Soft consonants in Czech. Czech alphabet. Basic rules of the Czech language

Today, the study of the Czech language is gradually becoming fashionable among our compatriots. And the reason for this is not least the fact that Czech belongs to the West Slavic language group, which means it has much in common with Russian. In just a few minutes of your stay in the Czech Republic, you will begin to understand the meaning of many signs, the meaning of individual words and expressions, and after a few days you will probably be able to exchange a couple of phrases with the locals.
Those who know some other Slavic language, such as Ukrainian, will be especially lucky: these travelers will be able to almost fluently understand most conversations on everyday topics.
And yet, before diving into the language environment, let's take a closer look at its features.

All Slavic languages ​​have one common source - the Old Church Slavonic language, which was spread by the well-known Cyril and Methodius. However, if the Russian alphabet inherited the so-called Cyrillic writing of letters, then in the Czech Republic, as a European country, they began to use the Latin alphabet, adapting it to the features of the local pre-existing language with the help of superscripts apostrophes and acute. Apostrophes were placed above consonants to indicate their hardness (for example, the word lekař (doctor) sounds like "healer") and above the vowel "e" to indicate the softness of the preceding consonant. Acutes, which look like an accent mark, to indicate long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ý). To indicate a long "u", a small circle (ů) was placed above it. These rules exist in the Czech language to this day.
Unlike Russian, the Czech language has retained a large number of archaic forms. For example, in addition to the six main cases of nouns, it also has the so-called vocative case, the analogue of which in Russian is the appeal.

A few words about the peculiarities of pronunciation in the Czech language. First of all, it should be noted that, unlike Russian, the stress here always falls on the first syllable (an additional stress occurs in polysyllabic words). Now about what sounds correspond to individual letters:
the letter "c" corresponds to the sound [ts],
č is pronounced like [h],
the combination of letters ch denotes one sound [x],
the sound of the letter “h” resembles the Ukrainian [g], which in Russian is preserved in the exclamation “Wow!”,
"ř" means either the sound [rzh] or [rsh], depending on its position in the word,
"š" sounds like [w],
"ž" sounds like [zh],
"j" sounds like [th],
the letter "ň" corresponds to the sound [n].
In addition, there are a huge number of nuances associated with pronunciation, which it is simply not possible to talk about in one article.

It would be nice, of course, to know a few words and expressions that can be useful in different situations when communicating with the staff of a hotel, restaurant, shop and others.
Here is a small phrasebook, containing the most common of them:

Everyday
Good morning! Dobré rano! [Good early!]
Good afternoon Dobrý den! [Good dan!]
How are you/are you doing? Jak se mate/maš? [Yak se mate/mash?]
Thank you, good Děkuji, dobře
My name is… Jmenuji se… [Ymenuji se…]
Goodbye! Na shledanou! [To hello!]
Morning Ráno [Early]
After dinner Odpoledne [Odpoledne]
Evening Večer [Evening]
Night Noc [Noc]
Today Dnes [Dnes]
Yesterday Včera [Yesterday]
Tomorrow Zitra [Zitra]
Do you speak Russian (English, German)? Mluvíte ruština (anglicky, německy?)
I don’t understand Nerozumím [Ne razumim]
Please repeat again Řekněte to ještě jadnou, prosim
Thanks Děkuji [Dekui]
Please Prosim [Please]
Who / what Kdo / co [Gdo / tso]
What Jaký [Yaki]
Where / where Kde / kam [Where / kam]
How/how much Jak/kolik [Yak/kolik]
How long / when? Jak dlouho / kdy? [Yak dlougo / where]
Why? Proc? [Other?]
How is it in Czech? Jak ten to Czech? [Yak ten to chesky?]
Can you help me? Můžete mi pomoci? [Can you help me?]
Yes/no Ano/ne
Sorry Promiňte [Prominte]

Tourist
Do they provide information to tourists? Je tu turistická informace? [Is there any tourist information?]
I need a city plan / list of hotels Máte plan města / seznam hotelů? [mate plan mest / sesame wish]
When is the museum/church/exhibition open? Kdy je otevřeny museum/kostel/výstava? [Where are the museum/kostel/exhibitions located?]

In the shop
Where can I find… ? Kde dostanu… ? [Where can I get... ?]
What is the price? Kolik to stoji? [Will you stop?]
It's too expensive To je moc drahé [To ye moc drahé]
Dislike/like Ne/libi [Ne/libi]
Do you have this item in a different color/size? Máte to ještě v jiné barvě/velikosti? [Mate to yestie in ine barvie/greatness?]
I take it Vezmu si to [Vezmu si to]
Give me 100 g of cheese / 1 kg of oranges Dejte mi deset deka sýra / jadno kilo pomerančů
Do you have newspapers? Mate new? [Mate news?]

At the restaurant
Menu please Jidelní listek, prosím
Bread Chléb [Bread]
Tea Čaj [Tea]
Coffee Káva [Kava]
With milk/sugar S mlékem/cukrem [With milk/zukrem]
Orange juice Pomerančova št’áva
Wine white/red/rosé Vino bile/Červené/Růžové
Lemonade Limonada [Lemonade]
Beer Pivo [Beer]
Water Voda [Water]
Mineral water Mineralní voda
Soup Polevka [Polevka]
Fish Ryba [Fish]
Meat Maso [Maso]
Salad Salát [Salad]
Dessert Dezert
Fruit Ovoce
Ice cream Zmrzlina [Zmrzlina]
Breakfast Snidaně [Snidaně]
Lunch Oběd [Dinner]
Dinner Večere
Account, please Účet prosím [Account, please]

At the hotel
I booked a room with you Mám u vás reservaci [Mom you have reservaci]
Is there a double room? Máte volný dvoulůžkovy pokoj? [Mate are free two-luzhkovy peace?]
With a balcony S balkónem? [With balcony]
With shower and toilet Se sprchou a WC
What is the room rate per night? Kolik stoji pokoj na noc? [Kolik stand still on the night?]
With breakfast? Se snidani? [Let's take down?]
May I see the room? Mohu se podívat na pokoj? [Can I take a rest?]
Is there another room? Máte ještě jiný pokoj? [Mate is there any rest?]
Where can I park? Kde mohu parkovat? [Where can I park?]
Bring my luggage, please Můžete donest moje zavazadlo na pokoj prosím? [Muzhete mi donest my zavazadlo to rest, please?]

different situations
Where is the bank / exchange office? Kde je tady bank / vyméný punkt? [Where is ye tady bank / udder point?]
Where is the phone? Kdye mogu telefonovat? [Where can I phone?]
Where to buy a phone card? Kde mohu dostat telefonni kartu? [Where can I get a phone card?]
I need a doctor/dentist Potřebuji lékaře/zubaře
Call an ambulance/police Zavolejte prosím zachrannu službu/ policii
Where is the police station? Kde je policejní komisařství? [Where are the policemen of the commissioner?]
They stole from me ... Ukradli mně ... [Stolen mne ...]

Download and print out a phrase book (.doc format) that will come in handy on your trip.

A bit of history
Each national language is directly connected both with a single person who speaks it, and with the whole nation as a whole. And, like people, it tends to change over time develop or, conversely, fade, be influenced by other languages, transform its own rules in every possible way, and so on.
Before acquiring its current form, the Czech language underwent a variety of reforms and improvements. However, the most interesting fact from its history is, perhaps, that it became the official state language twice. First, in the 15th century, after the basic literary norms and rules were formed, and then at the beginning of the 20th century. Why did this happen, you ask. The thing is that at the beginning of the 17th century, after the fatal battle at the White Mountain, the Czech Republic for three whole centuries was part of the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was ruled by representatives of the German House of Habsburgs. In order to strengthen their power in the occupied states, the Habsburgs tried to strengthen the influence of the German language in these territories. Despite the fact that members of the government were chosen from the circles of the German nobility, the main population of the Czech Republic still spoke their native language, moreover, it continued to develop: books and treatises were published in Czech, grammar rules were formed, and at the end of the 19th century the first Czech encyclopedia.
By the way, traces of the historical past are visible in the Czech Republic to this day: tourists who speak German are still better understood here than those who speak English. In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, the independent Republic of Czechoslovakia was founded, and two years later, the Czech language (to be more precise, Czechoslovak) again acquired official status.

Deceiver words
Despite the fact that Russian and Czech have a very strong similarity in vocabulary and the meaning of most words can be determined simply on a whim, there are many so-called deceiver words in Czech. Such words sound or are written almost the same as in Russian, but have a completely different meaning. So, for example, the word "stůl" means a table, "čerstvý" fresh, and "smetana" cream. Most often, the difference in meaning causes only slight bewilderment, but there are times when it causes great fun among our fellow citizens. It is not surprising, because when you find out that in order to buy a fashionable dress in a store, you need to ask for a robe (Czech "roba"), the phrase " pleasant smell"Does not exist in principle, because the word" zapach" means stink (with this perfume in Czech sounds like “stink”), and “pitomec” is not a pet at all, but a fool, it is simply not possible to hold back a smile.

Interesting statistics
Many linguists argue that language statistics is not such a useless exercise as it might seem at first glance. In particular, according to the frequency ratings of the use of certain parts of speech or even their percentage ratio, one can get some (albeit incomplete) idea of ​​the psychology of people who speak a particular language.
What is it, the national character of the Czech people, we will give you the right to judge. We have collected here the results of some statistical studies of the Czech language and seasoned them with some interesting linguistic facts.

The most frequently used words in the Czech language:
a (conjunctions “and”, “a” and “but”), být (to be), ten (that, this), v (prepositions “on”, “by”, “in”), on (pronoun “ he"), na (prepositions "to", "in", "for", "from"), že (prepositions "from", "from"), s (se) (preposition "from"), z (ze ) (preposition "from"), který (what, which).

The most common nouns in Czech are:
pan (pán) (master (before surname)), život (life), člověk (person), práce (work, business), ruka (hand), den (day, date), zem (země) (country), lidé (people), doba (period, century, time), hlava (head).

The most common verbs in Czech are:
být (to be), mít (to have, to possess), moci (to be able, to be able), muset (to be obliged to do something, to have to), vědět (to know, to be able), chtít (to want, to desire), jít (to go ), říci (to say), vidět (to see), dát se (to start, for example, dat se do pláče to start crying).

The most common adjectives in Czech are:
celý (whole, whole, full), velký (veliký) (large), nový (new), starý (old), český (Czech, in Czech), dobrý (good, kind), malý (small), možný ( possible, feasible, probable), živý (živ) (lively, cheerful, temperamental).

In terms of frequency of use
Most synonyms describe character hardness: pevny, trvanlivý, odolný, solidní, bytelný, nezdolný, nezmarný, silný, tuhý, kompaktní, hutný, nehybný, nepohyblivý, stanovený, nezměnitelný, neměnný, st álý, ustálený, fixní, stabilní, trvalý, zajištěný, jistý, bezpečný, nepoddajný . ý, hluboky.
The longest word without vowels: scvrnklý (shrunken, shriveled).
The longest word that can be read from right to left is nepochopen (misunderstanding).

As for the frequency of using different parts of speech in the Czech language, here the popularity rating turned out to be the following: the first place was taken by nouns (38.93%), the second were verbs (27.05%), the third went to adjectives (20.98%) , fourth - to adverbs (9.04%), the rest of the places with a small margin from each other divided pronouns, numerals, conjunctions and prepositions. And the Czechs use interjections least of all - they are only 0.36%. Here are some interesting statistics!

For a long time we did not write about the oddities of the Czech language. It's time to correct this omission. Meanwhile, spring has come to the Czech Republic. You want to take care of your studies, work, important matters less and less. The expectation of love filled the city. By the way, do you know how to say “take care” in Czech?— starost (old age). That's it. This is a reminder to all young and not so young, who are striving to fall in love, that it would be nice to think about old age, and at the same time “call mom”.

In general, being determines consciousness, as the classics say. Czech wordbydlo (cattle) completely harmless and not a bit offensive, but very philosophical, because in translation it means “life” or “being”. So remembering this word is easy. The main thing is to correctly put the sentences in the context.

But if you really want to call someone a name (preferably deservedly), then it’s quite correct to say in the heartspetomec, which in translation from the Czech language means "a fool, a fool, a dolt, a dunce." A very handy spell. You can always say that you didn’t swear at all if some “cattle” decides to use their fists in response to your words.

Lately I've been pleased with the worddrť (drt) - trifle, trifle, baby. It's kind of funny when you come to the store and ask for a ring, inexpensive, covered with diamond chips, to say what you need "diamantová drť ". In general, Czech words consisting of consonants, if they are shorter than four letters, cause a smile and are easy to learn. But if there are much more letters, then you can break the language by pronouncing. For example, a four consonant wordskrz means "through"skrz krk- through the throat. Try to pronounce these two words in Czech when the bread crust gets stuck in your throat - everything will pass right away!

Very h often from spring to late autumn in cafes, bars and restaurants you can see a sign that there is some kind ofzahradka . If you translate exactly, then "zahradka" is a front garden, a garden. If applied to urban restaurant conditions, then it will be a place fenced on the street at a cafe or restaurant where you can sit and eat. The word, although not a snag in its purest form, but, it seemed to me, will be most often encountered by you if you plan to visit the Czech Republic in the next six months. Sometimes the Czechs simply invite you to some familiar place, saying that it is better to drink beer at a “snack”, because the weather is fine and you don’t want to sit indoors. By the way, for motorists, the same word will mean the upper trunk. So, if the policeman asks you to show him, then you should not look for a "garden-garden" in the vicinity. Although it is better not to get caught by the police in any country in the world. And, if suddenly you hear in Czechkoukej mazat! , - then you shouldn’t look for some “Cook” to smear him, but it’s better to take your legs off right away, because this cheerful expression is translated as “a march from here!”.

Czech belongs to the group of West Slavic languages. Czechs use the Latin alphabet.

Superscripts are used to denote some sounds:

"- čárka [charka] - denotes a long vowel;

° - kroužek [krouzhek] - marks a long |u] in the middle and at the end of words;

ˇ - háček [gachek] - is written over hissing consonants and signals the softness of consonants [d], [t], [n]; above [e] (ě) denotes softness or iotation of previous consonants.

The combinations bě, pě, vě, fě are read as [bye], [pie], [vye], [fie]: běh [beh], pěna [piena], věk [vyek]. The combination mě is pronounced [to me]: město [place].

Basically, Czech spelling is based on the phonetic principle - "as it is heard, so it is written." But there are exceptions to this rule - at the end of words, as in Russian, often, according to tradition, voiced consonants are written, which are deafened when pronounced, and vice versa, where deaf people are traditionally written, voiced ones are pronounced: dub [dup], vůz [vus] , svatba [wedding].

Sometimes, when pronouncing, groups of consonants merge into one sound: dětsky [dets].

Voiced at the beginning and middle of words before deaf consonants are deafened: všecko [fshetsko], tužka [carcass].

There are 25 consonants and 5 vowels in Czech. The stress in a word always falls on the first syllable or, if there is a word-forming preposition before the word, then on it: okno - na okně.

Most Czech consonants are hard. Many of them are close in pronunciation to Russian: [b], [p], [v], [f], [m], [r], [s], [z], [c] ([ц]), [ k], [g], ([x]).

The pronunciation of Czech [d], [t], [n] is somewhat different. When they are pronounced, the tongue is more pushed back. In addition, only these three consonants in Czech can be both hard and soft.

In writing, their softness is indicated by ˇ or ": , , . If they are followed by [ě] or [i] [d], [t], [n] they are read softly, but this is not additionally indicated in writing: děti (children ), tělo (body), něco (netso).

The consonant "j" is pronounced like Russian [й] if it is before a vowel or at the end of a word; at the beginning of a word before a consonant, it is not pronounced.
Czech č [h] is pronounced harder than Russian.
On the contrary, softer Russian equivalents are pronounced: š [w] and ž [zh].
As for the Czech l, its pronunciation is different from the Russian "l": it should be pronounced as Central European.

q - occurs only in foreign words, pronounced as [kv].
x - pronounced as [ks] or [gz] - before vowels and h.
w - occurs only in foreign words, pronounced like Russian [v].
h is pronounced as a Ukrainian fricative [r].
ř - a specific Czech sound is pronounced as [rzh] at the beginning of words and before vowels; as [rsh] at the end of words, after and before voiceless consonants.

Czech vowels can be long or short. A long vowel is pronounced almost twice as long as a short one. It is important to really pronounce long vowels, because longitude in Czech words can be meaningful: bý (to be) - byt (apartment), pas (passport) - pás (belt), jedna (one) - jedná (discuss). Unstressed vowels in Czech are pronounced just as clearly as stressed vowels.

The Czech language belongs to the Slavic group, although many identical constructions can be found in it with German vocabulary. It seems to many that it is similar to Russian and Ukrainian, but the greatest similarities can be identified with Slovak. The state official language of the Czech Republic is actively used in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the single alphabet, there are 4 dialectic groups: Czech, Silesian, Hanatian and Moravian-Slovak. Since 2004 it has been one of the official languages ​​of the European Union (there are 24 in total).

On the territory of Canada, Australia, the United States, groups of Czechs of different sizes live. Therefore, the translation of many words and set expressions is known to local residents who have never left their native city and have not studied Czech on purpose.

How to learn Czech on your own?

The Czech language is simple for tourists only outwardly. A good knowledge of Ukrainian, Russian or English can not only help, but also confuse. Czechs operate with a large number of synonyms. There are several forms of stress, but more often words are sung.

If you can learn grammar on your own at home or in online courses, then mastering oral speech requires communication with native speakers. You can listen to audio recordings and watch videos of various teachers, national films will be useful, where speech is heard in all its diversity.

The similarity of Russian and Czech helps in the development of passive speech skills. It is easier for learners to understand than to speak on their own. To make the learning process go faster, you should not draw parallels between identical-sounding words in Russian. Many words will be familiar, but some words may have a completely different meaning. There are not many of them, but bewilderment may arise. So, for example, the translation of the word: "pozor" - carefully, "varuje" - warn, "frajer" - boyfriend, "vonavka" - perfume, "zapach" - stink, "pitomec" - fool, "čerstvý" - fresh, " pohanka" - buckwheat, etc.

It is better to find out in advance what the preferred dishes are called and spelled so as not to order something unexpected in a restaurant or cafe. Using common phrases in the capital will suffice. In the center of Prague, there are many Russian-speaking staff who will help solve everyday problems, assist in calling a taxi, buying movie tickets.

Basic rules of the Czech language

Spoken and written forms are very different from each other. Of particular importance is the duration of vowels during pronunciation, which can also affect the meaning of the word itself. If native English speakers will understand a foreigner even with a very strong accent, then when studying Czech phonetics, increased attention should be paid. Difficulties are also caused by syllable-forming consonants, when the word is completely written without vowels. Pronunciation of such sentences requires some training. It is recommended to listen to the audio and read the same words and whole stories written on paper in parallel.

In the rules, names in different cases can be used without prepositions in cases where the preposition is mandatory in Russian. It is better not to guess a complex transcription, making a lot of systematic errors, but simply to memorize it. And at the same time, in 1 year it is quite realistic to prepare for the successful passing of the B2 exam and enter a university in the Czech Republic.

If such in-depth study is not required, then in 2-3 months it is quite possible to train in understanding foreign speech, master the basics of phonetics and vocabulary. Grammar is not so important for tourists, so you can stay at the level of a phrasebook. From it it is easy to recognize simple designs that are often required on vacation.

But it could have been different! After all, it was on the territory of modern Czech Republic in the distant 9th century that the brothers Cyril and Methodius created the Cyrillic alphabet. Through Byzantine missionaries, Czech was strongly influenced by the Church Slavonic language, but did not adopt the alphabet and switched to the Latin alphabet. Nevertheless, the day of Slavic writing is celebrated annually in the Czech Republic on July 5th.

Thanks to Byzantine influence, many consonances arose between Russian and Czech words, although the modern semantic difference often gives rise to amusing embarrassments. Perhaps everyone has heard that in Czech čerstvý means “fresh”, pozor! - "attention!", úžasný - "delicious", and ovoce - "fruit". Moreover, the well-known "tights" came to us in the 1950s from Czech, in which this word means pants in the broadest sense. Russian, in turn, enriched Czech with such words as “spring”, “air”, “strict”, “cod”, “hill” (meaning volcano) and “seal”.

Linguists consider the Czech language a unique phenomenon, because it developed under the strong influence of two other languages ​​- Latin and German.

Until the 13th century, educated Czechs used only Latin, so only a few examples of writing Czech personal names and some concepts using the medieval Latin alphabet have come down to us. In the following centuries, there was a flourishing of original Czech literature, and for the recording of voluminous texts they began to use a complex improved system based on Latin, in which specific Czech sounds were transmitted using digraphs and trigraphs (two and three letters in a row).

The words looked cumbersome and indigestible, so at the beginning of the 15th century, the great reformer Jan Hus, in his treatise On Bohemian Orthography, proposed introducing a system of diacritical marks (icons in the form of dots and dashes above letters) to denote unique Czech sounds. The outstanding religious figure was afraid of the dominance of the Germans and the German language and sought to preserve the features of Czech phonetics and prevent it from being simplified.

The Czech language, which is spoken by about 10.2 million people in the world, was strongly influenced by German, because after the defeat of the Protestants, the Czech Republic was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time, and all official office work was carried out exclusively in German. Czech until the end of the 19th century was considered as the language of the plebs, and only 15% of the population spoke it. Only after the revival of national self-consciousness did he acquire the status of a model of fine literature. Today you can enjoy the literary language in the numerous theaters in Prague, which host classical and modern productions in Czech.

Both systems - digraphs and diacritical marks - coexisted in Czech manuscripts until the 18th century, until the second finally won out. In the modern Czech alphabet, gaček (“hook”) is used to convey hissing and soft sounds, and “charka” is used to convey the length of vowels. The only digraph ch that survived in the Czech language and received the status of a letter corresponds to the Russian sound "х". Thus, there are only 42 letters in the current Czech alphabet, of which 28 are taken from the Latin alphabet. The sister language Slovak is built on a similar principle and contains 46 letters, including diacritics.

The famous writer Karel Capek rightly noted that the thousand-year history of the language is hidden in the Czech alphabet with all the reforms, borrowings from the languages ​​of the neighbors and historical realities. And the writer's brother, Josef Capek, gave the world, perhaps, the most famous Czech word - "robot" from the word robota, which means hard, hard labor. Karel wanted to call the iron assistant "labor" from the Latin word labor ("work"), but Josef insisted on a true Czech word!

Czech alphabet (Česká abeceda)