Pronunciation

Stress is always on the first syllable

In Czech the stress always falls on the first syllable of a word. It is light: don't make the vowel louder or longer, just give the first syllable a little more weight.

Short words like v, na, do, s and z join the word after them, so the stress lands on them. 'na nádraží' is said like one word, with the stress on 'na'.

• Praha ▶slow PRA-ha
• děkuji ▶slow DĚ-ku-ji
• pivo ▶slow PI-vo
• nádraží ▶slow NÁ-dra-ží
• na nádraží ▶slow said as one word: NA-nádraží

Long and short vowels

The accent marks á, é, í, ý, ó, ú and ů make a vowel long, roughly twice as long as a short one. This is length, not stress, and it can change the meaning of a word.

y and i sound the same, and so do ý and í. ú and ů also sound the same: ú is written at the start of a word, ů inside it.

• byt ▶slow apartment (short)
• být ▶slow to be (long)
• dal ▶slow he gave (short)
• dál ▶slow further, on (long)
• pan ▶slow Mr. (short)
• pán ▶slow gentleman (long)

Hooks and soft sounds

The hook (háček) changes the sound: č is like 'ch' in 'church', š like 'sh' in 'ship', ž like the 's' in 'measure', and ň like 'ny' in 'canyon'.

ě makes the letter before it soft: dě, tě and ně sound like ďe, ťe and ňe, and mě sounds like 'mnye'. The letters d, t, n before i or í are soft in the same way. After y or ý they stay hard.

• čaj ▶slow tea (č as in church)
• šest ▶slow six (š as in ship)
• žena ▶slow woman (ž as in measure)
• kůň ▶slow horse (ň as in canyon)
• děkuji ▶slow thank you (dě sounds like 'dye')
• něco ▶slow something (ně sounds like 'nye')
• dítě ▶slow child (dí is soft)
• tisíc ▶slow thousand (ti is soft)
• dým ▶slow smoke (dý is hard)
• ty ▶slow you (ty is hard)

The famous ř

ř is the sound Czech is known for. Roll an r with the tip of your tongue while making a 'zh' (ž) sound at the same time. It is a buzzing trill. Don't replace it with a plain r or with ž.

After the voiceless consonants p, t and k, and at the end of a word, ř loses its voice and sounds more like a hissing 'rsh'.

• řeka ▶slow river
• dobře ▶slow well, OK
• příliš ▶slow too (much)
• Dvořák ▶slow the composer
• tři ▶slow three (voiceless ř)
• přítel ▶slow friend (voiceless ř)
• Řeka je dlouhá. ▶slow The river is long.

h and ch

h is a soft, breathy sound, a bit like the 'h' in 'behind'. ch is a different letter and a different sound: a scraping sound as in Scottish 'loch' or German 'Bach'. Don't say it like the 'ch' in 'church': that is č.

• hora ▶slow mountain
• kniha ▶slow book
• ahoj ▶slow hi / bye
• chléb ▶slow bread
• chci ▶slow I want
• ucho ▶slow ear

Consonant clusters

Czech words can have several consonants in a row, and r and l can act as the vowel of a syllable. Don't squeeze in an extra vowel: vlk is one syllable, not 'vulk'.

A famous tongue twister uses no vowels at all. Try it slowly first.

• vlk ▶slow wolf
• krk ▶slow neck, throat
• prst ▶slow finger
• Brno ▶slow the city of Brno
• Plzeň ▶slow the city of Plzeň
• čtvrtek ▶slow Thursday
• zmrzlina ▶slow ice cream
• Strč prst skrz krk. ▶slow Stick a finger down your throat.

Voiced and voiceless consonants

A voiced consonant at the end of a word is pronounced voiceless: b becomes p, d becomes t, v becomes f, z becomes s and ž becomes š. So 'led' sounds like 'let' and 'chléb' like 'chlép'. The spelling stays the same.

Inside a word, a consonant also takes on the voicing of the one after it: 'prosba' is said 'prozba'.

• led ▶slow ice (sounds like 'let')
• hrad ▶slow castle (sounds like 'hrat')
• chléb ▶slow bread (sounds like 'chlép')
• nůž ▶slow knife (sounds like 'nůš')
• prosba ▶slow request (sounds like 'prozba')
• kde ▶slow where (sounds like 'gde')