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Czech Language Pronunciation

In Czech (čeština), the correspondence between written and spoken text is straightforward. It can be
worked out by using the basic pronunciation of individual letters (roughly one letter - one sound) and
applying regular phonological rules (for example, voicing assimilation and final devoicing).
The order of the Czech letters is: 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.
(The letters in the parentheses, i.e. g, q, w and x, are used in the foreign words only.)
Contents

 1Samohlásky (Vowels)
o 1.1Krátké samohlásky (Short Vowels)
o 1.2Dlouhé samohlásky (Long Vowels)
o 1.3Háček samohlásky (Háček Vowel)
o 1.4Dvojhlásky (Diphthongs)

 2Souhlásky (Consonants)
o 2.1Tvrdé souhlásky (Hard Consonants)
o 2.2Měkké souhlásky (Soft Consonants)
o 2.3Obojetné souhlásky (Ambiguous Consonants)

 3Digraphs

 4Stress

Samohlásky (Vowels)
Krátké samohlásky (Short Vowels)
Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Aa tam ("there") /a/ a in ah

Ee den ("day") /ɛ/ e in get

Ii pivo ("beer") /ɪ/ e in enough (same as y)

Oo oko ("eye") /o/ o in orange

Uu nula ("zero") /u/ oo as in stool

Yy syn ("son") /ɪ/ e in enough (same as i)

Dlouhé samohlásky (Long Vowels)

Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Áá káva ("coffee") /aː/ a in ah

Éé mléko ("milk") /ɛː/ a in care

Íí víno ("wine") /iː/ ee in seen (same as ý)

Óó dóm ("cathedral") /oː/ o in more

Úú ústa ("mouth") /uː/ oo in stool (same as ů)

Ůů stůl ("table") /uː/ oo in stool (same as ú)

Ýý výlet ("trip") /iː/ ee in seen (same as í)

Háček samohlásky (Háček Vowel)

The háček is the v-shaped diacritical mark over several Czech consonants (namely: n, d, t, z, r, s)
which alters the sound of the consonant. There is only one vowel in Czech that can take the háček,
and that is the 'e'. The effect is to essentially add a 'y' sound to the beginning of the 'e' sound, as in
'yet'. There is an exception to this rule: whenever the preceding letter can carry the háček, the word
is to be pronounced as if it was in fact there. So for example in "oběd" the "ě" is pronounced as "yet"
but the word "děti" is pronounced as "ďeti".
Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Ěě pět ("five") /jɛ/ ye in yes

Dvojhlásky (Diphthongs)
A diphthong is a pair of vowels that form one grapheme (sound). In English, the 'ou' in 'out' form a
diphthong; you do not pronounce the 'o' and the 'u' as separate sounds in that word. In Czech, there
are three diphthongs: au, eu, and ou. When these groups come together at morpheme boundaries,
they do not form dipthongs in standard Czech; for instance naučit, neučit, poučit ([-au-, -eu-, -ou-] or
[-aʔu-, -eʔu-, -oʔu-]). Vowel groups ia, ie, ii, io, and iu in foreign words are likewise not regarded as
diphthongs; they may also pronounced with /j/ between the vowels [ɪja, ɪjɛ, ɪjɪ, ɪjo, ɪju].
Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Au au auto ("automobile") /aʊ̯/ ou in ouch

Eu eu pneumatika ("tire") /eʊ̯/ eu in pneumatic

Ou ou houba ("mushroom") /oʊ̯/ ow in know

Souhlásky (Consonants)
One interesting thing about the Czech language is that some consonants can act as vowels, which
means that you may come across Czech words that appear to have far too many consonants for the
number of vowels presented. 'Brno' [ˈbr̩.no] is such a word. (Brno is a city in the Czech Republic.) In
cases such as these, knowledge of the actual sounds made by each consonant and the stressing of
the syllables is invaluable.
Tvrdé souhlásky (Hard Consonants)
Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Dd dva ("two") /d/ d in dog

Gg gauč ("couch") /g/ g in get

Hh hlava ("head") /ɦ/ h in hair (never dropped)

Ch ch chlapec ("boy") /x/ ch in loch

Kk koza ("goat") /k/ k in kind

Nn noc ("night") /n/ n in night

Rr rok ("year") /r̝/ r in river, but rolled

Tt teta ("aunt") /t/ t in time

Měkké souhlásky (Soft Consonants)

Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Cc noc ("night") /t͡s/ ts in cats

Čč číslo ("number") /ʧ/ ch in church

Ďď teď ("now") /ɟ/ 'dyeh' said as one syllable

Jj jeden ("one") /j/ y in yes

Ňň kůň ("horse") /ɲ/ ni in onion

Řř řeka ("river") /r̝̝̊/ "rzh" but with the r rolled

Šš škola ("school") /ʃ/ sh in ship

Ťť trať ("track") /c/ "ty" in "best yet"

 Žž žena ("woman") /ʒ/ "zh" in "measure"

Obojetné souhlásky (Ambiguous Consonants)

Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
Bb boty ("shoes") /b/ b in boy

Ff fazole ("beans") /f/ f in film

Ll lavice ("desk") /l/ l in love

Mm matka ("mother") /m/ m in mother

Pp pole ("field") /p/ p in pole

Ss sedm ("seven") /s/ s in seven

Vv voda ("water") /v/ v in vodka

Zz zítra ("tomorrow") /z/ z in zipper

Digraphs
Specifically, a digraph is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme (distinct sound) or a
sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the two characters in sequence. Thus, while the
character pair is not a letter, it represents a single sound.
Czech Letter Czech Word IPA Sound English Sound
dz /ʣ/ "adze"

dž /ʤ/ "gin & juice"

Stress
In Czech, the primary stress is always on the first syllable of a unit (usually identical to a word). Of
course, there are a few exceptions. The exceptions are:

 Monosyllabic prepositions form a unit with following words (if the following word is not longer
than three syllables). The stress is placed on the preposition: e.g. ˈPraha (Prague) --> ˈdo Prahy
(to Prague). This does not apply to long words, e.g. ˈna ˈkoloˌnádě (on the (spa) walk).

 Some monosyllabic words (e.g. mi (me), ti (you), to (it), se, si (oneself), jsem (am), jsi (are), etc.)
are clitics — they are not stressed and form a unit with preceding words. A clitic cannot be the
first word in a sentence, because it requires a preceding word to form a unit with. Example:
ˈNapsal jsem ti ˈten ˈdopis = I have written the letter to you.
For long words, there is a secondary stressing of the syllables, which is placed on the odd syllables.
This offers a distinct cadence to the Czech language. ˈNej.krás.ˌněj.ší = The most beautiful.
Stress in Czech denotes boundaries between words, but does not distinguish word meanings. It also
has no influence on the quality or quantity of vowels. Vowels are not reduced in unstressed syllables
and both long and short vowels can occur in either stressed or unstressed syllables.