Czech Language Guide

Official language in
Czechia
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

Czechia's administrative procedure act provides that proceedings are conducted, and documents are prepared, in Czech; participants in proceedings may also act and submit documents in Slovak. A scholarly encyclopedia entry adds that Czech law deals with the question of an official language only in part and not uniformly: some laws call it the language of proceedings, while others simply name Czech.

Linguists use the term common Czech (obecná čeština) for a non-standard variety that is mostly understood as the language of spontaneous spoken private or semi-public communication. The authors who work with the term take as their starting point the most levelled non-standard language of central Bohemia, which is also the basis of the speech of Prague. The same entry says this does not match the situation in Moravia and Silesia, where a dialect levelled to varying degrees and the spoken form of the standard language keep their position, and where common Czech is perceived, especially in the east, as foreign.

One of this app's cards, "Můžu tady vrátit zálohované lahve?" (Can I return deposit bottles here?), notes that "Můžu" is the colloquial form of the more formal "Mohu."

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Script & pronunciation

Czech is written in the Latin alphabet. The Czech Language Institute's handbook treats the letters with diacritical marks (á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž) as separate signs for sounds, and treats ch as a single letter that is placed between h and i in alphabetical order.

Vowel length matters. The handbook lists short i, e, a, o, u and long í, é, á, ó, ú, and says that the difference can have a fundamental effect on the meaning of a word, giving vila and víla, and pas and pás, among its examples. It also says that ú and ů sound the same, and that the former sound difference between i or í and y or ý has disappeared, apart from rare dialect exceptions.

The handbook says the letter ě stands for the sound e and at the same time shows either that the preceding consonant is soft, as in děj, or the presence of ň, as in město, or of j, as in hvězda. This app's card "Praha je město sta věží" (Prague is the city of a hundred spires) romanizes "město" as "MNYES-to." In this app's card "Máte tady výtah?" (Do you have an elevator / lift?), the romanization writes "tady" as "TA-di" and "výtah" as "VEE-tah."

The handbook adds that the relation between writing and sound is fairly direct in Czech, unlike in English, but that spelling does not always follow pronunciation: writing ignores voicing assimilation, so "sbor" is pronounced [zbor]. This app's card "Jsem v tranzitu" (I'm in transit) has a note saying that "v" is devoiced to [f] before a voiceless consonant, while its romanization keeps "v": "ysem v TRAN-zi-tu."

According to an academic encyclopedia, word stress in Czech is tied to the first syllable of the word. The romanization line on this app's cards separates syllables with hyphens and writes the stressed syllable in capital letters, as in "PRA-ha." It writes ch as "kh", ř as "rzh", and the j of "jsem" as "y": "procházku" is "PRO-khahz-ku" in the card "Chtěl/a bys jít na procházku nebo na kávu?" (Would you like to go for a walk or coffee?), "přístupné" is "PRZHEES-tup-ne" in the card "Je toto místo přístupné pro vozíčkáře?" (Is this place wheelchair accessible?), and "Jsem v tranzitu" is "ysem v TRAN-zi-tu."

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Grammar essentials

Czech nouns and pronouns change form by case. The Czech Language Institute's handbook lists seven numbered cases, and for the noun "mapa" (map) gives the singular forms mapa, mapy, mapě, mapu, mapo, mapě and mapou. A preposition decides which case a noun takes. This app's card "Ukažte mi to na mapě, prosím" (Please show me on the map) notes that "mapě" is the locative case of "mapa," required after the preposition "na," and its card "Bez masa, prosím" (Without meat, please) notes that "bez" requires the genitive and that "masa" is the genitive of "maso," a form the handbook also lists for "maso."

According to the handbook, the ending of a predicate with a singular subject is determined by the gender of the subject: a masculine subject has a zero ending, a feminine subject has -a, and a neuter subject has -o, as in "Petr byl velmi unaven," "Iveta byla zcela sama" and "Kuře bylo nalezeno za psí boudou." This app's cards note the same agreement for a speaker: the card "Chtěl bych si koupit tisk tohoto uměleckého díla" (I'd like to buy a print of this artwork) notes that the female form is "chtěla bych," and the card "Jsem slabozraký/slabozraká — můžete mi pomoci?" (I am visually impaired — can you help me?) notes that Czech adjectives agree with the speaker's gender.

This app's card "Rád bych vybral peníze" (I'd like to withdraw money) notes that "Rád bych ~" is the Czech conditional for polite requests. The handbook's entry for "být," quoting a dictionary, gives bych, bys, by, bychom, byste and by as its conditional forms.

This app's card "Je půl třetí / tři čtvrtě na pět" (It's half past two / quarter to five) notes that Czech time counts towards the next hour: "čtvrt na pět" is 4:15, "půl páté" is 4:30 and "tři čtvrtě na pět" is 4:45. A Charles University bachelor's thesis glosses "půl třetí" as half past two and "čtvrt na tři" as quarter past two.

In Czech a verb is negated with the prefix ne-, as in the pair of examples "Jirka přišel pozdě" and "Jirka nepřišel pozdě" in an academic encyclopedia entry. The same entry describes double negation as agreement of the negative verb form with negative pronouns, and says that in Czech this agreement is relatively very consistent, as in "Nikdo nikdy nikomu nic neřekl." This app's card "Jsem začátečník / začátečnice, nikdy jsem netrénoval / netrénovala" (I am a beginner, I have never trained before) notes that negation attaches the prefix "ne-" to the verb and that the double negative with "nikdy" is the correct form.

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Politeness & etiquette

Czech shows respect by addressing one person with plural forms, called vykání. A scholarly encyclopedia entry describes it as using the grammatical plural with singular reference, visible in the pronoun "vy" and its possessive "váš," and as the unmarked way of addressing an adult who is a stranger, older, or of higher social standing. The handbook's entry for "vy" likewise says that this second-person plural pronoun can, for reasons of politeness, refer to a single addressee. The opposite is tykání, and the encyclopedia entry says that using it inappropriately can be marked as very impolite or can even breach protocol.

The encyclopedia entry says that vykání is often combined with polite phrases and with address by a title, a surname or another name, and its examples include "Dobrý den, pane Zemane, jak se vám daří?" As a compromise between vykání and tykání, it adds, a first name is sometimes combined with vykání, and in dealing with customers a polite third-person singular form with the noun "pán" is also used: "Co si bude pán přát?"

With vykání, according to the entry, the finite verb is plural while participles and adjectives stay singular, as in "Byl jste někdy šikanován finančním úřadem?" This app's card "Jste tu sám? / Jste tu sama?" (Are you here alone?) notes the same pattern and adds that "Jste sami?" is the plural form, meaning "are you (all) alone."

This app's card "Dobrý den" (Good day / Hello) is described as a formal greeting used with strangers and in shops, while "Ahoj" (Hi / Hey) is described as a casual greeting used with friends and acquaintances. The note on "Počkejte, prosím" (Please wait) calls "Počkejte" the polite plural imperative for strangers and "Počkej" the informal one, and the note on "Odkud jste?" (Where are you from?) gives "Odkud jsi?" as the informal form. The note on "Můžu vidět váš doklad totožnosti?" (May I see your ID?) says that "váš" corresponds to the formal "vy" and that with someone you know well it would be "tvůj."

The handbook says it is appropriate to begin every official letter or email with an address in the fifth case, the vocative, for example "Vážený pane Procházko," and that an email may combine the greeting "Dobrý den" with the address, for example "Dobrý den, pane Procházko." It says that leaving the surname in the first case, as in "*Vážený pane Novák," is not standard in address and is regarded as a sign of considerable informality or of unfamiliarity with the rule, and that this applies to cultivated spoken standard language as well as to writing. It also says that in letters the forms "Vy," "Vám" and "Váš" are always written with a capital letter as an expression of respect.

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