Czech pronunciation
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Czech Alphabet
Czech is written in Latin script, with few additional Latin characters containing special diacritics. The diacritic symbols are ˇ - háček (hook), ´ - čárka (length mark) and ˚ - kroužek (ring).
The characters specific to Czech are á, č, ď, é, ě, ch, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž. Please note that ch is considered to be a single letter in Czech.
The full Czech alphabet is therefore
a, á, b, c, č, d, ď, e, é, ě, f, g, h, ch, i, í, j, k, l, m, n, ň, o, ó, p, q, r, ř, s, š, t, ť, u, ú, ů, v, w, x, y, ý, z, ž.
However, letters g, q, w, and x usually do not appear in Czech words (by origin). Also, for dictionary purposes, the letters á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ť, ú, ů, ý (i.e. all letters with diacritics except č, ř, and ž) are treated only as variants of the corresponding letters without diacritics.
Czech Pronunciation
Although most Czech vowels and consonants are pronounced similar to English, there are several differences.
Stress
Stress is always on the first syllable in Czech; a monosyllabic preposition (if any) counts as the first syllable of the following word. A vowel in any syllable can be either long or short. The length of Czech vowels is completely independent on the stress. (See more in the next section on vowels.)
Vowels
An important thing to remember about Czech vowels is that they are always pronounced fully, no matter where they are in the word. There are six vowel letters in Czech, but only five vowel sounds.
a - roughly as u in but
e - similar to e in ten
i - similar to y in happy
o - roughly like o in hot, but more rounded (more British)
u - similar to oo in put, but shorter
y - the same sound as Czech i
All vowels are either short or long. Long vowels are marked by the čárka symbol and are pronounced about 1.75 times longer than short vowels. It is important to pronounce long vowels clearly as longer than short ones since the length can change meaning of words (compare, for example, byt - apartment and být - to be). The length of vowels does not depend on stress. Try not to pronounce the long ones as diphthongs.
The long vowels ú and ů are pronounced the same. The different spelling reflects historical differences in pronunciation. You do not need to worry about this since there is no way to distinguish these two variants in speech and, for all practical purposes, switching these two in writing does not change the meaning of the word.
The vowels ě and i soften the preceding consonant. See the section on consonants for an explanation.
Diphthongs
There is one native diphthong and two foreign ones in Czech. The native diphthong is ou, the foreign ones are eu and au. The vowels creating these diphthongs are pronounced in roughly equal proportions.
Consonants
Pronunciation of Czech consonants can be divided into three subgroups:
- consonants that are same in Czech and in English
- consonants that are similar to some in English
- consonants that do not exist in English
1. Consonants pronounced the same in both Czech and English:
b, d, f, g, l, m, n, s, v, z
There are few more sounds that are in both languages but represented by different letters:
Czech c is spelled in English as ts (it's)
Czech č is spelled in English as ch (chocolate)
Czech j is spelled in English as y (yes)
Czech š is spelled in English as sh (shock)
2. Consonants with sounds similar to some in English:
Czech k, p, t are never aspirated - they are pronounced without the puff of breath you can hear in English. The Czech pronunciation is closer to English pronunciation of these sounds in the middle of a word (try skip, spit, stick).
Czech h is always voiced (as in ahead or ham).
Czech ž is a sound similar to English s in vision or pleasure.
Czech r is rolled like r in, e.g., Scottish English, Spanish, German.
3. Sounds that do not exist in English:
There are five sounds that exist in Czech but not in English: ch, ď, ť, ň, ř.
ch - like ch in Scottish loch or German Bach; it is always an unvoiced sound in Czech; press the very back of your tongue against the sides of your palate and breathe out
ď - roughly as d in dune; press the tip of your tongue against your lower teeth and the back of your tongue against the back of your palate and try to pronounce d
ť - roughly as t in tune; follow the steps above, but try to pronounce t
ň - roughly as n in onion; follow the steps above, but try to pronounce n
ř - rough approximation is r with simultaneous sh or zh; pull your tongue back a little, press your jaws together, the tip of your tongue should vibrate loosely
The vowels ě and i soften some of the preceding consonants.
i / í - softens only consonants d, t, n so they are pronounced as ď, ť, ň (dílo, ti, nic)
ě - consonants d, t, n before ě are pronounced as ď, ť, ň; consonants b, p, f, v are pronounced with an added j as [bj, pj, fj, vj]; consonant m is pronounced with an added ň as [mň] (dělat, tělo, něco; běžet, pět, věc; město)
Consonants can be voiced or voiceless (see below), and hard, soft or neutral. The latter distinction is important since sometimes a declension ending can change a hard consonant into a soft one (or vice versa). Hard consonants are h, ch, k, g, r, d, t, n; a potentially following [i] sound is written y, with the exception of foreign words (e.g., hymna = anthem). Soft consonants are ž, š, č, ř, c, j, ď, ť, ň; a potentially following [i] sound is written i, with the exception of foreign words (e.g., židle = chair). Note that ď, ť, ň in front of i (or ě) is always written as d, t, n. Neutral consonants are b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z; a potentially following [i] sound can be written either i or y.
Assimilation
Consonants in Czech are vulnerable to voicing assimilation (actually there are other languages that assimilate consonants more than English). Voiced consonants (b, v, d, ď, z, ž, g, h; dz, dž) become voiceless (p, f, t, ť, s, š, k, ch; c, č) or vice versa. (Note: Sounds dz, dž are written with two letters, as seen here; however, dz is uncommon in written Czech.)
1. Voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless at the end of words (e.g., lev [lef] = lion).
2. If there are two or more consonants in a group, the whole group is pronounced according to the last consonant in the group (e.g., kdo [gdo] = who, tužka [tuška] = pencil).
There are few exceptions to the assimilation rule:
1. v following a voiceless consonant has no effect on it - svět [svjet] = world
2. h following s can either leave it unchanged (preferred in Bohemia) or change it according to the assimilation rules into a voiced consonant (preferred in Moravia). Therefore you can hear the greeting na shledanou (good bye) pronounced as either [naschledanou] or [nazhledanou]. You should probably follow the former pronunciation.
3. ch followed by a voiced consonant becomes voiced, but often not as h but rather as a true voiced ch (you can ignore this phenomenon happily).
Consonant clusters
Czech (and other Slavic languages) has a tendency to cluster consonants, compared to English. There are words with 4, 5, 6 or even 7 consonants in a row. Some Czech words lack vowels completely. This feature is possible thanks to an ability of consonants r, l, and sometimes even m or n to become a syllable nucleus.
Some examples: vlk (wolf), smrt (death), zmrzlina (ice cream), scvrklo se (it shrank), čtvrthrst (quarter-handful). There is also a tongue-twister containing only consonants: Strč prst skrz krk. (Stick your finger through your throat.)
This overview of Czech pronunciation should not scare you as it looks more difficult than it actually is. With practice, you will internalize the rules.
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Go to Basic phrases.
