Most difficult words in slovak language
If you have ever tried to speak Slovak, then for sure you came across some words that made you have some serious doubts on how to pronounce it.
There are many of these words in Slovak language and actually to master Slovak pronunciation requires a lot of practice.
This is speacially true for anyone who is not used to speak a Slavic language. Slavic languages, as Slovak, love the combinations of letters without any vowels as a,e,i, o, u. Which make words very tricky to speak.
Today, in Linguarte, we have listed some (not all) of the hardest words to pronounce in Slovak language, prepare your mouth and let’s start.
Number 7: Žblnknutie
Meaning clunk. This word has a very difficult beginning of the word which makes it very hard to start pronouncing. Then when using this word, you really need to prepare your mouth in advance. The good thing is we don’t need to use this word typically.
Number 6: Štvrť.
The sixth word of this list is quite short but not easy whatsoever. Meaning block, and with just 5 letter, Štvrť is a word that is tempting to say fast but there’s the danger you will fail easily. But, if this is too hard for you, then instead of saying a block, you can just say a quarter of it and make it easier. For that, you will need this word štvrtina (one quarter), Easier, right? Well… good luck!
Number 5: Zmrzlina.
Summer will never be the same for you. In Slovak language, Zmrzlina means ice cream. The right pronunciation is not smerlin, it is not mezerlina, not even zermlin. But for sure, when pronounciting, you will say all the last versions without succedding. You can look also at the positive side of it, you will have many opportunities during summer to make people to understand your pronunciation of this word. If at the end people don’t understand you, well at least, you won’t gain weight from ice creams 😉
Number 4 Hmla:
This word, hmla, is a beautiful word meaning fog. And actually its pronunciation alone is not as hard as others on this list. But when trying to say it in a sentence, its difficulty increases exponentially. For example, try to say: we have fog, in Slovak: Dnes máme hmlu. If you said it perfectly, congratulations since you are one of a kind.
Number3: Prapraprapraotec
Now we start our top 3 with one word that can get as long and weird as you allow it to be. Let me elaborate deeply. In Slovak language, if you want to say mother or father, you say: mama, otec. Staryotec/staramama for grandpa and grandma. But what about great grandfather or great grandmother? In these cases you say praotec and pramama respectively. And if you have a long family line until your great great grandfather or mother mother, then you would say in Slovak: prapraotec/ prapramama Then at the end, if you wanna talk about your ancestors in Slovak language, you’d end up almost singing a hip hop song.
Number 2: Štrngnúť.
The sound in English is clink, but in Slovak language it is: Štrng. Yes, we know, the person who made this word was either drunk or deaf. And from this, we have the verb that for us is the second hardest word to pronounce: Štrngnúť. (to make a toast). If you live in Slovakia, we are sure you will find some opportunities to practice it since Slovaks enjoy a drink or two. Just be careful!
Number 1: Najnerozkrasokorčuľovateľnejšieho
The number one in our list might look like the longest word in Slovak language (which is not), but for sure is very difficult to say. With 33 letters our pick is najnerozkrasokorčuľovateľnejšieho. That is a real word but for understanding its meaning, we need to go by parts. The verb Rozkrasokorčuľovať means: to warm up before figure skating. From that we have rozkrasokorčuľovaný, the adjective. After that, we add naj which we use for “the most”, followed by –ne- the negative particle. All of this meaning: The person who didn’t warmed up the least before figure skating. The ending of the word “sieho” is because it is in accusative or genitive case. All of this huge combination will make Najnerozkrasokorčuľovateľnejšieho, our pick for the hardest word in Slovak.
If you liked this article, check other of our articles where we talk about Slovak language, Slovak culture and other interesting facts.
Also, check out Linguarte YouTube channel, where you can find a video where we explain these words in more detail.