Czech/Alphabet and Pronunciation

Czech alphabet consists of 42 normal Latin letters, some have an accent:

• All vowels can be either short (aeiouy), or long with acute (čárka) (áéíóúůý). (This can denote a different word.)
• The only difference between Ú and Ů is that Ú is used only at the beginning of a word (or a part of a word like: triangle = trojúhelník), while Ů cannot be used at the beginning of a word.
• There are also "softened" versions of the letters D E N R S T Z, with a hook (háček): ˇ
• The accents lengthen the vowels, but they do not imply stress. Stress is almost always on the first syllable. The same rules also apply in Slovak.

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

Stuck with Ď or Ť? Listen to this recording for help.

Stuck with Ř? Listen to this recording for help.

Note: Except for foreign words, the letters Q, W and X are almost never used, and the first two are often replaced with Kv and V. F, G and Ó also mostly occur in words of foreign origin, but are nowhere near as rare as Q, W, or X.

Most of the letters are pronounced similarly to in German. Note:

• Ch is pronounced as "kh" and considered as one letter
• C like in the 'zz' in pizza or German 'z' as in 'Zimmer'
• Ď like /ɟ/ (D, but with your tongue touching the entire roof of your mouth) or Polish 'gi'
• E and G like in "beggar"
• H like in "head"
• J like the 'y' in "yeah"
• Ň like in "menu" or the Spanish 'señor'
• R somewhat harder than in English, a bit like in Spanish "arriba" initially and rolled in the middle of a word.
• Ť like /c/ (T, but with your tongue touching the entire roof of your mouth) or Polish 'ki'

The pronunciation rarely changes depending on the position, except for:

1. D, N, T are pronounced as Ď, Ň, Ť before I, Í, or Ě
   Note: This is the only reason why Ě is used. The letter itself is pronounced as E.
   Not quite true, consider following example: "válka měla mnoho obětí" and "těšila se domů na jeho objetí..." etc.
2. Czech has word-final devoicing of consonants. This means that in speech, voiced consonants are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts: D → T, Ď → Ť, H → Ch, G → K, V → F, B → P, Z → S, Ž → Š.

Other notes:

1. Y and Ý are mostly used to avoid palatalizing the preceding consonant where I or Í would palatize the preceding consonant: dy is pronounced /dɪ/

Now you know almost everything. You can go to the Czech pronunciation page and hear it.