I can read č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň and ě, hear soft di, ti, ni and hard dy, ty, ny, say dě, tě, ně soft and de, te, ne hard, and read “Děkuju, dobrý den” aloud.
Háček: č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň
Háček: č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň — and c, dž
The mark ˇ over a letter is called the háček. č sounds like ch in “church”, š like sh in “shoe”, ž like s in “vision”: čaj “tea”, šaty “dress”, žena “woman”.
c is one letter for ts, as in “cats”, also at the start of a word: cena “price”. dž sounds like j in “jam”, dz like ds in “adds”; both are rare, mostly in borrowed words.
ď, ť, ň are soft: the middle of the tongue presses up, as for the y of “yes”. ň is like ny in “canyon”; ď and ť are d and t said the same way, never the j of “jam” or the ch of “church”. On lowercase ď and ť the háček looks like an apostrophe.
The audio reads a single letter as its name (“čé”), so the tables play syllables.
The checker doesn't see the háček: “nadrazi” for nádraží “train station” counts, and the answer key shows the spelling with the marks. That is why words that differ only by a háček are practiced by ear, by choice.
Common mistakes:
• × ts written as two letters for c — the sound is spelled c.
• × cena said “KEH-na” or “SEH-na” — c always sounds ts.
Letters with a háček (s háčkem) and c
Each of these letters is one sound.
| Letter | Sound | Word | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| č | like ch in “church” | čaj | tea |
| š | like sh in “shoe” | šaty | dress |
| ž | like s in “vision” | žena | woman |
| c | like ts in “cats” | cena | price |
| dž | like j in “jam” | džus | juice |
| ň | like ny in “canyon” | kuchyň | kitchen |
Lesson notes
Háček: č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň — and c, dž
The mark ˇ over a letter is called the háček. č sounds like ch in “church”, š like sh in “shoe”, ž like s in “vision”: čaj “tea”, šaty “dress”, žena “woman”.
c is one letter for ts, as in “cats”, also at the start of a word: cena “price”. dž sounds like j in “jam”, dz like ds in “adds”; both are rare, mostly in borrowed words.
ď, ť, ň are soft: the middle of the tongue presses up, as for the y of “yes”. ň is like ny in “canyon”; ď and ť are d and t said the same way, never the j of “jam” or the ch of “church”. On lowercase ď and ť the háček looks like an apostrophe.
The audio reads a single letter as its name (“čé”), so the tables play syllables.
The checker doesn't see the háček: “nadrazi” for nádraží “train station” counts, and the answer key shows the spelling with the marks. That is why words that differ only by a háček are practiced by ear, by choice.
Common mistakes:
• × ts written as two letters for c — the sound is spelled c.
• × cena said “KEH-na” or “SEH-na” — c always sounds ts.
ě, di, ti, ni: soft with no háček on d, t, n; dy, ty, ny: hard
Before i and í, the letters d, t, n are soft with no mark at all: di, ti, ni — ticho “silence”, nic “nothing”. Before y and ý they are hard, a plain d, t, n as in English: dy, ty, ny — ty “you”. That is what the y is for: it shows the hard sound.
ě makes the consonant soft: dě, tě, ně = [ďe, ťe, ňe] — děti “children”, tělo “body”, neděle “Sunday”; bě, pě, vě = [bje, pje, vje], with the y of “yes” before e — oběd “lunch”, pět “five”, věk “age”; mě = [mňe] — město “town”, mě “me”.
Before e with no háček, the consonant is not softened: pes “dog”, den “day”, ten “that”. This includes de, te, ne: the d in den is hard. Keep them plain, as in English.
In borrowed words di, ti, ni are often hard: politika “politics” — just learn to recognize such words.
In square brackets this course writes how a word sounds, with Czech letters: [ď], [ť], [ň] are the soft sounds: děti — [ďeťi].
Length isn't stress: in nádraží the first syllable, ná-, is stressed, and the long -ží takes no stress.
Common mistakes:
• × a soft d in den — before e with no háček, d is hard.
• × a hard t in ticho — before i, t is soft.
• × a soft t in ty — before y, t is hard.
• × “ďeti” in writing — softness before e is spelled with ě: děti.