What prompted me to think about this issue is that it is believed that the Czech language is very easy for students from the countries of the former CIS to learn. In this article I will try to talk about the arguments both for and against. By the way, I have been studying languages for a long time - I studied at a school with in-depth study of English, I even won a couple of Olympiads, I took French and German courses for a couple of years (and I still remember a little of them), I taught at the institute Spanish- in general, you can trust me :)
First, I would like to talk about a couple of myths, where they come from and confirm/refute them.
The Czech Republic is a fairly attractive country for tourists. Of course, the main flow of tourists goes to Prague. She is especially popular center. Entrepreneurs are not fools at all, so their services provide on different languages . Russian, English - including. Unprepared man will make his first conclusions here, having heard Russian speech and seeing many signs. In fact, this is, nevertheless, a purely tourist place, and drawing conclusions here is stupid.
Those who are lucky enough to get outside of Prague will also not experience huge problems. For example, what can be seen in Poděbrady - the words “museum”, “církev”, “ostrov” (see the sign on the right) - are quite clear, and if something is not clear, you can guess it from the pictogram. From this we can also conclude that Czech is a very understandable language, however, this is not the case. In fact, all signs are made in order to attract the maximum number of people, so they are written as simply as possible. In such cases, international variants of words are often used.
In fact, the vocabulary hidden from tourist eyes is not as easy as it might seem. For those who want to try their hand at understanding Czech texts right away, you can try reading the news on http://ihned.cz/ - it’s unlikely to be very easy.
Speaking of what language Czech is similar to - it is similar only in Slovak. With the others there is only similarity, which does not always help, and more often it only hinders.
This myth is born mainly among those who have already tried to start learning this language. And it’s hard to argue here - the first period of study is quite easy for Russian-speaking students - in the first month of our study, almost everyone had excellent grades.
Then, very often, everything falls into place - the grammar becomes complex. The main problem (for me personally) is the frequent illogicality. If a rule applies in one case, it is not a fact that it can be applied in another. However, this trait is inherent in many Slavic languages, Russian - including.
The test results at the end of the year are proof of my words. Rare student more than 90%. As for admission to top universities in Prague, I’m just silent.
(If you want to find out whether a Czech student can work -!).
Everything here is also quite controversial. Firstly, working in the Czech Republic without knowing the Czech language is strange, to say the least. Secondly, you need to be very lucky to immediately get to a foreign country like this. Thirdly, you need to study, and here you can’t go without a language - foreign students have the same rights as Czech students (and, therefore, the same responsibilities), which means their studies will take place in Czech. And in the end, sooner or later you will also want to talk to someone.
One of the subtypes of this myth is the myth that knowing English is enough here. I admit, I thought so too. It seemed to me that if I knew the language, then everyone knew it too. And this is Europe, civilization. Oh, how wrong I was. English language, mostly educated people know, which means they are unlikely to help you in everyday tasks - in shops, banks, at the post office - everything is in Czech. And if suddenly a person knows English, this is also unlikely to help you. Usually, it was taught at school and forgotten without practice, so you won’t be able to show off your knowledge.
It just so happens that I am now (yes, which is the antivirus). The working language is English; you can also speak Czech with colleagues. Do you think there are many techies here who boast that language is just a tool? In a nutshell: if you don’t know the language, well done, go work where you don’t need to communicate.
Well, I guess I talked about myths. Now, I think it’s worth talking about the Czech language and looking at it with my Russian-speaking eyes :)
Czech belongs to the Indo-European family (like Hindi, Farsi, Spanish - do you think they are all similar?). This is a very large group of languages, and they are quite different. Czech belongs to the Slavic group of languages (that is, it still has something in common with Russian), or more precisely, to the West Slavic group (together with Slovak and Polish, which actually already have a lot in common with Czech).
Czechs write in Latin letters with diacritics. There are 3 diacritics: charka (á), gachek (č) and krouzek (ů). There are 42 letters in the Czech alphabet, it is very easy to begin to understand the Czech letter.
This phenomenon has been known for a long time. For example, the word “město” (read as mnesto) is translated as city. Everyone will definitely come across the word “pozor” (read as disgrace) - this is a call to be more attentive. In fact, it happens very often, so it’s a shame!
As you can see in the picture, there are a lot of them. There is no need to learn everything; it comes naturally with the experience of living in a particular place. In Russia the situation is different, on Far East You will most likely be understood just as well as in Moscow (if they still speak Russian in Moscow 🙂).
On the other side, single standard, nevertheless, exists - it is what is studied in schools, universities, and used in official documents.
From my own experience, knowing these things is very important for learning a language. Sometimes only history helps to understand why a word is called one way and not another. And knowledge of realities recent years In general, it is necessary - in order to understand peers.
So, let's summarize. Czech is a difficult language. Only Slovaks understand it relatively easily; the rest need to work on themselves. Knowledge of the Russian language does not always help, and even more often it confuses. Knowing English helps very little. On the other hand, if you use this knowledge correctly, success in learning Czech is much easier to achieve. It is worth learning a language (any language) in the country in which it is spoken. However, if it is not needed for practical application, but as a hobby, you can do it at home. It’s also worth saying that you shouldn’t judge the Czech Republic and the Czech language by the center of Prague - there are a lot of interesting things around, take it at least.
The first thing your “comrades in misfortune” who are already learning it, and (especially) native speakers of this language, will do is say how difficult it is to learn it. Judge for yourself: Czech has seven cases, many combinations of unpronounceable consonants, irregular shapes plural, words whose meaning is impossible to guess based on knowledge of other languages, the difficult letter ř to pronounce, just a nightmare!
As a generally optimistic person, I try as much as possible to ignore such unhelpful comments from those who are panicked or desperate. None of these “important” messages motivated me to make new progress in my studies, so I decided to look at them from a different perspective.
Just a few hours after I started learning Czech from scratch, I have already found several reasons to say that this is not the most Difficult language. First of all, I was pleased to discover that Czech is a phonetic language (with the difference that it is not at all similar to, for example, French, and certainly fundamentally different from English: just try to pronounce though, through, plow, dough, cough the first time without mistakes and time to think). Moreover, verb conjugation in Czech is similar to Latin languages. Since then I have learned to think differently about the difficulties and quirks of language, and perhaps you will find this way of dealing with obstacles interesting. I’m not trying to prove that Czech is “easy”, I’m trying to make it clear that by “getting hung up” on the complexities of the language, we slow ourselves down and deprive ourselves of faith in our own abilities. Fear of failure, doubt and doom to failure are the main killers of motivation, therefore Learn to learn Czech easily!
An excellent book that has helped me a lot is Czech: An Essential Grammar (by James Naughton, Routledge Essential Grammars). It was recommended to me once, and now I highly recommend it to you (provided, of course, that you speak English). It provides detailed information about word formation (which I will talk about later in this article), and explains Czech grammar very clearly in a straightforward manner, without unnecessary fluff. There is no need to waste time on childish pictures and inappropriate examples; the manual explains the very essence of the language with full translations of all examples used and extensive collections of useful new vocabulary in each chapter. I needed a guide that presents the Czech language in the form of facts that are easy to understand and analyzed in detail, so this book was the best for me, but in case you want material offered in the form of lessons, then this book is not for you.
As I always mention, I always carry a phrase book in my pocket. At any time, while waiting for something, I take it out and repeat some words from the dictionary at the end, it is small enough to be able to go through all the words for a certain letter of the alphabet in 10 minutes, and at the same time, large enough to the most necessary words fit in. Phrasebooks published by Lonely Planet helped me cope with several languages, so the Czech phrasebook was of great use to me.
If you prefer to study in front of the computer, there are a number of sites that can help too! Slovnik.cz has a very detailed dictionary, but sometimes it gives too many translation options for simple words without contextual support, so I personally prefer the good old Wordreference’s Czech dictionary. I also found some excellent blogs, including Czechmatediary, which is written in both Czech and English by native Czechs living in the US.
When you learn French, Spanish, etc., you encounter big amount unfamiliar words. Since Czech belongs to the Slavic group of languages, be prepared to encounter many words similar to those in Russian.
Fortunately for us, Czech does not consist of hundreds of thousands of unique words, each of which will have to be memorized separately. In fact, there are a fairly limited number of basic roots, prefixes and suffixes, most of which are attached to each other according to consistent and logical rules that are easy to remember. Let me show you with an example what I mean.
Let's take 4 prefixes: v, vy, od And za(all except vy, are also prepositions) and add them to the root morpheme chod which comes from the verb chodit, go. The pretext itself v, like the prefix, means "in", so when you come across something that literally means "to go into", "to enter", you get vchod - entrance. Vý/vy means exactly the opposite, so východ - exit. Od, essentially means "from", so odchod - departure, departure, departure, departure.
You will quickly realize with relief that a huge number of Czech words are formed using small quantity prefixes added to the root, and many of them have completely logical meanings. Therefore, learning new words sometimes becomes the study of not new words at all, but ones that are already quite understandable.
Although some examples require a little imagination, they still do not lose their logic if you have developed this same imagination. Let's take the prefix za in combination with chod: za can mean “behind/behind”, that is, for example, going behind the scenes, going out of sight. So, imagine: if you apologize and want to disappear from view for a while, in other words, go away, you go... to the toilet! Although all the signs in Czech say toaleta, in everyday conversation this word sounds strange, since most people, when referring to the toilet, say záchod! Yes, I know I'm going a little overboard! But you have to agree that I’m not just pulling a logical connection by the ears, this is a really interesting and memorable image! This is one of the effective and simple mnemonics that allowed me to learn thousands of Czech words with almost no effort.
In fact, the prefix + root combination is at the heart of language and actually gives you words exponentially. So, if you understand the meaning associated with the basic prefixes do, na, nad(e), ne, o(b), od(e), pa, po, popo, pod, pro, pře, před, při, roz, s(e), spolu, u, v( e), vy, vz, z, za, you can combine at least half of them with, say, ten basics. Thus, by learning just 10 new words, you get 10x10=100 words thanks to all the possible combinations!
When you add knowledge of suffixes to roots or prefix + root combinations, it is incredibly helpful in understanding a huge number of words without the headaches of trying to remember each word individually. For example, the suffix ař, meaning a person associated with the meaning of the root, and the word lek - medicine combined give lekař- doctor. "Film" in Czech will sound the same as in English, but filmař means the person making the film, ryba- it's a fish, but rybář- this is already a fisherman, and so on. A vast number of words can be broken down into logical components, so learning prefixes and suffixes provides a wealth of insight into language.
When I was told that every word has 7 cases with different options for singular and plural, I was concerned that I would have to learn 14 “words” for each individual word. But this is not the case. All we have to do is change the ending of the word (in most cases we just need to change one vowel to another, and all other changes follow stable rules, such as "h" changing to "z"). It takes a little getting used to and remembering when you need to change “o” to “a”, and which case to use in which construction. But if you do enough exercises, communicate directly with Czechs, and make mistakes in declension from time to time, they will correct you, and - believe me - you will remember it. You can definitely get used to this!
In fact, after a while it will become very natural! This may be annoying at first, but try to look at it from the language side. I'm so used to using Czech cases that now it even annoys me when people use Czech words Prague in English instead of English Prague without its declension! You can't tell in Prague(in Prague) or to Prague(to Prague); it's obvious that it will be in Praze And to Prahy!
You can object to me that it’s not easy to “fit” all this in your head, but let’s compare it with other languages: Czech did not manage to surprise me with its difficulty regarding many nuances, the inflection of nouns in particular. Irish, for example, has a genitive and a vocative, and when we change a word, we change both its ending and its beginning. In Czech, only the ending changes, but the rules are quite stable.
In French, you simply cannot use a noun without adding an article, which also requires knowledge of the gender of the word. There are no definite or indefinite articles in Czech. Moreover, in Czech there is a grammatical gender, but the gender of a word is easy to determine: almost always a noun ending in a consonant will be masculine, the ending “a” is inherent in the feminine gender, and “o” is the ending of the neuter gender.
There are exceptions, but they are fairly obvious and understandable. There are three genders, but remembering which gender of a noun is quite easy, especially compared to languages like French, and, as I recall, German, which has much more complex gender endings, association rules that seem much more disordered.
There are no difficulties in Czech that you cannot overcome. Consonant clusters cause quite a lot of difficulties, but in Czech some consonants can behave like vowels. When you are focused and dedicated enough to the language, these “strange sounds” will very soon turn into words. Children learn this language all the time, so there are no excuses for a smart adult like you!
Of course, this post can be countered with a whole list of reasons why Czech is difficult, but why bother yourself with doubts once again? Besides these useful tips When studying, it is very important to work with and constantly access new sources of information.
Literary Czech can seem expressive, imaginative and difficult to learn at the same time. But if your goal is precisely, then there is nothing that would prevent you from achieving it. I challenge you to find more evidence for yourself that it is simple than to tell me I'm wrong. Give this language a chance and prove to yourself that you can actually speak Czech quite easily and quickly.
Děkuju (Thank you) Czech, it was a real pleasure to teach you!
Quickly learn a language from scratch to basic level everyone can. All you need is desire and a little of your time. We are pleased to prepare the first Czech lesson so that you can quickly move towards your goal - to enroll in a Czech university.
Czechs respect people who learn their language. The fact is that several centuries ago Czech almost died: German was spoken in the country. I had to try hard to bring it back into use. Nowadays, if not love, then respect for the language is in the Czechs’ blood.
Foreigners who want to study or work in the Czech Republic need to learn the language. To learn Czech from scratch you need to learn to read and write.
| A a | short a |
| B b | bae |
| C c | tse |
| Č č | what |
| D d | de |
| Ď ď | de |
| E e | short uh soft e(e) |
| F f | ef |
| G g | ge |
| H h | Ga (G Ukrainian) |
| Сh ch | Ha |
| I i | short and long soft and |
| J j | e |
| K k | ka |
| L l | el |
| Mm | Em |
| Nn | en |
| Ň ň | en |
| O o | short o |
| P p | pe |
| Q q | kve |
| R r | er |
| Ř ř | erzh |
| Ss | es |
| Š š | esh |
| T t | te |
| Ť ť | those |
| U u | short |
| Vv | ve |
| W w | double ve |
| X x | X |
| Y y | short hard and long hard and |
| Z z | zet |
| Ž ž | zhet |
As we hear, so we write! But to follow this rule, you need to know several rules that distinguish Czech from Russian:
To deal with stress you need to know 2 things:
Note that: longitude is more audible in colloquial speech and it can be in any syllable. Because of this, many questions and errors arise. You cannot be guided only by the rule of stress on the first syllable: you need to remember the pronunciation of each individual word. Remember, stress and length can be in one word: stretch out the long vowel and don’t forget about the stress.
Nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns and numerals are mutable. There are many rules and exceptions. We have collected the main basic rules that will be useful and not difficult for a beginner to understand.
A noun in Czech is characterized by:
To determine what gender a word belongs to, you need to look at its ending in nominative case single number:
face singular plural
3 on, ona, ono oni, ony, ona
Já is practically not used in Czech. The pronouns já, ty have short, unstressed date forms. case unit numbers mi, ti (me, you), and vin. case unit numbers - mě, tě (me, you): dá mi, dám ti, zná mě, zná tě.
Let's start with the fact that in Czech grammar there are 7 cases, and they are usually designated in two ways - ordinal numbers or Latin names:
První pád/Nominativ kdo? co?
Druhý pád/Genitiv koho? What?
Třetí pád/Dativ komu? What?
Čtvrtý pád/Akkuzativ koho? co?
Patý pád/Vokativ
Šestý pád/Lokál (o) kom? (o) čem?
Sedmý pád/Instrumental kým? What?
All cases are clear and coincide with the Russian language. BUT! Their order is different: after accusative case followed by the vocative, then the prepositional and instrumental. In Czech, the vocative case is used frequently and should not be forgotten.
A sentence in Czech cannot exist without a verb. If in Russian we miss the words: there is, to be, to exist, to be, then in Czech this is a mistake. For example: To je obchod. - This is a store.
units plural number number
(já) jsem nejsem (my) jsme nejsme
(ty) jsi nejsi (vy) jste nejste
(on/ona/ono) je není (oni/ony/ona) jsou nejsou
For example:
The verb mít (to have) is used much more often in Czech than in Russian. Often constructions with the verb mít are translated into Russian as “I have”, “he has”, etc.
past tense
(já) mám nemám měl/a jsem
(ty) máš nemáš měl/a jsi
(on/ona/ono) má nemá měl/a/o
(my) máme nemáme měli/y jsme
(vy) máte nemáte měli/y jste
(oni/ony/ona) mají nemají měli/y/a
Many verbs that end in -at are also conjugated: znát, dělat, vstávat, dát. Example: dělat - já dělám, ty děláš, on dělá, my děláme, vy děláte, oni dělají.
There are many constructions with the verb mít. The most common are mám rád+noun. in the accusative (4) case: Mám rád květiny. - I love flowers; and rád + verb form in the corresponding person: Rád se učím. — I love to study
Note that: The negative particle ne in Czech is always written together with the verb!
In addition to the rules, it is important to know the words. You can understand Czech intuitively; some words are similar to Russian. But in order to ask about something, ask or thank you, you need to know the basic words.
dobrý den [dobrý den] hello
dobré ráno [good early] good morning
dobrý den [dobri dan] good afternoon
dobrý večer [good evening] good evening
ahoj [agoy] hello
nashledanou [nashledanou] goodbye
děkuji [dekuji] thank you
promiňte [prominte] sorry
dobrou chuť [good-hut] bon appetit
dobrou noc [good night] good night
ano [ano] yes
ne [ne] no
pondělí [pondeli] Monday
úterý [uteri] Tuesday
středa [strsheda] Wednesday
čtvrtek [chtvrtek] Thursday
pátek [patek] Friday
sobota [Saturday] Saturday
neděle [week] Sunday
nula [null] zero
jeden [eden] one
dva [two] two
tři [trzhi] three
čtyři [chtyrzhi] four
pět [drinks] five
šest [six] six
sedm [sedm] seven
osm [osm] eight
devět [devet] nine
deset [deset] ten
Every language has funny words. But for me personally, the Czech language is a record holder. The main thing is that these words are easy to remember and will definitely come in handy in life. Here is my TOP of such words:
barák [barrack] - house
bydliště [bydlishte] - place of residence
lepidlo [lepidlo] – glue
Důchodci [income] – Pensioners
cerstvé potraviny [stale potraviny] - fresh products
chapat [hapat] - to understand
čichat [sneeze] - sniff
děvka [girl] - prostitute
kalhotky [tights] - panties
letadlo [letadlo] - airplane
matný [matte] - matte
mátový [matte] - mint
mraz [scum] - frost
mýdlo [thought] - soap
mzda [bribe] - fee
nevěstka [daughter-in-law] - prostitute
okurky [cigarette butts] - cucumbers
ovoce [ovoce] - fruit
pádlo [bad] - oar
pitomec [pet] - fool
počítač [pochitach] - computer
pohanka [toadstool] - buckwheat
policie varuje [police varuje] - police warn
pozor [shame] - attention
rychlý [loose] - fast
sklep [crypt] - basement
škoda [Skoda] - loss
bydlo [cattle] - life, living
skot [cattle] - Scotsman
šlapadlo [slapadlo] - catamaran
sleva [left] - discount
sranda [sranda] - joke, joke
strávit [strikes] - to spend
stůl [chair] - table
určitě [rumble] - definitely, definitely
úroda [freak] - harvest
úžasný [terrible] - beautiful, charming
vedro [bucket] - heat
voňavka [stink] - perfume
vozidlo [carried] - car
vůně [vune] - aroma
záchod [entry] - toilet
žádný [greedy] - none
zakázat [order] - prohibit
zápach [smell] - stench
zapomněl [remembered] - forgot
zelenina [green] - vegetables
Yes and no! It’s difficult to answer unequivocally. Even grammar native language school was not easy for everyone. As in any language, there are many rules and exceptions that need to be learned and remembered. Here also. On household level Learning Czech is still easier than German, English or Spanish. But to study and work you need to sweat.
Ready! You have started learning Czech 👍 We wish you success. Na shledanou 😃
Do you still have doubts whether you can learn a language on your own in a year? You will get the answer to this question in the article:
Mar 7, 2019 Tatiana
Name: Czech language - Self-teaching textbook for beginners.
The new edition of the classic textbook, which has been reprinted many times, contains corrections and additions, mainly relating to the changed socio-political realities.
The manual consists of 20 lessons, including texts, exercises for them and grammar. A reference apparatus is provided at the end of the book.
The main volume of phonetic material, grammatical and lexical topics and a system of exercises are aimed at developing everyday communication skills, mastering the mechanism of reading, understanding simple texts, and writing skills. Grammar is reinforced based on vocabulary learned in previous lessons.
Designed for everyone who wants to master the basics of the Czech language. Can also be used as a tutorial.
The first edition of the proposed textbook was published in 1960 in Prague. Its authors were prominent Czech Bohemians and Russian scholars, and the reviewer was the largest Soviet Slavist A. G. Shirokova, Doctor of Philology, Honorary Professor of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, Honorary Doctor of Charles University in Prague.
Despite its compactness, the manual fully complies with the requirements of the genre - its goal is to teach how to communicate on everyday topics, read and understand simple Czech texts, and write a simple letter, congratulations, etc. An important advantage that distinguishes it from many publications of this kind is a consistent comparative approach, taking into account data from the Russian language (most of the quite conscientious Czech language textbooks for foreigners now published in the Czech Republic are aimed at English-speaking students, for whom common Slavic vocabulary is as incomprehensible as common German vocabulary for Russian, and the developed case system is a nightmare).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
CONTENT
From the editor
Czech alphabet
1 Letters AEOUBDJKLMNST
Accent
Bundle
2 Letters I Y P R V Z
Long vowel sounds
Present tense of the verb byt "to be"
Past tense of byt
3 Letters II C SI F G X R
Negation
4 Letters C S Z D f N Е
Verb mil "to have"
5 Dialogue
Future tense of byt
Future tense of imperfective verbs
Czech-Russian homonyms
6 Topic of conversation: “Family”
Cardinal numbers
Diphthongs
Verbs tina nest “to carry”
7 Topic of conversation: “Breakfast, lunch, dinner”
Gender of nouns
Adjectives
8 Topic of conversation: “Hotel”
Hard and soft consonants
Numerals
9 Text: “Prague”
Syllables I and g
Verbs ending in -fin, -is
10 Topic of conversation: “Station”
Verb chu"t “to want”
The semantic role of long
and short vowels
11 Topic of conversation: “Mail”
Verbs like kupovat “to buy”
Letters Q q and W w
12 Text: “Karlovy Vary Resort”
Verb like dclal "to do"
Aspiration
Vocalization of prepositions
13 Topic of conversation: “Vacation”
Matching full vowel combinations
in Russian and Czech languages
Declension of nouns
Declension of feminine nouns
14 Topic of conversation: “Cinema. Theater. Concert"
Declension of neuter nouns into -o
and masculine to a hard consonant
15 Text “Prague Astronomical Clock”
Plural of nouns
masculine and neuter
16 Text: “Calendar. Time"
Syntactic connection of quantitative
numerals with nouns Demonstrative pronoun
ten, la, to “this, this, this”
17 Text: “Shopping”
Conditional mood
Vowel alternation
18 Text: “Czech Republic”
Declension of adjectives starting with -у, -а, -е
19 Text: “Charles Bridge”
Declension of adjectives starting with i
Passive voice
20 Text: “Dogheads”
Personal pronouns
Subject dictionaries
Brief Russian-Czech phrasebook
Tables
The Key to Exercise
Czech-Russian dictionary
Russian-Czech dictionary
Download the e-book for free in a convenient format, watch and read:
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