@@IWrocker Yeah, the pronunciation is not bad, but your stress / accent is off. Czech language is supposed to "flow". We place accent only at the start of words and not even always (e.g. a preposition said with accent can flow into the noun which then needs no accent of its own). You seem to place accent on all syllables which sounds very "hard", for lack of a better word.
FUN FACT The word “dollar” originates from the Czech word “tolar” (short for “Joachimstaler”), which referred to a silver coin first minted in the town of Jáchymov (Joachimsthal) in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the early 16th century. In 1519, the Count of Schlick began producing large silver coins from local silver mines in Jáchymov. These coins became known as Joachimstaler Guldengroschen. The long name was shortened to “taler” in German, and the coin gained widespread popularity across Europe due to its consistent silver content and value. As these coins circulated across different countries, the name “taler” was adapted into various languages. The English eventually adopted the word as “dollar”, influenced by the Spanish “peso de ocho” (pieces of eight), which also circulated widely in the American colonies. The Dollar in America: When the United States gained independence, the Founding Fathers chose the “dollar” as the official currency, inspired by the popularity and stability of the taler and the Spanish dollar in global trade. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the U.S. dollar, basing its value on silver and gold standards similar to those used for talers. Thus, the Czech “tolar” has a lasting legacy that directly influenced the naming of one of the world’s most recognized currencies today.
The english word "pistol" has its origin in Czech word "píšťala" which was a weapon used during Hussite wars (1. half of 15 th century) in the Bohemia region. The letter Ř sometimes makes problems also to Czechs.
An interesting thing about English 'w' double-u is that it comes from Latin where u and v used to be the same letter and the u(vowel) and w(semi-consonant) sounds were differentiated by doubling the u. So, double-u and dvojité vé are very closely related. The difference is that in words where W is used in Czech text (foreign words), it is normally pronounced as V.
@@titifatal I immediately thought of the example of two of our Czech and once very famous actors who played together inseparably - they were Jan Werich and Jiří (George) Voskovec. We Czechs read "V" and "W" exactly the same. Both emigrated to America, Jan Werich returned and lived out his life at home, while Jiří (in America George) Voskovec became an American actor and stayed in the USA. 🙂
@@Herzschreiber Ironically, v and w in German are not at all following the Latin mechanism to pronounce germanic sounds. That's what you get when you are using an alphabet with 23 characters for a bunch of European languages that have oodles of phonemes.
As a czech, I'm flattered by your interest in our language. 😀 Your pronunciatuion of each separate letter was immaculate 👌 (the rolled R really surprised me, that was good!) - of course your Ř was the exception but hey, you can't manage Ř on the first try... even czech kids struggle with that. And besides, it was the comedy we were all waiting for. 😁 And as for the czech words, your pronunciation was also quite good, but not as good as the individual letters. Thanks for this video 😄 and greetings from the Czech Republic 👋
You deserve a small evaluation for how well you did! 🎉 I am sure a lot of us would love to see you in our beautiful country experiencing local beers, meals and cars.
Well done! 👍 The letter "Ř" is more or less easy to learn, but there are many words with "R" without vocal, these can be imo more difficult to pronounce, f.e. PRST (finger), SRST (animal hair), KRK (neck/throat) etc. you can try this tongue-twister: STRČ PRST SKRZ KRK (meaning stick your finger through your throat) or some with "Ř": MISTŘE PETŘE, NEPŘEPEPŘTE TOHO VEPŘE (master Peter, don´t pepper this pork too much) Greetings from Czechia ♥
Perfect pronunciation and I'm not exaggerating. 👏 Czech has 42 letters and Slovak has 46 letters, the highest number in Europe. There are 3 letters that exist in Czech and not in Slovak and 6 letters that exist in Slovak and not in Czech. The letter Ř is famously exclusive to Czech. The similarity of Czech and Slovak texts is 84% and we understand each other practically 100% thanks to a huge exposure since childhood. Both languages have stress *always* on the first syllable of the word, which is atypical for Slavic languages. Loved this video.
The origin language of all Slavic people used to be "Bukvica" it had 49letters=sounds, it was "picture" alphabet, matematicaly based 7x7, script was similar to cyrilic script. It was not so long ago than todays history teach us. And todays alphabets and dividing one slavic nation into many starts only about 300years ago... Mainly with compulsory education, and mandatory school system based in Europe that time.
@@Mykaeilyou're a fool at best and a shill for Russia at worst. Slavic peoples started adopting glagolitic (later cyrylic) and Latin scripts during christianization, roughly from the 5th to 10th centuries CE.
I can tell you, as a native English speaker and long time learner of Czech, that was great for a first go through. You were really quite good with the Ř. I found that pretending to be on a motorcycle and making revving noises was quite helpful in mastering that sound. Go ahead and overdo it at first and then ease off the gas as you get more comfortable with it. I find the relative difficulty of that sound to be dependent on the letters that surround it in a word; the Czech word for ladder, žebřík, is quite tricky the first few times. Greetings from Brno.
Thank you is "děkuju" or "děkuji", where "dě" is pronounced as "ĎE". Also one speciality in Czech is that we have a semivowels or what is the proper term.... Basically you can have l and r function as a vowel. For example in "vlk" (wolf), the "l" is treated as vowel.... So one famous tongue-breaker is "strč prst skrz krk", where there is no vowel in the whole sentence....
@@MasakoNagauchi and even whole sentenses! 😊 Krt plch z mlh Brd pln skvrn z mrv prv hrd scvrnkl z brd skrz trs chrp v krs vrb mls mrch srn čtvrthrst zrn. Which could be also writen as: Lakomý hlodavec z čeledi plchovitých, který pocházel z pohoří Brdy, kde bývá často mlha, a který byl plný skvrn od chlévské mrvy, nejdříve ze všeho hrdě scvrnknul z brzd skrze trs rostlin zvaných chrpa až do zakrslých stromů, jimiž byly v tomto případě vrby, pochoutku srnek-potvor, kterou bylo čtvrt hrsti zrní. Im not good in english, but it could be something like: A miserly rodent from the family of the rat family, which came from the Brdy mountains, where there is often fog, and which was full of stains from stable manure, first of all proudly shriveled from the hills through a bunch of plants called cornflowers to the dwarf trees, which in this case were willows, the deer-monster delicacy, which was a quarter of a handful of grain.
I'm German and moved to Czech Republic about a year ago with my Czech husband and our 2 kids. I really enjoyed your reaction to ř 😅 I feel you! It took me about half a year to get it halfway right 😅 But even quite some Czech kids need to visit a special speech teacher to help them improve with their pronunciation of ř - so there's no shame in not being able to do it. Depending on which letters it's surrounded by ř can be very hard to pronounce. To get exactly the correct sound for ď, ť, and ň is hard as a foreigner too. It's a completely different tongue movement compared to their counterparts d, t and n... and sometimes, I just wanna buy some vowels somewhere to give my tonge time to relax 😅 trying my best tho. It's a pretty efficient language, coz there is a lot of info about the gender/case hidden in the ending of a word. I'm grateful that there are not so many cases for time, but that every verb has 2 forms is driving me crazy 🤯 In general, I do like it tho ❤️ Learning one step at a time...
I'm surprised how well you picked up Czech just from visiting a shop with Czech staff. You certainly have a talent for languages. Greetings from Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic.
Ian, your Czech pronounciation is really good - I really do like your videos and noticed that in your Tatra's and Škoda's ones. My experience is that almost every American is not able to pronounce 'ch' letter, ususally they say 'k'. And 'ŕ' letter is difficult for many Czechs as well :) We have a nice word řeřicha (garden cress), it is good for training :)
as a czech myself this was a surreal experience, never have i thought id see a foreigner react to our alphabet :DD you did great!! the phrases you remembered are especially impressive
Ah you have summoned all the czechs. Good video, one note on the pronunciation of Czech words, most often than not the stress is on the first syllable. Your pronunciation is quite good and it can only improve with that in mind!
Hey man, u r pretty good with prononcing letters ! I would understand u what u r saying. Good job. Example about Škoda vs. Skoda was hitting the nail !
Your reaction to Ř was priceless. 😂 In the street view you briefly showed at 4:48 there is a store called "doma". I wonder if that's a store owned by Czech or Slovak immigrants because it literally means "at home" in our languages. EDIT: It's owned by Croatians so their word for home is probably the same.
In fact 0:32 we don't say all those letters in the alfabeth we say only the same letters as English has and we just add the marks hope you liked our alfabeth!!!
you are really good at this! (Czech native speaker here). you are correct - grammatically, the correct form is "děkuji" or in common speech "děkuju". both are correct. Watch out for the stress - when in English it is usually on the second syllable, in Czech it is on the first one
Technically (as a czech) I would more recommend to try to push the tongue forward then doing R, and close the mouth just a little bit. Try saying RRR and then just push the tongue forward -> ŘŘŘ. RRRRR->ŘŘŘŘŘ
@@IQEGO Yeah, that's a possibility. But I feel like it's easier to focus on what your teeth are doing than your tongue, especially when you're not used to rolling your R.
Got this vid recommended randomly, so I checked it out and I'm rly impressed by your pronunciation! Only exception would be your "Jsem Ian", you're pronouncing extra e in there, "J(e)sem" is what you're saying. But the absence of vowels in some words in Czech, usually is one of the biggest challenges for English speakers😅.
Your pronunciation was really good actually, great job! Fun fact: by the guiness book of world records, Ř is the most rarest sound in any language, and Czech is the only major language in the world that has it Byl jsi skvělý! (You were great!), Greetings from Czechia~
7:00 "děkuji" is the most formal, it's used in writing to people who are not friends and also they use it on Tv, politicians use it, or anybody who talks in formal situations or wants to look dignified. "děkuju" is what the people use in their everyday life regardless of whome are they speaking to (a shop assistant, a doctor, also a friend or a family member. Also used in writing to a friend or family member.) The least formal is "díky" and it's used in talking or writing with friends, family members and sometimes in speaking with shop assistants or so - it's a quick short thanks for common or not so significant things. If I'm talking or writing with a friend or family member and I want to let them now, I really appreciate what they did, it's better to use "děkuju" than "díky".
Great pronounciation man :) I know one American from Denver living in Prague for 12 years now and his pronounciation is tragic :D (but he admits it, it's hard for him to learn Czech) you could already teach him! Czech Regards from Malta :)
Greetings from Czechia! You nailed Ř for the first time, I'm impressed! Usually it's the last letter that kids learn to pronounce. My daughter learned it recently when she was 4,5 years old and she was pretty early with that compared to other kids. She was so proud of herself 😊
So funny to see your reaction Ř and W. Mainly because I could relate. Haha! I'm from Denmark, here we have 3 additional letters to the ones in the English alphabet: Æ (Ae), Ø (Oe) and Å (Aa, sounds like the beginning of "always"). Test out Danish, as a lot old-Danish (old-Norse) is the origin of English words. In my part of Denmark (south, close to the German border) we have our "own" locale language (Sønderjysk), where the following sentence actually has a meaning: "Æ æ u o æ ø i æ å". In English it would be "I'm on the island in the stream" 😛
You're doing pretty well! I have a few generic tips for you regarding Czech words: 1. Unlike English, Czech puts accent always on the first syllable. 2. Don't be afraid to open your mouth more. When we learn English they tell us that "the English have a hot potato in their mouth". With Czech you really need to move thouse muscles. 3. Don't be afrait to put a bit more spaces between the words. In some cases the preposition and the word need to be separated, because the same presposition can also serve as a prefix and then it's a different meaning. (For example "Dokola" and "Do kola"). Sometimes we ignore the spaces like you do, but that's more often informal then formal. 4. Long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú/ů, ý) are a bit longer. Also important, because some words have can have both versions and have different meanings. I'll try to find some sounds that are similar. Á is sort of like aa in Naan. É is like oyu pronounced in the video, regular E is the same but shorter - E is like E in Elf. Í is longer than you thnk. It's long like ee Weed. The closesd to Í I can thing ok is the begining (The first E) of the word Evening. Ó is just longer than regular O. Regular O is in Škoda - short and doesn'T go to U sound. So this just longer - an example would be the a word móda (fashion). Ú/ů is what you guys make by doubling the letter O, so like the oo in Cool or Pool. And Ý is the phonetically the same as Í, the difference is gramatical. 5. The letter Ě: there's a whole grammar for it, but phonetically the E takes the ˇ from some letters and has it instead of them - those are Ď, Ň and Ť. So ď+e becomes dě in "děkuji" but ď+a stays ďa in "Láďa". So for your purpouse: dě = [ďe], ně = [ňe], tě = [ťe] (the e being the short E as in the word Elf). If the Ě follows another letter (b, m,...) it is instead bronounced as 'je' - that's like your Yes without the S. So bě = [bje] etc. You asked about Děkuji vs. Děkuju - the -ji is formal (and gramatically corect) the -ju is informal (used among friends etc.). Happens with lot of verbs. You can also say "Zdravím" (means greetings but the vibe is a bit less obnoxious) to greet people - the plus side is that it's neutral - it works as both formal and informal. I always use it when I don't know which way am I meant to speak 😅 Ř is sort of like when you position your toungue to pronounce rolling R, but force the Ž sound through it. You got it really well. If your'e interested, have a look at Slovak alphabet too. They have some letters we don't have instead of some of our letters. Good luck, honestly, from Praha!
To nám na Angličtině naopak vždycky říkali ať víc otvíráme pusu, že v češtině jsme zvyklí ji vůbec neotvírat a mumlat. Poprvé co slyším někoho říkat to přesně naopak.
Czech language is very deep and complicated so the possibility of expressing a complicated thoughts is better than in other languages. At least somebody can :)
I've lived in the Czech Rep for 22yrs & Ř (R Háček ) can still cause me some issues. Try this classic Czech tongue twister - Třistatřiatřicet stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes třistatřiatřicet stříbrných střech. This tongue twister translates to "Three hundred and thirty three silver quails flew over three hundred and thirty three silver roofs."
Czech has advantage over english in that we write almost everything same way as we speak it - so even this beauty: `Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy` is readable if you know what sound each letter/letter sequence make ... btw: can anyone read this IPA transcription: `/ˈpr̝̊iːlɪʃ ˈʒl̩u̝tʲou̯t͡ʃkiː ˈkuːɲ ˈuːpɛl ˈɟaːbɛlskɛ ˈoːdɪ/` - because cant :D
Fun fact about Czechs: they are so based that they invented three words, pistol, howitzer, and a word for yeeting someone out of the window, then proceeded to defenestrate a couple of pro-pope administrators in the first (and not the last) defenestration of Prague, had 5 crusades declared on them, fought them all off with a bunch of peasants armed with proto-guns and flails, led by a half-blind and later fully blind general who never lost a battle, who employed a tactic that could be described as a moving fort, which was capable of fighting off the prime knighthood of the Holy Roman Empire, all of this within a 20 years They also commonly use Ahoj as a common greeting despite being fully landlocked (Slovaks too), which is the ultimate power-play imo edit nvm you got it x)
Hussites were based during Jan Žižka's reign.. he should check this part of history out. Not many talk about it He also basically used tanks to fight them off (but I guess this was already kinda used in the past too..?)
And despite being a fully landlocked country, we have won a naval battle (Battle of Lake Baikal) and thus have a stellar 100 % victory rate in naval battles.
4:05 Examples that I can think of are for Q: Quido and Kvído they're basically read the same And another thing for Y. It's very similar to I and they are sometimes called "tvrdé Y" (hard Y) and "měkké I" (soft I) you can hear the difference when you read them in syllables like: dy/di, ty/ti, ny/ni In some cases only I can be used: ži, ši, či, ři, ci, ji Or for Y: hy, chy, ky, ry
Actually, there's no difference in the pronunciation of "i" and "y" in Czech, it's just when "i" is preceded by "d,t,n" those consonants become soft - so "di, ti, ni" is pronounced "ďi, ťi, ňi".
@SkyBlueDesign1 To clarify I meant the difference in their pronunciation in d, t, n. I know that most of the time they're both read as I in b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z but they can also change the meanings of words and all so I think they're still a bit different even if they're pretty similar.
@@milk1957Oh, I see. But I'm not sure about there being two different sounds for "i". I consulted "Czech phonology" on Wikipedia and it says there's a slight difference in pronunciation of "i" between Bohemia and Eastern Moravia (see chapter Vowels) but there isn't any difference in pronunciation according to a preceding letter. But in your initial comment you explained very well what's going on with "Q" in Czech and also the similarities and differences between I and Y, their uses and how they influence the pronunciation of "d, t, n", I see your comment as very informative and useful for those interested in the Czech language.
Congrats, you're really good, man😯👏🏻👍🏻! I had Czech parents, but was born and raised in Switzerland, where we used to speak swiss only, and had to learn Czech from scratch when I moved to the Czech Republic 16 years ago. Mine wasn't as good as your Czech even after two years. The only thing that is easier about the Czech language than any other language I know is that absolutely every word is always stressed on the first syllable. Greetings from Prague!
You did quite well with Ř for a native English speaker 👍 The face though 😅 It's a very unique sound, though, only a few other languages or dialects have it, and of those, Czech is the only one that's an official national language. And frankly, even some native speakers struggle with it, as well with our R. Also, to address your confusion about W - it's not "spelled out" as a single letter sound, what you hear literally means "a double V" - "dvojité vé". So just like English is calling it "double U", we are (arguably more logically) calling it "double V". And one last thing to mention is that we also have several other letters that are not included here, such as "longer" alternatives of letters like É (a longer E) or Ó (a longer Ó), and we also have two additional Us - Ů and Ú, which are both pronounced the same way (a longer U), but are not freely interchangeable within words (in fact using the wrong U would be downright considered a grammar error).
Hello, Im Slovak living currently in Austria, Vienna! Would love to see you in Vienna or Bratislava, where I was born! Czechoslovskia was a thing mainly because of our languages, Czech and Slovak are pretty much intelligible languages, at least we Slovaks are used to consuming media in Czech without translation - books, television, films. Slovaks and Czech I think have also a famous SPG - self propelled artillery called Dana or Zuzana. Something to consider when being into trucks. Ain´t a bigger thing for trucks than carrying artillery!
You did really great with the basic sentences dude! Justbe careful around "děkuji", it has more of the D inthe beggining, not J, but after all that was really great! I was really surprised at your ř, it sounded almost perfect!!! Love from Czechia ;3❤
"Haló" is used as a greeting only in phone calls. When used outside phone calls, it's usually used in order or make oneself be heard, e.g. when you get lost or when you enter some premises and want to find out if anyone is present). "Dobrý den" is a formal greeting. When you greet your aquaintances, you use "ahoj" or "čau".
@PG-gs5vb Thanks for the addition. It happened once in the EuroCity train between Dresden and Prague. Each passenger was greeted by the train attendant with "Halo!", "Hello!" and "Hallo!".
You did great! Outside of Ř, the pronunciation with "hook" is simple - a softer letter We also have long vowels, with a comma above the letter. a vs á ect like the difference between pronaunce mark and car in eng. The advantage is always the same pronunciation of the letters, in this, for example English, is very confusing.
Doing great man! The Ř was really close and I think I will explain it like this to my foreign friends who'd like to try it. You combined the rolling R and Š. Sounded convincing. :) Not even people who've lived here for years can say it. :D You got the words correct, but thank you is děkuji (ďekuji / diekuyi), there's the soft D.
Fun fact! The way you're trying to intuitively pronounce "Ř" is absolutely correct! Saying "RŽ" is actually one of the methods that logopedists use to teach kids who cannot pronounce it ☺
Polish is VERY similar to Chech so as a Polish person I totally understood you. :) We actually pronounce the letters the same way accept they we have just a few different letters. In all the words you told, they had just very minor but understandable differences. Once I actually met a Chech person abroad. We managed to understand each other by talking in our languages and so we became friends :D. There are a lot of minor differences between the languages but in the end of the day everything is quite understandable. It's awesome, right?!
Without knowing Polish as a Czech I've spent some time in Poland. The first day I understood some 50% and after few days some 80%, still feeling I can easily go further. Of course it's not enough to write poetry in Polish, but more than enough to undestand each other and to talk about things in pretty high level of detail & understanding.
Czech here, I appreciate you've catched that the "valley" sign ˇ is for softening consonants (essentially in English "š" would be like "sh" or "č" like "ch") while the "wing" sign ´ is for prolonging vowels, as well as English still recognizes the long "e" in "café". And that's pretty much it. Well, with "Ř" as an exclusivitity that only Poles share with us, still pronouncing "Ř" in a bit different way and writing it as "Rz". The secret to pronounce it well is also pretty simple: pronounce Spanish-like "R", but just shift your tongue a bit more forward and add a bit of "S"; keep it "dry", don't add any wovels or jawbone-based sounds and you are there.
Wow, I must say I'm quite impressed with your pronounciation. Especially your D.. I mean.. Your pronounciation of the letter D really hit as if you were a local in Czechia, although it might seem quite basic, you really nailed the accent. Also a little detail, in Czechia we only say "ahoj" to friends and close people, just someone who we address as "ty" (you) and not "Vy" (you, but formally, used to address any stranger, cashier or just anyone who's not a friend), otherwise we always use "dobrý den" or some other formal greeting. We tend to speak to strangers and other random people around really formally so "ahoj" and "dobrý den" are regularly not interchangeable and in Czechia some rude old people might get mad at you and whack you with their walking stick, if you either didn't greet them at all when walking past on the street, or if you said "ahoj" instead of "dobrý den" (fortunately there aren't many of these rude folks anymore).
Greetings from Czech republic, your pronunciation is very good, I'm impressed! Keep it up, I'm looking forward to more content from Czech Republic :) And if you ever come to the Czech Republic, I'd be happy to give you a ride in multiple Skoda cars, especially in a diesel wagons as you like them :)
If you're into phonetics, if you wanted a layman's explanation per se to grasp the concept of Ř better, it's basically this: /r/ is typically a 'voiced alveolar vibrant', meaning the place of pronunciation is the alveolar ridge (the backside of your gums the hard palate is not hard palate yet), and the vibrant is the rolling principle of pronunciation /ř/, while not referred to as that, is typically basically a 'voiced alveolar fricative vibrant', so the principle is the same as /r/, except it has the fricative 'sh' quality due to all the turbulence; you basically say a crippled, alveolar /š/ but vibrate it like a /r/ Fun fact: while this distinction is not noticable neither in the alphabet nor is it typically mentioned anywhere, the Czech language actually regularly uses voiceless variants of Ř as well, and the sound is actually distinguishible; some examples would be: Voiced Ř: Řeka (a river) Voiceless Ř: Křtiny (one's day and date of christening) The reason why this happens probably has something to do with being surrounded by voiced phonemes, however I don't really know what the rule is exactly, because for example "Křoví" (a bush) would be actually voiceless, for some ungodly reason, because that word only has 2 syllables, there's no schwa between K and Ř. And if you're asking whether a voiceless /R/ sound exists, it does on paper, but not in actual Czech pronunciation, because in our language, 'R' is actually a syllabic consonant, meaning it either occurs surrounded by some voiced vowels, or it takes on the function of one, in which case you pronounce it with what basically is a schwa following, for example "Krb" (a fireplace). And for those wondering, 'voiced' means you can't pronounce the sound without making a sound in your voicebox, while 'voiceless' means you can just pass air through without actually vibrating your vocal cords.
Finally! Love your videos, greetings from czechia. Your pronounciation was really good, I am now learning spanish and their sounds are similar to some of ours :) Even that Ř of yours was impressive :) One correction to your "My name is Ian" would be that you said "jesem" in czech it's just "jsem". And I would like to point out that "Dobrý den" and "Ahoj" aren't really interchangable as first one is formal and is used for people you don't know, using "Ahoj" in that case would be strange or rude depending on person and situation. One good exception I think of is when you are in the boat in river (quite popular summer activity) and another boat is passing by you greet with "Ahoj" even if you don't know each other.
I am learning English. I often confuse Czech and English letters in English and this video helps me a lot to realize which letters are slightly different. Thanks a lot for this.
This was fun. As others said before, every Czech was waiting for ›Ř‹, but you did quite well. It still sounded more like Polish »RZ« though, with both ›R‹ and ›Z‹ discernible/distinguishable; if you wish to improve it, you need to move the rolling forward towards the tip of your tongue and at the same time to make it finer. Oh, and to make it even more fun, there are in fact two ›Řs‹ in spoken Czech, one after unvoiced consonants, as in »tři« (three), and the other after voiced consonants or at the start of a syllable, as in »řeka« (river) or »březen« (March). But don't you worry, you actually know these sounds already-they say that every child (apart from mute and deaf of course) when it starts learning the language tries every imaginable sound we people use at least once. So you've done it already. 🙂 Greetings from Prague, Czechia!
Wow great job! Ř is unique letter and i believe it is used only in slovenia and czechia :) Small kids sometimes learn the right pronunciation for years .And its cool,that you learned few words. Champ ;)
U did great honestly. From what ive seen, my non czech friends always struggled with ř. It honestly is insane. Everybody initially makes the face u made LOL.
When I go to a store I usually say Brý den (lazy version of Dobrý den). But when I go to a store where they know me I say Zdravím. Both are formal, but Zdravim is imho a little bit less formal then Dobrý den.
Really good pronunciation, as Czech guy, i like hear czech from you Ian, in past guy named Tady Gavin was learning czech language, but for unknown reason he stopped making videos on YT, But Czech alphabet is just little step, wait until our grammar :)
Fun fact: many people don't even realize that the unique letter Ř has two slightly different pronunciations. Another is at the beginning of the word, and another is when it is further in the word. For those of you who are reading this: try how both Ř sound differently :) And now for pronunciation: your ahoy sounds original, but for us it sounds like "ahój", but we are saying "ahoj". And yes, we use even ahój sometimes when yelling at someone :) Dóbry den = wrong, Dobrý den = right. I know, it goes against your style of mother language. Just ask anytime, and we can make a call to set your Czech right.
Czech is so hard, I'm surprised because your pronunciation was so good. Many Czechs have trouble speaking Czech, even though it is their mother tongue. Your "Ř" and "CH" were also prety good. You have done good job.
So, here is a little lesson for the phrases you have learned. "Dobrý den" means "Good day" it's the most used greetings between strangers, you use it when you start a conversation, wanna ask or when you just go past and wanna be polite. It's the most polite way to start. "Ahoj" means "Hello" is more for aquaintences or people you know, it's polite version of the next word, and if it's your friend you can use "Čau" ("čau" can be used as a greeting or as a goodbye between friends, family, simply the people you are close to). "Nashledanou" basically means " Until I see you again" or it could also mean "See you later", it's a polite way to end the conversation or we also say it when we are leaving for example Waiting rooms when we are at doctors, hospitals etc.. "Prosím" is "Please" so yeah. "Děkuji“ is "Thank you" it's more polite way to talk with strangers etc. If you wanna be even more polite, you can say "Děkuji mockrát" which means "Thank you very much", with friends, family etc. You would say shortly "Díky" that's less polite but still polite. "Nazdraví" means "Cheers" but "Nazdar" can be used as a greeting or a goodbye between friends, family, yada yada, you know the drill. Hope this little lesson will help you, whoever reads it.
I'm half British, but I have been living in the Czech Republic for 10 years, and the letter "Ř" is the hardest letter, and I can't pronounce it even a lot of Czechs can't pronounce it and good luck saying "řeřicha" (watercress). At school, it's very thought that about 80% of children struggle with Czech language. Sometimes I told my parents that we should have stayed in England.
The symbol above some letters is called Háček ("hook", or more likely "little hook"). If you see a symbol with a little comma above it (á é í ó etc.) it means the the sound is prolonged. and these symbol appear only above vowels.
Ř is like R+Ž both at the same time Other letters that have not been in that video are mostly just long vowels - A vs Á, E vs É and so on. You did well
R+Ž is wrong pronunciation (there is no Ž sound in Ř at all) but better than nothing for foreigner. When you say it like R+Ž, it's more close to Polish RZ, but Ř is just one short sound, softened R.
@@Pidalinto be fair. The example in the video sounded sth inbetween polish "sz" and "ż", not exactly one or the other but exactly inbetween. At least to me as polish native speaker.
@@MisiekTroggi yes it does. its because bad audio compression on YT side or the original video file. the actor is capable and speaks it very well, but not in this "damaged" audio clip.
Hey you're pretty good. There was a few letters missing though. A E I O U have long versions Á É Í Ó Ú with Ú also having a Ů alternative. Most of times you'll find Ů inside words and Ú at the beginning, but actually it has to do with the development of Czech language, so there's exceptions to that. For example "trojúhelník" (triangle) keeps the same ú as "úhel". I don't remember precisely but I think the old Czech used to pronounce today's Ú as an O or something like that so the long U got a little o of its own, turning it in to Ů. Younger words though don't get to have the old Ů. I'm not an expert, don't take my word for granted. Edit: There's also Ě. I'm not even gonna start on that one. :D
Ů used to be pronounced as two vowels uo (example kuoň), in English you could approximate it with wo (kwoň). It later simplified into the long u (kůň, pronounced kúň). That circle above the u is actually a little o.
It is rule, word "trojúhelník" is forged from two words tři+úhelník (three+angle), in that case there is ú inside of combined words. Same for preposition for example "zúčastnit se" (to participate). But don't take my word for it, I'm only 50+ years old born native Czech speaker.
Češka tady! Czech here! You practically got all of it correct! When there's a straight line above a letter, it's pronounced long. For example A = "ah", Á = aah. When you said "Já jsem Ian" (I am Ian) it's pronounced with a "dlouhé A" (long A) good job! Love from Brno
A simple way to do Ř correctly (and unfortunately no one explains it that way) is this: Try saying R without the E before it. Not ER, but R. Then try to make it longer - RRRRR. When you get used to the "twerking" tongue in your mouth, start to slowly push it forward to your teeth and also close the mouth a little bit. The tongue starts to "twerk" faster and R becomes Ř. RRRRR->ŘŘŘŘŘ :)
The easiest is saying R and Ž together. Or if you can subtly whistle by tongue and teeth (without shaping mouth and without using fingers), doing that and trying to pronounce R with it.
I guess Spanish helps with being able to pronounce Czech CH correctly, I think it's virtually the same as the Spanish one (in Juan, juego etc.). I never thought an American would be able to say that. Ř is hard in theory, but you just have to be as hard on the R as possible (it's not a combination of R and Š/SH).
Tatra, Škoda, Bohemia, Praha ..are World wide famous names. Greatings from Estonia. = Tallinn - Prague is one road E67 ..one biggest /longest rod in Europa 1717 km / 1068 miles.
Ahoj to Finnish-baltic country :D Interesting fact, we feel special. Czechs only know things about D1 (highway Prague-Brno build by Hitler of panels that became bumpy and we say jokes about it) and E55 (dont ask).
7:04 When it comes to the word "Thank you" - "Děkuji"- the "D" is the same as in "Ď", it's just that the symbol moves above "E" making it "Ě". The same effect comes in when there is "i" after "D/T/N"- there is no symbol above, because "i" impersonates the effect by itself. Also the video didn't mention the long variants such as "í/ý/é/á/ó/ů/ú/". In the formal variant of "hello" - Dobrý den- you can see the long variant of "y" (it has the same pronunciation as "i" , but it doesn't put other letters into a softened state)- pronouncing it as /dobri:/ - as in "leak"- /liːk/ and "tea"- /tiː/
Your face when Ř come... Priceless. 🤭
You did it great. 👏
Im czech
@@himmlik me too
Ř
Fr, I laughed so hard
@@himmlikMy last name is Čech (Czech) 🤫
2:19 every Czech has been waiting for this 😂😂
But well done sir, well done 👍👍
Yes😂
True me wait wor this time xddd
and it was worth the waiting :D
True, but he did very good job. 😊
Yess
That was pretty solid pronunciation
I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that 🎉😎
@@IWrocker Yeah, the pronunciation is not bad, but your stress / accent is off. Czech language is supposed to "flow". We place accent only at the start of words and not even always (e.g. a preposition said with accent can flow into the noun which then needs no accent of its own). You seem to place accent on all syllables which sounds very "hard", for lack of a better word.
@@IWrocker Your Ř is better than many expats' who've been living here for years, at your first attempt! Bravo!
@@frufruJ Because he’s 50 percent Czech
I loved the Ř or how he pronouced it arš but the rest is solid
Man, you have very good pronunciation. "Ř" is a nightmare for our kids and some adults too 😉. Greetings from the Czech Republic.
FUN FACT
The word “dollar” originates from the Czech word “tolar” (short for “Joachimstaler”), which referred to a silver coin first minted in the town of Jáchymov (Joachimsthal) in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in the early 16th century.
In 1519, the Count of Schlick began producing large silver coins from local silver mines in Jáchymov. These coins became known as Joachimstaler Guldengroschen.
The long name was shortened to “taler” in German, and the coin gained widespread popularity across Europe due to its consistent silver content and value.
As these coins circulated across different countries, the name “taler” was adapted into various languages. The English eventually adopted the word as “dollar”, influenced by the Spanish “peso de ocho” (pieces of eight), which also circulated widely in the American colonies.
The Dollar in America:
When the United States gained independence, the Founding Fathers chose the “dollar” as the official currency, inspired by the popularity and stability of the taler and the Spanish dollar in global trade. The Coinage Act of 1792 established the U.S. dollar, basing its value on silver and gold standards similar to those used for talers.
Thus, the Czech “tolar” has a lasting legacy that directly influenced the naming of one of the world’s most recognized currencies today.
O Velvary o Vervali kde jsou mé tolary?
A co slovo robot od Karla Čapka?
The english word "pistol" has its origin in Czech word "píšťala" which was a weapon used during Hussite wars (1. half of 15 th century) in the Bohemia region. The letter Ř sometimes makes problems also to Czechs.
@@pavlapavlinka80 That's more of a saying and a legend and not e confirmed fact. It's assumed but nobody really knows if it comes from it or not.
@@Czechgirl-2010 Pravda. :)
Na zdraví!! Posílám pozdrav z České republiky! 🎉 You have a great channel,thanks for your interest in the Czech Rep.
Taky jsem z české republiky
@@Girlll199 stejně jako více než 10 miliónů dalších lidí :D
Taky
Ahoj!
@@user-cizinohabslol
Greeting from Prague. V is "single v" and W is double W - that mean "dvojité (double) V. You are good.🙂
An interesting thing about English 'w' double-u is that it comes from Latin where u and v used to be the same letter and the u(vowel) and w(semi-consonant) sounds were differentiated by doubling the u. So, double-u and dvojité vé are very closely related. The difference is that in words where W is used in Czech text (foreign words), it is normally pronounced as V.
@@titifatal I immediately thought of the example of two of our Czech and once very famous actors who played together inseparably - they were Jan Werich and Jiří (George) Voskovec. We Czechs read "V" and "W" exactly the same. Both emigrated to America, Jan Werich returned and lived out his life at home, while Jiří (in America George) Voskovec became an American actor and stayed in the USA. 🙂
@@IvaJelinkova-x3q Voskovec played immigrant juror in famous movie 12 angry men
German here, I don't speak Czech but I was guessing what you say about the W! Great to see I was right. Thanks for explaining!
@@Herzschreiber Ironically, v and w in German are not at all following the Latin mechanism to pronounce germanic sounds. That's what you get when you are using an alphabet with 23 characters for a bunch of European languages that have oodles of phonemes.
As a czech, I'm flattered by your interest in our language. 😀
Your pronunciatuion of each separate letter was immaculate 👌 (the rolled R really surprised me, that was good!) - of course your Ř was the exception but hey, you can't manage Ř on the first try... even czech kids struggle with that. And besides, it was the comedy we were all waiting for. 😁
And as for the czech words, your pronunciation was also quite good, but not as good as the individual letters.
Thanks for this video 😄 and greetings from the Czech Republic 👋
Pozdravy z Česka. (Greetings from Czechia) 🤪🥰
Ahoj z Srbska
Ahojky
Ahojjj
Nazdár
@@hanavesela5884 to jsme se tu krásně sešly:D
You deserve a small evaluation for how well you did! 🎉 I am sure a lot of us would love to see you in our beautiful country experiencing local beers, meals and cars.
Thank You so much ❤
I will see Czechia 🇨🇿 one day soon, I know it.
@@IWrocker Please dont forget to record everything, explore restaurants and supermarkets, and come to Brno !
Na Ř jsem se těšil :)
I was looking forward to Ř :)
Tak to snad všichni Češi 😂
Nezklamal. :-D
postavil se tomu čelem, ale zpočátku vypadal, že má doživotní trauma :D
taky taky 😂
realne to video to reklo retardovane ř
2:03 no way that was impresive
As a czech i don't See it but it Is probably inpressive
2:18 the confusion I was waiting for 🤣🤣🤣
Well done! 👍
The letter "Ř" is more or less easy to learn, but there are many words with "R" without vocal, these can be imo more difficult to pronounce, f.e. PRST (finger), SRST (animal hair), KRK (neck/throat) etc.
you can try this tongue-twister: STRČ PRST SKRZ KRK (meaning stick your finger through your throat)
or some with "Ř":
MISTŘE PETŘE, NEPŘEPEPŘTE TOHO VEPŘE (master Peter, don´t pepper this pork too much)
Greetings from Czechia ♥
Perfect pronunciation and I'm not exaggerating. 👏 Czech has 42 letters and Slovak has 46 letters, the highest number in Europe. There are 3 letters that exist in Czech and not in Slovak and 6 letters that exist in Slovak and not in Czech. The letter Ř is famously exclusive to Czech. The similarity of Czech and Slovak texts is 84% and we understand each other practically 100% thanks to a huge exposure since childhood. Both languages have stress *always* on the first syllable of the word, which is atypical for Slavic languages. Loved this video.
The origin language of all Slavic people used to be "Bukvica" it had 49letters=sounds, it was "picture" alphabet, matematicaly based 7x7, script was similar to cyrilic script. It was not so long ago than todays history teach us. And todays alphabets and dividing one slavic nation into many starts only about 300years ago... Mainly with compulsory education, and mandatory school system based in Europe that time.
OH no Slovakia, boooo...just joking
@Mykaeil This is a na•zi pseudoscience and not a fact.
@@Mykaeil That is a na z i pseudoscience and not a fact.
@@Mykaeilyou're a fool at best and a shill for Russia at worst. Slavic peoples started adopting glagolitic (later cyrylic) and Latin scripts during christianization, roughly from the 5th to 10th centuries CE.
As a Czech who absolutely loves the US, this video was like a birthday present :D Also your pronunciation was suprisingly very good!
you nailed it ! (Greetings from Czechia)
YAS same
A fellow czech (probably) playing KSP huh
@@Vasikus of course :) (Samozřejmě :) )
@@petrsadlek4011 jak jinak, čeština...
Jakýto perfektní jazyk
@vasikus přesně čeština je perfektní jazyk
I can tell you, as a native English speaker and long time learner of Czech, that was great for a first go through. You were really quite good with the Ř. I found that pretending to be on a motorcycle and making revving noises was quite helpful in mastering that sound. Go ahead and overdo it at first and then ease off the gas as you get more comfortable with it. I find the relative difficulty of that sound to be dependent on the letters that surround it in a word; the Czech word for ladder, žebřík, is quite tricky the first few times. Greetings from Brno.
Thank you is "děkuju" or "děkuji", where "dě" is pronounced as "ĎE". Also one speciality in Czech is that we have a semivowels or what is the proper term.... Basically you can have l and r function as a vowel. For example in "vlk" (wolf), the "l" is treated as vowel.... So one famous tongue-breaker is "strč prst skrz krk", where there is no vowel in the whole sentence....
yes R and L are more half vowel half consonant. I think that is why people learning czech are confused from words with "consonants only". 😊
They are called syllabic consonants
@@tygrfili9624 And they allow the existence of such beautiful words as "čtvrthrst" (quarter of a handful) and "scvrnkl" (flicked off).
@@MasakoNagauchi and even whole sentenses! 😊
Krt plch z mlh Brd pln skvrn z mrv prv hrd scvrnkl z brd skrz trs chrp v krs vrb mls mrch srn čtvrthrst zrn.
Which could be also writen as:
Lakomý hlodavec z čeledi plchovitých, který pocházel z pohoří Brdy, kde bývá často mlha, a který byl plný skvrn od chlévské mrvy, nejdříve ze všeho hrdě scvrnknul z brzd skrze trs rostlin zvaných chrpa až do zakrslých stromů, jimiž byly v tomto případě vrby, pochoutku srnek-potvor, kterou bylo čtvrt hrsti zrní.
Im not good in english, but it could be something like:
A miserly rodent from the family of the rat family, which came from the Brdy mountains, where there is often fog, and which was full of stains from stable manure, first of all proudly shriveled from the hills through a bunch of plants called cornflowers to the dwarf trees, which in this case were willows, the deer-monster delicacy, which was a quarter of a handful of grain.
Also lets don't forget "Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh." 😀
I'm German and moved to Czech Republic about a year ago with my Czech husband and our 2 kids. I really enjoyed your reaction to ř 😅 I feel you! It took me about half a year to get it halfway right 😅 But even quite some Czech kids need to visit a special speech teacher to help them improve with their pronunciation of ř - so there's no shame in not being able to do it. Depending on which letters it's surrounded by ř can be very hard to pronounce.
To get exactly the correct sound for ď, ť, and ň is hard as a foreigner too. It's a completely different tongue movement compared to their counterparts d, t and n... and sometimes, I just wanna buy some vowels somewhere to give my tonge time to relax 😅 trying my best tho. It's a pretty efficient language, coz there is a lot of info about the gender/case hidden in the ending of a word. I'm grateful that there are not so many cases for time, but that every verb has 2 forms is driving me crazy 🤯 In general, I do like it tho ❤️ Learning one step at a time...
That's hell great. I watch you from Czechia and enjoy your videos very much.
We all came for the Ř reaction. And it was WORTH IT! Absolutely priceless :D I'm actually very impresed with your overall pronountiation! Thank you :D
I'm surprised how well you picked up Czech just from visiting a shop with Czech staff. You certainly have a talent for languages. Greetings from Hradec Kralové, Czech Republic.
Oh c'mon don't scare him with Hradec Králové, that is awful to try to say for english speaking person.
By the way greeting from Hradec Králové 😂
@@marekvojta9648 😂 zdravím krajana, v tomto případě i souměšťana😉
@amazonit99 🤣
@@marekvojta9648 Hradec Králové would not scare him, I am sure, but Pardubice could scare him a lot🤣Greetings from Hradec Králové as well 😀
Nazdar sousede, (pravděpodobně). 😅
Man, you have my respect. As a native Czech, I am absolutely amazed at how you handled this. Respect. Please make more videos like this. :)
Ian, your Czech pronounciation is really good - I really do like your videos and noticed that in your Tatra's and Škoda's ones. My experience is that almost every American is not able to pronounce 'ch' letter, ususally they say 'k'. And 'ŕ' letter is difficult for many Czechs as well :) We have a nice word řeřicha (garden cress), it is good for training :)
In my experience Americans also struggle with or "C" and "Ť" as well since those are not sounds that English commonly use.
4:20 The wierd marks are called "háčky" (little hooks) and there are also long letters that aren't in the alphabet for (example: á, é, í, etc.). :D
"Czech this out"
Haha you caught that 🤣🎉🎉
@@IWrocker I cough dat. Czeched, Polished, Finnished, time for Czech Inn
@@DaweSlayerTime to Italeave.
Let's Czech out the Czech alphabet... I'll see myself out.... Czech please!
Lol😂
as a czech myself this was a surreal experience, never have i thought id see a foreigner react to our alphabet :DD you did great!! the phrases you remembered are especially impressive
Ah you have summoned all the czechs. Good video, one note on the pronunciation of Czech words, most often than not the stress is on the first syllable. Your pronunciation is quite good and it can only improve with that in mind!
Hey man, u r pretty good with prononcing letters ! I would understand u what u r saying. Good job. Example about Škoda vs. Skoda was hitting the nail !
Your reaction to Ř was priceless. 😂 In the street view you briefly showed at 4:48 there is a store called "doma". I wonder if that's a store owned by Czech or Slovak immigrants because it literally means "at home" in our languages. EDIT: It's owned by Croatians so their word for home is probably the same.
In fact 0:32 we don't say all those letters in the alfabeth we say only the same letters as English has and we just add the marks hope you liked our alfabeth!!!
I ususaly include ch because its just funny to me that it's just 2 letters that are considered one
Czech... Řř is a NIGHTMARE for foreigners... let's see how would you able to pronounce that.
Good. Way better than I expected.
you are really good at this! (Czech native speaker here). you are correct - grammatically, the correct form is "děkuji" or in common speech "děkuju". both are correct. Watch out for the stress - when in English it is usually on the second syllable, in Czech it is on the first one
The Ř wasn't bad! One tip for pronouncing it is to pronounce rolled R, but with your front teeth touching.
And voiceless I guess.
Omg finally!! Thank you so much!!!!!
incorrect, you can say Ř with open jaws and teeth not touching
Technically (as a czech) I would more recommend to try to push the tongue forward then doing R, and close the mouth just a little bit. Try saying RRR and then just push the tongue forward -> ŘŘŘ. RRRRR->ŘŘŘŘŘ
@@IQEGO Yeah, that's a possibility. But I feel like it's easier to focus on what your teeth are doing than your tongue, especially when you're not used to rolling your R.
Got this vid recommended randomly, so I checked it out and I'm rly impressed by your pronunciation!
Only exception would be your "Jsem Ian", you're pronouncing extra e in there, "J(e)sem" is what you're saying. But the absence of vowels in some words in Czech, usually is one of the biggest challenges for English speakers😅.
Your pronunciation was really good actually, great job!
Fun fact: by the guiness book of world records, Ř is the most rarest sound in any language, and Czech is the only major language in the world that has it
Byl jsi skvělý! (You were great!), Greetings from Czechia~
7:00 "děkuji" is the most formal, it's used in writing to people who are not friends and also they use it on Tv, politicians use it, or anybody who talks in formal situations or wants to look dignified.
"děkuju" is what the people use in their everyday life regardless of whome are they speaking to (a shop assistant, a doctor, also a friend or a family member. Also used in writing to a friend or family member.)
The least formal is "díky" and it's used in talking or writing with friends, family members and sometimes in speaking with shop assistants or so - it's a quick short thanks for common or not so significant things.
If I'm talking or writing with a friend or family member and I want to let them now, I really appreciate what they did, it's better to use "děkuju" than "díky".
Great pronounciation man :) I know one American from Denver living in Prague for 12 years now and his pronounciation is tragic :D (but he admits it, it's hard for him to learn Czech) you could already teach him! Czech Regards from Malta :)
Greetings from Czechia! You nailed Ř for the first time, I'm impressed! Usually it's the last letter that kids learn to pronounce. My daughter learned it recently when she was 4,5 years old and she was pretty early with that compared to other kids. She was so proud of herself 😊
Oh damn, good job on the Ř! Impressive for the first time trying it.
So funny to see your reaction Ř and W. Mainly because I could relate. Haha!
I'm from Denmark, here we have 3 additional letters to the ones in the English alphabet: Æ (Ae), Ø (Oe) and Å (Aa, sounds like the beginning of "always"). Test out Danish, as a lot old-Danish (old-Norse) is the origin of English words.
In my part of Denmark (south, close to the German border) we have our "own" locale language (Sønderjysk), where the following sentence actually has a meaning: "Æ æ u o æ ø i æ å". In English it would be "I'm on the island in the stream" 😛
You're doing pretty well!
I have a few generic tips for you regarding Czech words:
1. Unlike English, Czech puts accent always on the first syllable.
2. Don't be afraid to open your mouth more. When we learn English they tell us that "the English have a hot potato in their mouth". With Czech you really need to move thouse muscles.
3. Don't be afrait to put a bit more spaces between the words. In some cases the preposition and the word need to be separated, because the same presposition can also serve as a prefix and then it's a different meaning. (For example "Dokola" and "Do kola"). Sometimes we ignore the spaces like you do, but that's more often informal then formal.
4. Long vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú/ů, ý) are a bit longer. Also important, because some words have can have both versions and have different meanings. I'll try to find some sounds that are similar. Á is sort of like aa in Naan. É is like oyu pronounced in the video, regular E is the same but shorter - E is like E in Elf. Í is longer than you thnk. It's long like ee Weed. The closesd to Í I can thing ok is the begining (The first E) of the word Evening. Ó is just longer than regular O. Regular O is in Škoda - short and doesn'T go to U sound. So this just longer - an example would be the a word móda (fashion). Ú/ů is what you guys make by doubling the letter O, so like the oo in Cool or Pool. And Ý is the phonetically the same as Í, the difference is gramatical.
5. The letter Ě: there's a whole grammar for it, but phonetically the E takes the ˇ from some letters and has it instead of them - those are Ď, Ň and Ť. So ď+e becomes dě in "děkuji" but ď+a stays ďa in "Láďa". So for your purpouse: dě = [ďe], ně = [ňe], tě = [ťe] (the e being the short E as in the word Elf). If the Ě follows another letter (b, m,...) it is instead bronounced as 'je' - that's like your Yes without the S. So bě = [bje] etc.
You asked about Děkuji vs. Děkuju - the -ji is formal (and gramatically corect) the -ju is informal (used among friends etc.). Happens with lot of verbs.
You can also say "Zdravím" (means greetings but the vibe is a bit less obnoxious) to greet people - the plus side is that it's neutral - it works as both formal and informal. I always use it when I don't know which way am I meant to speak 😅
Ř is sort of like when you position your toungue to pronounce rolling R, but force the Ž sound through it. You got it really well.
If your'e interested, have a look at Slovak alphabet too. They have some letters we don't have instead of some of our letters.
Good luck, honestly, from Praha!
hodně dobrej koment!
Ad 1) Not always, Ahoj is exception form this rule.
@@MrToradragon No it's not? In English yes, that's like aHoy!
But not in Czech, at least not in formal Czech.
To nám na Angličtině naopak vždycky říkali ať víc otvíráme pusu, že v češtině jsme zvyklí ji vůbec neotvírat a mumlat. Poprvé co slyším někoho říkat to přesně naopak.
@@baph0met No, my spíš tak jako víc artikulujeme 😅
Czech language is very deep and complicated so the possibility of expressing a complicated thoughts is better than in other languages. At least somebody can :)
I've lived in the Czech Rep for 22yrs & Ř (R Háček ) can still cause me some issues. Try this classic Czech tongue twister - Třistatřiatřicet stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes třistatřiatřicet stříbrných střech. This tongue twister translates to "Three hundred and thirty three silver quails flew over three hundred and thirty three silver roofs."
add "tři" to "třistatřicet", substitute "křepelek" with "stříkaček" and "přeletělo" with "stříkalo" :-)
@@timmyymmit615 Txs.
@@TheMontyman007 the number is fine, "tři sta tři a třicet" is same as "tři sta třicet tři". although the former is much less common nowadays ;]
@@timmyymmit615 yes, i actualy use more this one :D
Take into account that these are tongue twisters Czechs created to banter themselves!
You got a pretty good pronunciation. I believe czech must be really difficult to learn. Nice work!
W is just saying "double V" 😂 also A E I O U has written versions also as Á É Ě Í Ó Ú Ů
Czech has advantage over english in that we write almost everything same way as we speak it - so even this beauty: `Příliš žluťoučký kůň úpěl ďábelské ódy` is readable if you know what sound each letter/letter sequence make ... btw: can anyone read this IPA transcription: `/ˈpr̝̊iːlɪʃ ˈʒl̩u̝tʲou̯t͡ʃkiː ˈkuːɲ ˈuːpɛl ˈɟaːbɛlskɛ ˈoːdɪ/` - because cant :D
Fun fact about Czechs: they are so based that they invented three words, pistol, howitzer, and a word for yeeting someone out of the window, then proceeded to defenestrate a couple of pro-pope administrators in the first (and not the last) defenestration of Prague, had 5 crusades declared on them, fought them all off with a bunch of peasants armed with proto-guns and flails, led by a half-blind and later fully blind general who never lost a battle, who employed a tactic that could be described as a moving fort, which was capable of fighting off the prime knighthood of the Holy Roman Empire, all of this within a 20 years
They also commonly use Ahoj as a common greeting despite being fully landlocked (Slovaks too), which is the ultimate power-play imo
edit nvm you got it x)
Hussites were based during Jan Žižka's reign.. he should check this part of history out. Not many talk about it
He also basically used tanks to fight them off (but I guess this was already kinda used in the past too..?)
also the word "robot" is czech invention
@@x340x yup, especially that. We have more, tho. But talking about Hussites.. maybe mention of Dollar could fit the time period..?
@@Daesma999 Yes, first Thaler was minted in Bohemia 1520, you're welcome USA.
(let's call it first global non-reserve currency)
And despite being a fully landlocked country, we have won a naval battle (Battle of Lake Baikal) and thus have a stellar 100 % victory rate in naval battles.
4:05 Examples that I can think of are for Q: Quido and Kvído they're basically read the same
And another thing for Y. It's very similar to I and they are sometimes called "tvrdé Y" (hard Y) and "měkké I" (soft I) you can hear the difference when you read them in syllables like: dy/di, ty/ti, ny/ni
In some cases only I can be used: ži, ši, či, ři, ci, ji
Or for Y: hy, chy, ky, ry
Actually, there's no difference in the pronunciation of "i" and "y" in Czech, it's just when "i" is preceded by "d,t,n" those consonants become soft - so "di, ti, ni" is pronounced "ďi, ťi, ňi".
@SkyBlueDesign1 To clarify I meant the difference in their pronunciation in d, t, n. I know that most of the time they're both read as I in b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z but they can also change the meanings of words and all so I think they're still a bit different even if they're pretty similar.
@@milk1957Oh, I see. But I'm not sure about there being two different sounds for "i".
I consulted "Czech phonology" on Wikipedia and it says there's a slight difference in pronunciation of "i" between Bohemia and Eastern Moravia (see chapter Vowels) but there isn't any difference in pronunciation according to a preceding letter.
But in your initial comment you explained very well what's going on with "Q" in Czech and also the similarities and differences between I and Y, their uses and how they influence the pronunciation of "d, t, n", I see your comment as very informative and useful for those interested in the Czech language.
Congrats, you're really good, man😯👏🏻👍🏻! I had Czech parents, but was born and raised in Switzerland, where we used to speak swiss only, and had to learn Czech from scratch when I moved to the Czech Republic 16 years ago. Mine wasn't as good as your Czech even after two years.
The only thing that is easier about the Czech language than any other language I know is that absolutely every word is always stressed on the first syllable. Greetings from Prague!
You did quite well with Ř for a native English speaker 👍 The face though 😅 It's a very unique sound, though, only a few other languages or dialects have it, and of those, Czech is the only one that's an official national language. And frankly, even some native speakers struggle with it, as well with our R.
Also, to address your confusion about W - it's not "spelled out" as a single letter sound, what you hear literally means "a double V" - "dvojité vé". So just like English is calling it "double U", we are (arguably more logically) calling it "double V".
And one last thing to mention is that we also have several other letters that are not included here, such as "longer" alternatives of letters like É (a longer E) or Ó (a longer Ó), and we also have two additional Us - Ů and Ú, which are both pronounced the same way (a longer U), but are not freely interchangeable within words (in fact using the wrong U would be downright considered a grammar error).
Hello, Im Slovak living currently in Austria, Vienna! Would love to see you in Vienna or Bratislava, where I was born! Czechoslovskia was a thing mainly because of our languages, Czech and Slovak are pretty much intelligible languages, at least we Slovaks are used to consuming media in Czech without translation - books, television, films. Slovaks and Czech I think have also a famous SPG - self propelled artillery called Dana or Zuzana. Something to consider when being into trucks. Ain´t a bigger thing for trucks than carrying artillery!
You did really great with the basic sentences dude! Justbe careful around "děkuji", it has more of the D inthe beggining, not J, but after all that was really great! I was really surprised at your ř, it sounded almost perfect!!! Love from Czechia ;3❤
I really really love your videos! You should travel Europe one day, I'm sure many viewers of you can host you in many different countries!
That’s my dream 🎉
@@IWrocker South Bohemian Booking host here btw. You're always welcome. Just a few kilometers from Budweis. Free of charge of course.
@@IWrocker I‘ll add that I‘m from Bern, Switzerland then, also always welcome :)
I've never seen an American pronounce the Czech alphabet so well. Congrats, bro, you're amazing!
As a German I can confirm that train conductors in Czechia will greet you with "Dobrý den!". Only one time it was "Haló!".
Saxon Health "Hallo"
"Haló" is used as a greeting only in phone calls. When used outside phone calls, it's usually used in order or make oneself be heard, e.g. when you get lost or when you enter some premises and want to find out if anyone is present).
"Dobrý den" is a formal greeting. When you greet your aquaintances, you use "ahoj" or "čau".
@PG-gs5vb Thanks for the addition. It happened once in the EuroCity train between Dresden and Prague. Each passenger was greeted by the train attendant with "Halo!", "Hello!" and "Hallo!".
@@PG-gs5vb AS a czech, I never use HAlo. I dont need it.
If you are on your way from Germany/Austria and you dont wear socks in sandals, you will ALWAYS be greeted by "Haló!" :D :D :D
you, sir, just earned another subscriber. loved this video, warms my heart someone likes our language and doesnt compare it to russian :)
You did great!
Outside of Ř, the pronunciation with "hook" is simple - a softer letter
We also have long vowels, with a comma above the letter. a vs á ect like the difference between pronaunce mark and car in eng.
The advantage is always the same pronunciation of the letters, in this, for example English, is very confusing.
Except that "softer" seems to be at times an "H" and at times a "J". You have to remember which is when.
@@blechtic Isn't CH softened H?
Doing great man! The Ř was really close and I think I will explain it like this to my foreign friends who'd like to try it. You combined the rolling R and Š. Sounded convincing. :) Not even people who've lived here for years can say it. :D
You got the words correct, but thank you is děkuji (ďekuji / diekuyi), there's the soft D.
Also common greeting is "čus / čau" (tchus / tchau) commonly used between friends
Bonus info:
Čus bude pravděpodobně z německého Tschüs, ale Čau bych viděl spíše na italské Ciao
@@czechgop7631 Máš recht. Servus! 🙂
Fun fact! The way you're trying to intuitively pronounce "Ř" is absolutely correct! Saying "RŽ" is actually one of the methods that logopedists use to teach kids who cannot pronounce it ☺
Polish is VERY similar to Chech so as a Polish person I totally understood you. :)
We actually pronounce the letters the same way accept they we have just a few different letters. In all the words you told, they had just very minor but understandable differences.
Once I actually met a Chech person abroad. We managed to understand each other by talking in our languages and so we became friends :D.
There are a lot of minor differences between the languages but in the end of the day everything is quite understandable. It's awesome, right?!
Without knowing Polish as a Czech I've spent some time in Poland. The first day I understood some 50% and after few days some 80%, still feeling I can easily go further.
Of course it's not enough to write poetry in Polish, but more than enough to undestand each other and to talk about things in pretty high level of detail & understanding.
Speaked polish sound understandable if one put bit effort into listening.
Written look like some demon summoning manual.
Czech here, I appreciate you've catched that the "valley" sign ˇ is for softening consonants (essentially in English "š" would be like "sh" or "č" like "ch") while the "wing" sign ´ is for prolonging vowels, as well as English still recognizes the long "e" in "café".
And that's pretty much it.
Well, with "Ř" as an exclusivitity that only Poles share with us, still pronouncing "Ř" in a bit different way and writing it as "Rz".
The secret to pronounce it well is also pretty simple: pronounce Spanish-like "R", but just shift your tongue a bit more forward and add a bit of "S"; keep it "dry", don't add any wovels or jawbone-based sounds and you are there.
That was a quite good. Greetings from Slovakia. Our language got a lot of common with czech language... 😊
Yes, but no Ř. You're missing out! 😄
That "ř" was impresive. The same for "w". And it's true, that "ř" letter has just few of countries. ❤
Wow, I must say I'm quite impressed with your pronounciation. Especially your D.. I mean.. Your pronounciation of the letter D really hit as if you were a local in Czechia, although it might seem quite basic, you really nailed the accent.
Also a little detail, in Czechia we only say "ahoj" to friends and close people, just someone who we address as "ty" (you) and not "Vy" (you, but formally, used to address any stranger, cashier or just anyone who's not a friend), otherwise we always use "dobrý den" or some other formal greeting. We tend to speak to strangers and other random people around really formally so "ahoj" and "dobrý den" are regularly not interchangeable and in Czechia some rude old people might get mad at you and whack you with their walking stick, if you either didn't greet them at all when walking past on the street, or if you said "ahoj" instead of "dobrý den" (fortunately there aren't many of these rude folks anymore).
I dont understand how fast youre learning ❤❤😂
Great job ❤ im so so happy that czech language ist that hidden anymore❤❤thank you so much
Greetings from Czech republic, your pronunciation is very good, I'm impressed! Keep it up, I'm looking forward to more content from Czech Republic :) And if you ever come to the Czech Republic, I'd be happy to give you a ride in multiple Skoda cars, especially in a diesel wagons as you like them :)
If you're into phonetics, if you wanted a layman's explanation per se to grasp the concept of Ř better, it's basically this:
/r/ is typically a 'voiced alveolar vibrant', meaning the place of pronunciation is the alveolar ridge (the backside of your gums the hard palate is not hard palate yet), and the vibrant is the rolling principle of pronunciation
/ř/, while not referred to as that, is typically basically a 'voiced alveolar fricative vibrant', so the principle is the same as /r/, except it has the fricative 'sh' quality due to all the turbulence; you basically say a crippled, alveolar /š/ but vibrate it like a /r/
Fun fact: while this distinction is not noticable neither in the alphabet nor is it typically mentioned anywhere, the Czech language actually regularly uses voiceless variants of Ř as well, and the sound is actually distinguishible; some examples would be:
Voiced Ř:
Řeka (a river)
Voiceless Ř:
Křtiny (one's day and date of christening)
The reason why this happens probably has something to do with being surrounded by voiced phonemes, however I don't really know what the rule is exactly, because for example "Křoví" (a bush) would be actually voiceless, for some ungodly reason, because that word only has 2 syllables, there's no schwa between K and Ř.
And if you're asking whether a voiceless /R/ sound exists, it does on paper, but not in actual Czech pronunciation, because in our language, 'R' is actually a syllabic consonant, meaning it either occurs surrounded by some voiced vowels, or it takes on the function of one, in which case you pronounce it with what basically is a schwa following, for example "Krb" (a fireplace).
And for those wondering, 'voiced' means you can't pronounce the sound without making a sound in your voicebox, while 'voiceless' means you can just pass air through without actually vibrating your vocal cords.
Finally! Love your videos, greetings from czechia. Your pronounciation was really good, I am now learning spanish and their sounds are similar to some of ours :) Even that Ř of yours was impressive :)
One correction to your "My name is Ian" would be that you said "jesem" in czech it's just "jsem". And I would like to point out that "Dobrý den" and "Ahoj" aren't really interchangable as first one is formal and is used for people you don't know, using "Ahoj" in that case would be strange or rude depending on person and situation. One good exception I think of is when you are in the boat in river (quite popular summer activity) and another boat is passing by you greet with "Ahoj" even if you don't know each other.
I am learning English. I often confuse Czech and English letters in English and this video helps me a lot to realize which letters are slightly different. Thanks a lot for this.
Your rolling r is impressive.
This was fun. As others said before, every Czech was waiting for ›Ř‹, but you did quite well. It still sounded more like Polish »RZ« though, with both ›R‹ and ›Z‹ discernible/distinguishable; if you wish to improve it, you need to move the rolling forward towards the tip of your tongue and at the same time to make it finer. Oh, and to make it even more fun, there are in fact two ›Řs‹ in spoken Czech, one after unvoiced consonants, as in »tři« (three), and the other after voiced consonants or at the start of a syllable, as in »řeka« (river) or »březen« (March).
But don't you worry, you actually know these sounds already-they say that every child (apart from mute and deaf of course) when it starts learning the language tries every imaginable sound we people use at least once. So you've done it already. 🙂
Greetings from Prague, Czechia!
Wow great job! Ř is unique letter and i believe it is used only in slovenia and czechia :) Small kids sometimes learn the right pronunciation for years .And its cool,that you learned few words. Champ ;)
Only in czech
U did great honestly. From what ive seen, my non czech friends always struggled with ř. It honestly is insane. Everybody initially makes the face u made LOL.
When I go to a store I usually say Brý den (lazy version of Dobrý den). But when I go to a store where they know me I say Zdravím. Both are formal, but Zdravim is imho a little bit less formal then Dobrý den.
"Brayden!"
Had been waiting for that "Ř" consonant and wasn't dissapointed. You rock, mate!!!
Your Czech pronounciation is not half bad for a foreigner! Dobrá práce! Zdravím z Čech!
Honestly love that really someone likes this small country
Really good pronunciation, as Czech guy, i like hear czech from you Ian, in past guy named Tady Gavin was learning czech language, but for unknown reason he stopped making videos on YT, But Czech alphabet is just little step, wait until our grammar :)
Fun fact: many people don't even realize that the unique letter Ř has two slightly different pronunciations. Another is at the beginning of the word, and another is when it is further in the word. For those of you who are reading this: try how both Ř sound differently :) And now for pronunciation: your ahoy sounds original, but for us it sounds like "ahój", but we are saying "ahoj". And yes, we use even ahój sometimes when yelling at someone :) Dóbry den = wrong, Dobrý den = right. I know, it goes against your style of mother language. Just ask anytime, and we can make a call to set your Czech right.
3:15 it just says "Double U (V V ) / double V)
Czech is so hard, I'm surprised because your pronunciation was so good. Many Czechs have trouble speaking Czech, even though it is their mother tongue. Your "Ř" and "CH" were also prety good. You have done good job.
I'm actually surprised how accurately were you able to say "R". Usually native english speakers struggle with it.
So, here is a little lesson for the phrases you have learned.
"Dobrý den" means "Good day" it's the most used greetings between strangers, you use it when you start a conversation, wanna ask or when you just go past and wanna be polite. It's the most polite way to start.
"Ahoj" means "Hello" is more for aquaintences or people you know, it's polite version of the next word, and if it's your friend you can use "Čau" ("čau" can be used as a greeting or as a goodbye between friends, family, simply the people you are close to).
"Nashledanou" basically means " Until I see you again" or it could also mean "See you later", it's a polite way to end the conversation or we also say it when we are leaving for example Waiting rooms when we are at doctors, hospitals etc..
"Prosím" is "Please" so yeah.
"Děkuji“ is "Thank you" it's more polite way to talk with strangers etc. If you wanna be even more polite, you can say "Děkuji mockrát" which means "Thank you very much", with friends, family etc. You would say shortly "Díky" that's less polite but still polite.
"Nazdraví" means "Cheers" but "Nazdar" can be used as a greeting or a goodbye between friends, family, yada yada, you know the drill.
Hope this little lesson will help you, whoever reads it.
I'm half British, but I have been living in the Czech Republic for 10 years, and the letter "Ř" is the hardest letter, and I can't pronounce it even a lot of Czechs can't pronounce it and good luck saying "řeřicha" (watercress). At school, it's very thought that about 80% of children struggle with Czech language. Sometimes I told my parents that we should have stayed in England.
Imagine somebody named Gregory Watercress, in Czech Řehoř Řeřicha 😅.
@@VítězslavNovák-u3x But then he can sign his papers with just cool ŘŘ :D
@@IQEGO If I was ŘŘ, I'd want to drive only the Řolls-Řoyce 😁.
@@VítězslavNovák-u3x Ah yes, almighty Řolls-Řoyce for mister Řehoř Řeřicha :D
The symbol above some letters is called Háček ("hook", or more likely "little hook").
If you see a symbol with a little comma above it (á é í ó etc.) it means the the sound is prolonged. and these symbol appear only above vowels.
Ř is like R+Ž both at the same time
Other letters that have not been in that video are mostly just long vowels - A vs Á, E vs É and so on. You did well
R+Ž is wrong pronunciation (there is no Ž sound in Ř at all) but better than nothing for foreigner. When you say it like R+Ž, it's more close to Polish RZ, but Ř is just one short sound, softened R.
@@Pidalinto be fair. The example in the video sounded sth inbetween polish "sz" and "ż", not exactly one or the other but exactly inbetween. At least to me as polish native speaker.
@@MisiekTroggi yes it does. its because bad audio compression on YT side or the original video file. the actor is capable and speaks it very well, but not in this "damaged" audio clip.
@@Pidalin A jak bys chtěl vysvětlit cizinci jakou má mít jazyk polohu při vyslovování ř ? To co tam napsal je správně.
@@Pidalin Kurwa!! Polak i Czech rozmawiają ze sobą po angielsku?!? Mówcie w swoich językach kurwa!! Przecież my się rozumiemy!
as someone from czech this is so funny to watch
Hey you're pretty good. There was a few letters missing though. A E I O U have long versions Á É Í Ó Ú with Ú also having a Ů alternative. Most of times you'll find Ů inside words and Ú at the beginning, but actually it has to do with the development of Czech language, so there's exceptions to that. For example "trojúhelník" (triangle) keeps the same ú as "úhel". I don't remember precisely but I think the old Czech used to pronounce today's Ú as an O or something like that so the long U got a little o of its own, turning it in to Ů. Younger words though don't get to have the old Ů. I'm not an expert, don't take my word for granted. Edit: There's also Ě. I'm not even gonna start on that one. :D
Ů used to be pronounced as two vowels uo (example kuoň), in English you could approximate it with wo (kwoň). It later simplified into the long u (kůň, pronounced kúň). That circle above the u is actually a little o.
It is rule, word "trojúhelník" is forged from two words tři+úhelník (three+angle), in that case there is ú inside of combined words. Same for preposition for example "zúčastnit se" (to participate). But don't take my word for it, I'm only 50+ years old born native Czech speaker.
Češka tady! Czech here! You practically got all of it correct! When there's a straight line above a letter, it's pronounced long. For example A = "ah", Á = aah. When you said "Já jsem Ian" (I am Ian) it's pronounced with a "dlouhé A" (long A) good job!
Love from Brno
A simple way to do Ř correctly (and unfortunately no one explains it that way) is this: Try saying R without the E before it. Not ER, but R. Then try to make it longer - RRRRR. When you get used to the "twerking" tongue in your mouth, start to slowly push it forward to your teeth and also close the mouth a little bit. The tongue starts to "twerk" faster and R becomes Ř. RRRRR->ŘŘŘŘŘ :)
The easiest is saying R and Ž together. Or if you can subtly whistle by tongue and teeth (without shaping mouth and without using fingers), doing that and trying to pronounce R with it.
you actually did rlly good
11 seconds in, I'm hitting that like button. Go Česká republika! :))
I guess Spanish helps with being able to pronounce Czech CH correctly, I think it's virtually the same as the Spanish one (in Juan, juego etc.). I never thought an American would be able to say that. Ř is hard in theory, but you just have to be as hard on the R as possible (it's not a combination of R and Š/SH).
11s pretty slow for Czech and video about us, shame on you!
@@DaweSlayer Sorry! :)
@@tomscorpion6288 you didn't do something bad and yes it's true the spanish language helps to pronounce ch.
Holy moly, your pronunciations was really really great, I did not expect it to be this good. 👏
very decent first Ř!
You made my night nice and funny, very good job :)
Tatra, Škoda, Bohemia, Praha ..are World wide famous names. Greatings from Estonia. = Tallinn - Prague is one road E67 ..one biggest /longest rod in Europa 1717 km / 1068 miles.
Ahoj to Finnish-baltic country :D Interesting fact, we feel special.
Czechs only know things about D1 (highway Prague-Brno build by Hitler of panels that became bumpy and we say jokes about it) and E55 (dont ask).
7:04 When it comes to the word "Thank you" - "Děkuji"- the "D" is the same as in "Ď", it's just that the symbol moves above "E" making it "Ě".
The same effect comes in when there is "i" after "D/T/N"- there is no symbol above, because "i" impersonates the effect by itself.
Also the video didn't mention the long variants such as "í/ý/é/á/ó/ů/ú/". In the formal variant of "hello" - Dobrý den- you can see the long variant of "y" (it has the same pronunciation as "i" , but it doesn't put other letters into a softened state)- pronouncing it as /dobri:/ - as in "leak"- /liːk/ and "tea"- /tiː/