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LESSON 1: Alphabet and Pronunciation

Alphabet and Letter Names:

a- á
b- bé
c- cé
č- čé
d- dé
e- é
f- ef
g- gé
h- há
ch- chá
i- mĕkké í
j- jé
k- ká
l- el
m- em
n- en
o- ó
p- pé
q- kvé
r- er
ř- eř
s- es
š- eš
t- té
u- ú
v- vé
w- dvojité vé
x- iks
y- tvrdé í
z- zet
ž- žet

Pronunciation:

Vowels- There are five Czech vowels: a e i y o u.
The vowels i and y are pronounced the same. Czech vowels are different from English ones because they can only be pronounced two different ways: short and long. The short vowels are listen above. They become long when an accent is placed above the letter. Ex.: the vowel in the word "pán" (which means Mr. or sir, by the way). When ú is not the first letter in a word, it is written ů. ĕ is pronounced like the first two letters the the English word "yes".

Consonants- b d f g l m n s v z are all pronounced the same as they would be in English.
p t k are a little shorter.
c is said like ts.
č is like ch in English.
š is like sh in English.
j is like the English y.
ž is said like the s in the English word "Asia".
r is not exactly rolled nor is it a harsh sound.
ř hardest Czech letter to master. Try saying r and ž and the same time.
ť ď ň differ from t d n in that when you say them, arc your tongue a little.
ch is a lot like its German counterpart. I have no other way of describing it.
Some Czech words contain no vowels, so you would basically attempt to say those words by saying the letter sounds in quick succession.

This site is quite useful for learning and listening to pronunciation among other things relating to the Czech language.

That concludes lesson one. Practice your pronunciation by saying these words until you feel you've mastered your pronunciation: paf pobyt kyt teč lyže zrak vrak tvorba jel krk padl pln řada tĕžba peň tajnĕ čti najdi dech chyba pepř zkus znal kdo bavme bĕžec můr zvou cípy žaků pošlou

Yep! They are both Slavic languages.

You're welcome! ^_^

LESSON 3: Nouns (Singular)

Masculine nouns end in a consonant. Feminine nouns end in a, e, or a consonant. Neuter nouns end in o, e, or í. Nouns can either be singular or plural. For now we'll only be dealing with the singular.

There are seven noun cases in Czech:

1. Nominative
2. Genitive
3. Dative
4. Accusative
5. Vocative
6. Prepositional
7. Instrumental

Nominative refers to the subject or predicate of a sentence.
Ex.: A friend wrote. He's a friend.

Genitive refers to possession.
Ex.: A friend of mine.

Dative refers to the indirect object.
Ex.: A friend of mine wrote (to) me.

Accusative refers to the direct object.
Ex.: A friend of mine sent me an email.

Vocative refers a direct address.
Ex.: Alexej! A friend of mine is coming over.

Prepositional refers to the object of a preposition.
Ex.: A friend of mine sent me an email about his new car.

Instrumental refers to the means by which something is done...
Ex.: He hit the ball with his bat.

...or by whom it was done.
Ex.: The ball was hit by my friend.

To use a noun, you must first figure out what declension it is: hard feminine, hard masculine-neuter, or the soft e in the genitive singular.

A word is soft when its stem (nominative singular minus any vowel at the end) ends in the following:

c č š ž ř ď ť ň j

Hard feminine: (ex. word- kniha=book)

1. kniha
2. knihy
3. knize
4. knihu
5. kniho
6. knize
7. knihou

In the dative and prepositional of hard feminine, the following changes take place:

p b f v m + e > pĕ bĕ fĕ vĕ mĕ

t d n r + e > tĕ dĕ nĕ ře

k g ch h + e > ce ze še ze

Hard masculine-neuter:

Inanimate: (ex. word- most=bridge)

1. most
2. mostu
3. mostu
4. most
5. moste
6. mostĕ
7. mostem

Animate: (ex. word- student=student)

1. student
2. studenta
3. studentovi
4. studenta
5. studente
6. studentovi
7. studentem

Hard neuter: (ex. word- slovo=word)

1. slovo
2. slova
3. slovu
4. slovo
5. slovo
6. slovĕ
7. slovem

Masculine vocative word stems ending in k g ch h take u at the end instead of e.

Soft with e in the genitive singular:

Inanimate m.: (ex. word- pokoj=room)

1. pokoj
2. pokoje
3. pokoji
4. pokoj
5. pokoji
6. pokoji
7. pokojem

Animate m.: (ex. word- muž=man, male, husband)

1. muž
2. muže
3. muži
4. muže
5. muži
6. muži
7. mužem

Neuter: (ex. word- moře=sea)

1. moře
2. moře
3. moři
4. moře
5. moře
6. moři
7. mořem

The dative and propositional of soft proper names is ovi.


Well, that's all for this lesson. This is probably one of the hardest parts of Czech and here it is all organized for you. Just stow away this info for later, because it'll come in handy when I have you saying whole sentences. If you have any questions, please let me know. This grammar is hard and I understand if you are feeling confused.

I love Czech! It sounds so cute. My native language is Polish so I quite understand a lot if it~

This is why Slavic languages are awesome - we can visit other Slavic countries without knowing their languages because we still can communicate. 3nodding

In Czech, verbs are divided into three categories based on the third person plural ending. In this lesson, we will be discussing -jí verbs.

dĕlat - to do

I do: dĕlám
you do: dĕláš
he/she/it does: dĕlá
we do: dĕláme
you (pl./s.polite): dĕláte
they do: dĕlájí

rozumĕt - to understand

rozumím
rozumíš
rozumí
rozumíme
rozumíte
rozumĕjí

Vocab:

dávat- to give
hledat- to look for
vidĕt- to see
vypravĕt- to tell

obraz- picture
mír- peace
klíč- key
přítel- friend (male)
přítelkynĕ- friend (female)
strom- tree
síla- strength, power

Exercise for Students:

In Czech, use one of the verbs listed above with a noun listed above in sentence to ask a question.