The most challenging words in German and Dutch: 1. Eichhörnchen (Squirrel) Also a difficult one in English, this is a classic when it comes to difficult German words to pronounce. 2. Streichholzschachtel (Box of matches) If you want to complicate it even further, adding ‘chen’ to the end of it and an umlaut to the ‘a’ (ä) turns the meaning into a small box of matches: Streichholzschächtelchen (though it looks like it should mean so much more.) 3. Freundschaftsbeziehungen (Friendship relations) Another compound noun classic in the German language. Breaking this word up, you’ve “Freundschaft” meaning friendship, and “Beziehungen” meaning relations. Sometimes we love the logic of German! 4. Rührei (Scrambled eggs) Every time we try to pronounce this one, it comes out as a strange sound rather than an actual word. The German ‘r’ at the beginning of the word followed by ‘ü’ is what makes this one hard to pronounce. We are still practicing… 5. Arbeitslosigkeitsversicherung (Unemployment insurance) Another brilliant logical compound noun here! Once you break it up into individual parts, it’s actually not that bad. The hard part comes when you try saying it all together as one word. Who knew a single word could be a tongue twister? 6. Röntgen (X-ray) What’s more daunting than going for an x-ray? Some would say trying to pronounce the German word for an x-ray. In this case, you can blame Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the doctor who patented the procedure in the late 19th century. To honor his medical contribution, his name landed in the German dictionary as both a verb and a noun. 7. Quietscheentchen (Rubber duck) To help pronounce this one, remember that ‘qu’ is more of a ‘kv’ sound. With that, the breakdown would be “Quietsche” + “ent-chen.” Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually not that bad! 8. Tschechien (Czechia) Three consonants in a row is never a good sign, never mind it being at the beginning of the word! 9. Kreuzschlitzschraubenzieher (Screwdriver) This is one you