Wednesday, 26 November 2014

Long Dutch Words - You Can't Make This Stuff Up

My latest article has just been published on expatsHaarlem on the topic of long Dutch words. The Dutch string words together (that have meaning on their own) to make uber words.

This is a great example:

Appelbanaanperenaardbeienframbozengrapefuitdruivenbramensinaasappelgranaatappelmandarijncitroenroomgebakje 
Although of course it's not a word you would hear being uttered in day to day life, it is a real word. And in case you were wondering, it's a fruit cake with every kind of fruit imaginable in it - but listed individually.


As children my dad and Gran used to wow my brother and me by reciting the longest place name in Wales (they are both Welsh):

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch 

And no, I won't repeat that. (Thank goodness for copy and paste).

Thinking back on this made me curious to know what the longest place name in the Netherlands is. Turns out it is Gasselterboerveenschemond. Say that after a glass or two of wine.

For more Dutch scrabble tips, and to learn which word is officially the longest Dutch word (the fruit cake one above doesn't count) head on over to expatsHarleem: http://expatshaarlem.nl/mastering-dutch-words-longer-arm

I would love to know - what's the longest word in your mother tongue (or second language) and the longest place name in your home or host country?

1 comment:

  1. Not as bad as German! Turkish is pretty dire too - the language agglutinates so add various suffixes and prefixes and one word can translate to an entire sentence.

    My dutch family used to cheat at scrabble - they played in four languages to up their chances of getting a good word. I hated playing with them.

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