Rutsch. How do you say it?

Been asked that a thousand times.

And when I'm not asked -- it's always been the elephant in the room.

Heard it and have seen it spelled incorrectly for my entire life and still really screwed one of my kids by naming him Henrik.

Both of his names are butchered with regularity.

Hendrix Roosh? Who?

R-U-T-S-C-H

I get it -- it's weird, in English, to see four consonants in a row.

In the German language, consonants are used very confidently -- and there are a ton of hilarious words. And with so many hard sounding consonants, German pronunciations often put very little weight on the vowels. It's a scary and mean sounding language because they don't use the vowels to soften the sounds of the consonants.

But really, even in English, vowels are so overrated... That's why you need to BUY them on Wheel of Fortune?!

It's that single vowel, the U in Rutsch, that causes so many people to pronounce it incorrectly.

Rutsch rhymes with Dutch.

My line of the family won't ever anglicize the spelling -- taking out the S.

But we did anglicize the pronunciation. Don't judge.

If you speak German, or just happen to be the type of person that likes to place your order with a super Italian accent at Olive Garden, it's actually rhymes with Butch...but you won't hear me pronouncing it that way.

It's Rutsch like Dutch.

Now you know!

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Chris Rutsch

Hockey Dad

Year round, I spend a significant amount of time and money transporting my three boys to and from freezing cold ice rinks. Not because I expect them to make it to the NHL but because I know the rigorous youth hockey experience will serve them well in the future.