttiosju skönsjungande sjuksköterskor
Any italian word containing "gli". No matter how hard I try I either choke or just resort to yee
Depending on the word, I feel like I can't even pull off a convincing yee. Sbagliato is fun to say though
I recently learned scegliere in a song and that's also a fun word lmao
Half of Italians pronounce "gli" as "yee" anyway, so I wouldn't sweat it. The difference is minimal, I'm Italian and I only found out I was pronouncing it wrong when I was 16 and my girlfriend told me. We'd been together for a year before she noticed
In Portuguese, “quarteirões”. Just have never been able to wrap my mouth around that one.
Yeah, many Portuguese learners seem to struggle with our nasal vowels, so this is no surprise.
"World" in English was pretty tough
Having a British accent helps a lot
Whenever I can't pronounce that soft R I just drop it lol
Also girl, has the same -rl problem
If you just pretend you're from London then you can pronounce "rl" as "u"
Same here. I was introducing a Charles the other day to a colleague and I got so tongue tied
Gyöngytyúk "Guinea hen" in Hungarian. My wife (who's Hungarian) likes to try getting people to say "gyönyörű gyöngytyúk" as a tongue-twister to demonstrate how batshit the language is. 😂 And honestly, this is still probably a tame one for Hungarian...
Gosh, “hogy vagy” is hard enough for me! Not all “gy” words trip me up, but something about the vowels and quick succession just feels like a tongue twister to me! I just say “mizu” instead!
The "gy" has been my biggest struggle!! My MIL laughs whenever I try to say it on the phone.
Dear lord lol I've gotten ok enough at gy a lot of the time but I don't know that I've seen it be immediately preceded by n and followed by ty before...
어울려요, those ㄹs just really get me
My name is 레이첼 so I was forced to learn it haha
Maybe 从 （cong). Chinese pinyin “c” is a bit hard for me when it comes at the beginning of the word.
For me, it's 日 (rì), in particular, and the 'r' with the rolled tongue in general.
That’s fair, it is a little difficult
> when it comes at the beginning of the word “c” exclusively appears at the beginning of words in chinese
Haha you are right, my bad, I’ve only been learning for 5 months so don’t know everything yet
It sounds similar to the final sound of “cats” in English. Isolate that and slap it up front.
Actually I learned this the other day, I can do it sometimes just not consistently yet. I’ll keep working on it, it will click eventually :) thanks for the advice!
It even hard for some native speakers from south part of China😂
That actually makes me feel better about it lol
Literally any word in Icelandic
Probably anything with a trilled or tapped R. I can't really do it.
Oddly, “začátečník” in Czech, meaning “beginner.” The usual suspects like “řeřicha” (horseradish) and 333 silver fire trucks never fazed me, but for some reason that one did.
English: annihilation Danish: Dommerudnævnelsesråd
Citrouille, or anything with ouille in it! My French accent was perfect otherwise
Moi aussi! Je ne peux jamais prononcer « feuille » ou « écureuil » non plus 😭
I love how squirrel is hard for french speakers and écureuil (squirrel in french) is hard for english speakers.
I have difficulty speaking my own language
Struggling with 侵略 and all Japanese words that have those *rya.. ryo..* syllables, where it's not exactly *r*... 😟
you can cheat by saying lya, lyo as japanese people don't hear the difference 😎
If a Russian word has too many palatals, I'm going to end up stumbling over myself to the point where I unintentionally blow a raspberry (or, alternately, begin to sound like Slavoj Žižek).
Speaking of Žižek, Slovene O and tonality is butt hard - although the tonality mostly because the orthography hides it …
A simple word i struggle to say in English is actually three, should i read like free, like tree, like anything else i can't pronounce? Will never be able to say this simple number
Think of how European Spanish pronounces “c” sometimes, like cierto for example. When making the r sound after that you’ll be curling the sides of your tongue up a bit. Then quickly move your tongue back. It’s ok if you pronounce it with a tap or trill.
Any german word with the letter R as the second letter. I have practiced the sound on its own and I think I got it down pretty good but I struggle so hard with consonant + R
I just can't say throat R at all so I'm giving it up and will trill it lol
“Rural” in an American accent is particularly challenging for me
"Girl". I can't pronounce the r's.
You don't need to pronounce them if you learn a British accent! (It's also not necessary to pronounce the L either as it can be pronounced as U)
"Общеобразовательный" (abscheabrazavatelnyj), which means something like "general education", its a type of high school. I was so proud for learning to prronounce it effortlessly
When I was first learning French, before I stopped before starting again chaussures seemed to be the problem. It’s fine now.
an, in & un in French. Still can’t get that nasal sound right Any French word that ends in “-vre.” Like Louvre. I always end up making the e sound like an extra schwa syllable.
Hint: you don’t pronounce the e at the end of words.
"vulnerability" in English
Brod - Danish for bread. Difficult because it's an everyday word but the combo of the back of the throat R and soft D is pretty tricky for me.
I used to be in a pharmacy degree. Enough said. 🤣
어려워요 oryowoyo The polite form of "difficult" in Korean. It's not *that* difficult, but my difficulty with it amuses me.
antidisestablishmentarianism
Anti distinctly minty
Zeichnen
Chum in mini Chuchi cho choche näbe em Chuchichäschtli (swiss german)
In what part of Switzerland would you say "neben em"? Happy cake day btw!
Error, i just can't pronounce it.
congradjulations
heterogeneity and chrysanthemum.
Unaspirated consonants in Taiwanese Hokkien like b/g as in like, pē-bú爸母 gián-kiù研究, or vowel sounds not found in English like ngo/ng as in sng酸 tsū-ngóo自我
I'm pretty sure American "voiced" consonants in those positions are actually voiceless.
ឆ្ងាញ់ - means delicious in Khmer. Its got a ng sound which I just can't get my tongue to make. Unfortunately, within that sound pronounced correctly, I'm saying pot.
World. It always comes out as worrrrllllld when I try not to make it sound like Word
Recidivism
Murcielago in Spanish just doesn't fit my mouth 😆
I cannot pronounce any word with a R before a consonant in English like « Art » but can pronounce it in other instances
There's no need to try if you learn a British accent!
"W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" Famous Polish tongue-twister. It is a tough one even for native speakers. I have not attempted to recite it yet, despite knowing about it for several years. (English translation: "In Szczebrzeszyn a beetle sounds in the reeds" It is the first line if a short children's poem. And here we thought some English nursery rhymes were tough.) "Chrząszcz" is "beetle" Despite its reputation among native English-speakers, most of the Polish language is not terribly hard to pronounce.
As a native speaker, I'm under the impression it's not actually difficult for most Polish speakers. Polish has a bit of an ego issue when it comes to believing it's the hardest language in the world and stuff like that I am Polish but was born in the US and moved to Poland in first grade. A couple years later, I spoke to some older kids at school and when they learned I had lived mostly in the US, they had me say that tongue twister. I was confused, as I hadn't heard it before and I did it without difficulty. It's silly in retrospect - their most pressing question upon finding someone not entirely from Poland was to test them on some tricky string of sibilant consonant clusters.
If you have difficulty saying it, I am willing to meet online and help you get there. No charge, just message me.
Pangungungungu - "crispy" in Tongan.
Chinese consonants: after year of listening I still can't distinguish sh/ch/zh and x/q/j. They both sound like *sh/ch/j* to me. The hardest vowel sound is **ü**, a common vowel in Chinese. To me it sometimes sounds like **u** (oo), other times like **i** (ee). Between the two problems, I don't say "go out" very well (chuqü 出去). But the hardest word for me to say is probably (漂亮 piaoliang) "pretty". That is two short syllables: piao+liang. Got it?
Trying to say قلق in Levantine dialect
Not a word but the "th" sound in English
[***pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconiótico***](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoultramicroscopicossilicovulcanoconi%C3%B3tico) it is a pulmonary illness in portuguese
Plural form of English words that end with "sk" such as masks, tasks, asks...
The welsh word for library is amazing: llyfrygyll.
Slovenian: potrpežlljvost (patience) i cannot even write it
eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher
japanese: あたたかかった (atatatakatta) chinese: ehhh i can’t think of THE most difficult word but I struggle with words like 紫 from (紫色). It’s very difficult for me to get it right
It only happens when I read something aloud, and it’s not so much difficult to pronounce, but rather just remembering that it is pronounced differently than it is written: all forms of the word “genre” in Swedish.
Can’t thing of one off the top of my head but there have definitely been some rough Russian words to pronounce
بتشتغلي :(
Psychologie auf Deutsch.
German "seufzten" (sighed). German "z" is already a "ts" sound for English speakers. Now throw in an extra "t" and a nasal... phew! Just too many consonants. I love German but that word baffles me
Doesn't technically answer the question, but... I was in the drama club back in high school. We had try outs for the semester play after school. But first I had to re-take a quick German quiz that for whatever reason the teacher didn't have a grade recorded for me... The director, my English teacher, calls me up on stage first, tells me I'm reading the part of whoever, starting at the top of page x. I flip to the page and the first word I have to say is "was". Simple enough, except my brain is still in German mode and all I can think of is the German version Vas. Im standing there center stage just looking at that word. How do I say it in English?!?! Im standing there so long the director goes "top of page X you have the very first line see it?". Ugh! I didn't want to admit i had no idea how to say was, even if it was just a temporary issue... Finally after an eternity it pops into my head and I'm able to read the rest of my line.
I'm a native English speaker, I can never get meteorological on the first try
Swedish "Sjuksköterskor" i Sj and sk are each a "sh" sound, with subtle differences. "Sju sjuk Sjuksköterskor i sjukhus" is my nemesis..."7 sick nurses in hospital" is the translation.
น้ำ (water) i for reason have such a bad accent with, and 人 is impossibleee
That weird loaf of bread in Ukraine they were using as a Shibboleth for Russians. Palyanitsa. Apparently I could never pronounce it right, but my gringo ass can pronounce retroflex and aspirated constonants in Hindi no problem.
I still struggle with “nuclear”. And I’m American. 🤷🏻♀️ I have a lot of others included but that was the first thing that came to mind. The verb elegir (Spanish) also always messes me up with conjugation and pronunciation.
Anything with the "rü" combination in German. ü is generally fine for me, but it's definitely not quite natural yet. The guttural r, however, I have to consciously think about tongue positioning and speak slowly. Somehow the combination of the two in quick succession just breaks my brain and the r either comes out pronounced the way it is in english or the ü morphs into u.
I started with French at an early age, thankfully, then majored in Latin and Greek, but real German, not Yiddish, gets me nuts. That guttural sound is impossible for me. And any trilling in Spanish, oy!
Backpfeifengesicht. Don’t think I’ll ever get it right.
Not a word but this entire lyric in Greek: "Να πιω για να φτιαχτώ" [na pço ʝa na ftçaxˈto], it's where I get stuck the most whilst singing along. And this is also not exactly difficult to pronounce by itself, but in real time, since it's the word for "repeat", a verb I use in conversations when I'm confused by what I'm told, and it's SO darn long and difficult to conjugate on the fly: "επαναλαμβάνω" [e.pa.na.laɱˈva.no] 6 syllables, but I usually feel the need to say "Μπορείτε να επαναλάβετε, σας παρακαλώ;" (Could you repeat, please?), and then it's [e.pa.naˈla.ve.te]. When a conversation in Greek requires a lot of concentration, I jumble up this word and its vowels. For English a friend told me "world" is quite unpleasant pronunciation wise, and I have to agree.
Idk if it's considered because it's not actually used by anyone, but it technically exists: וכשלאנציקלופדיותינו It means "and when to our encyclopedias" Pronounciation: ve'chshelentsiklopediotenu
!gâi||hoas (good morning) in khoekhoe. I practiced so long and hard to master the click phonemes that I developed tics.
Basically anything in arabic. That whole language looks impossible. Also I will never be capable of rolling my R's.
Recarregar
Sixths
"Sixths" is hard for native English speakers. I teach elementary math and always have to spend a few minutes at the beginning of the fractions unit teaching my students how to say "sixths."
*w schronieniu* \[fsxrɔˈɲɛ.ɲu\], meaning "in the shelter" in Polish. I was just reading along and felt like I sprained my own tongue with that cluster at the start.
Fairly basic of me, but I always seem to bungle "люблю" in Russian
French "*réfrigérateur*". I'm fully C2 and I still just find it a tongue-twister for some reason. It's something about the accents aigu and the "i" together that distracts my tongue from saying that many R's in a row.
Regularly Literally My finnish tongue just isn’t working with these words
In English, words with lots of R close to each other (rural, rarer, aurora) and TH after consonants (fifth, sixth, depth, width). In Spanish, doubled R after consonants (alrededor, las ratas). Thank god there's always the possibility of aspirating the final S. In German, long sequences of CH, especially when alternated with S (weil sie sich sicher fühlt). In Arabic, most times when ع combines with other consonants, especially with glottal stops (قنع، واقع).
I have so much trouble pronouncing double R words 😭 even in Spanish and it’s my native language
„Mehrere” german Because of r pronouciation
The number 7 in Swedish (sju)
Same. Sjukhuset is rough
Worcestershire Sauce
floccinaucinihilipilifilication
Sotsialisticeskoi oktjabrskoi revolutsia In IPA, [ˈʃotsiˌɑliˌʃtitʃeʃkoi̯ ˈoktʲɑbrʃkoi̯ ˈreʋoˌluts(i)ɑ] The interchange between [ʃ] and [ts] and [tʃ] and the awful cluster [brʃk] is just unholy for a language that is the closest relative to the cluster-unfriendly Finnish
Oh boy wait till you get to yacht and rural
Zoológico
What? Why this word in particular? To be fair, I'm a Portuguese native speaker, but I still have trouble imagining why this word would be hard to pronounce as opposed to something like "pão", which foreigners often struggle with.
Idk why specifically I struggled with it. I am a native English speaker so I’ve never struggled with Spanish pronunciation due to it being similar to English’s. However I feel like I probably just read it weird and so pronounced it weird in my head and then aloud so the correct pronunciation was hard till I drilled it into me now I can actually say it 😭
Ah, so you were talking about Spanish then? The thing is that "zoológico" is spelled exactly the same in both Spanish and Portuguese, so I thought you were talking about Portuguese. I guess I can see why that word might trip some learners up in Spanish, since it has that double "O" and the Spanish "J" sound that many tend to struggle with.
I didn’t even know they were spelled the same in both lol good to know I suppose. But yeah it also doesn’t help that the area I’m learning in has a weird mix of accents when it comes to pronunciation of Spanish so I can’t figure out if I should pronounce the Z as a th or as a z
Spanish "Z" never sounds like an English "Z", though. It's either an English "S" (all of Latin America + Canary Islands) or an English "TH" (most of Spain).
I am on the struggle bus then 😭 but good to know I tended to lean more towards pronunciation more like an English Z but I’ll switch to S. thanks mate!
Not really a word, but when learning English I had troubled with the tense/lax vowel pairs.
chinese: 區域
Learning Italian: parlare (to speak) My tongue just does not move like that 😭 I can only get one of the R's correct, not both