Chuchichästli: Pronouncing the most popular Swiss German word

Chuchichästli is probably the most famous Swiss German word! However, Swiss German is a difficult language. Especially the pronunciation of certain words in the Swiss German language can be a tongue twister. It is hard to pronounce Chuchichästli or Chuchichäschtli (same thing). Swiss German is a very different language to the regular German, that the Germans speak. It can be hard for Germans to understand Swiss German, because the pronunciation and syntax are totally different. If you are an expat it's important for you to know that there is no official Swiss German (although there is a dictionary) as there are many different dialects spoken, that differ mainly by canton. It can also be very tricky for the Swiss among themselves to understand each other, as some Swiss German dialects have a very unique tone or rhythm and some words are unknown to the rest of the country.

What’s important though is that you can pronounce the word Chu-chi-chäschtli, which is a kitchen cupboard and a tongue twister. The difficult part is the “ch”, which the entire world makes fun of. And we simply cannot understand why. It sounds so normal ;-)

In the video we will explain how to pronounce this difficult word and prepare you for your next mingle, which we are sure, you will rock!

[ronin]

It is not a coincidence that the country code for Switzerland is "CH"

[mariannehansen]

It has become the ultimate test word for uusländer learning to speak Schwiitzerdütsch, though! So often used on me! ;)
My nephew wants to learn to speak it now, so this video is GREAT for him to get started with using CH!

[jessicaely]

When I finally got married to my Swiss husband I took German classes. My first class was taught by teachers from Switzerland. When one teacher found out that I said Chuchichästli pretty good for a person from the US, they took me around the school and had me repeat it to every teacher.😂😂😂. They told me I said it better than majority of Germans. This gave me a big ego boost. The teachers also liked how I said grüezi.

I missed those teachers. The next classes I had teachers from Germany. I always got yelled at for not using ß in my German words. I finally said to one teacher "we are in fucking Switzerland. They dont use that." I was only learning German to communicate with Swiss. I didnt care about communicating with Germans. Im an ass I know.

[Swardets]

I need a chuchichästli in my kitchen. I don’t know where to store everything 😢

[mariannehansen]

Thank you so much for these! You read slowly enough and very clearly, so it will be great for my nephew and I to listen to together, and we can pause it so I can tell him what was said. Us both being Norwegian, I know he will pick it up at least as easily as I did when I moved to Kanton Zurich in 2001! <3

[tippitoad]

Very funny. I'd have liked the hear the entire story. My family came from Bulgaria and Hungary. My Bulgarian Uncle married a Swiss woman, my lovely Aunt. My mother and aunt were best friends before the met the Bulgarian boys, my Dad and Uncle . . . are you snoring yet? Anyway, my father went into the military before I was born and my Mother and I lived with my Aunt and her Mom at their dairy-she, my aunt, hadn't married my Uncle yet. We lived at their dairy for several years. (I spent lots of time there on visits through my college years). My Aunt's Mom apparently spoke Swietzerdeutsch to me exclusively. And there was always chocolate in the Chuchichäschtli. Its a word that is in my core vocab and I'm told I say it correctly. I grew up mainly hearing English and Hungarian, spattered Bulgarian and German. I studied German at secondary school and Russian at college. I'm great at scrabble but my English word order sucks!

[learnngchannel]

Ich mag die Schweiz. Grüsse aus Finnland.

[TheGreatPornholio]

It's the same G sound as we Dutch people use. Only in the south it's a softer G, like the germans use.

[AndreBackAgain]

For my streamer friend, in my family it means a "pan", but thats our definition... 😉

[hraxus]

Slovak language have manny CH words :D i really like Chuchichästli