213. Verschrikkelijk
terrible, dreadful, awful [adjective / adverb] ['vur-sgri-ku-luk']
"Verschrikkelijk" is for most non-native Dutch speakers a terrible word to pronounce :-) The tongue breaking focuses around the letter combination "s"-"ch"-"r", pronounced: sharp "s" - raspy "g" - rolling "r". The only thing that we can advise is: keep on practising ;-)
Examples:
- "Verschrikkelijk!"
("Terrible!")
- "Dat is verschrikkelijk nieuws!"
("That is awful news!")
- "Het spijt me verschrikkelijk, lieveling."
("I'm dreadfully sorry, darling.")
- "Sinds de introductie van de euro is alles verschrikkelijk duur geworden."
("Since the introduction of the euro, everything has become terribly expensive.")
- "Frank deed verschrikkelijk kinderachtig tijdens die vergadering."
("Frank acted terribly childish during that meeting." Lit.: "Frank did terribly childish...")
- "Wat een verschrikkelijk auto ongeluk: drie doden, één zwaargewonde."
("What a terrible car accident: three dead, one heavily injured.")
Related words:
- "Gruwelijk": horrible.
- "De Verschrikkelijke Sneeuwman": The Yeti. Lit.: The Abominable Snowman.
Hi there. Great to find this site. I am a student of NT2 inburgering course. Expect me regularly here nowonwards.....
Posted by: RC | Jun 13, 2007 at 03:59 PM
I love this word, even if I can't quite say it!
I've been studying Dutch from all the way over in Western Australia and love this site. Thanks for all the great words and examples.
Posted by: CW | Jun 17, 2008 at 03:14 PM
And it's so damn easy if you're a native Dutch;-)
Girls (especially the single ones around 30, not being over 500 pounds and thinking about a move to Holland) having trouble pronouncing words correctly; just drop me a line and I'll try to help you.
Peter
peter.anrochte@kpnmail.nl
Posted by: Peter | Nov 03, 2008 at 10:55 PM