ř — a sound almost no language has
Not “rzh”. It's an r and a zh at the same time, in one movement of the tongue. There is no English equivalent — you can only hear it and copy it.
riverthree
The Czech alphabet, out loud
The Czech alphabet has 42 letters. Tap any of them to hear its name and an example word. No transcriptions that lie to you.
Tap any letter
You'll hear its name and an example word.
Tap a letter to hear it
The sounds you don't have
Five places where Czech parts ways with English. These are where people stop understanding you — and exactly what no table will ever show you.
h and ch are two different sounds
Czech h is voiced — closer to the h in “ahead” than to anything else. ch is voiceless, like the Scottish “loch”. Swap them and you've said a different word.
mountainbread
ě — a letter with no sound of its own
On its own it makes no sound: it softens the consonant before it. And mě is read as “mnye”. You cannot pronounce it in isolation — only inside a word.
to domonth
Length changes the meaning
The mark above a vowel isn't decoration — it doubles the length. byt means “flat”, být means “to be”. Same vowel, different word.
flatto be
y and i sound identical
The difference is only in spelling. být “to be” and bít “to beat” are pronounced exactly the same — you cannot tell them apart by ear.
to beatto be
Words with no vowel at all
vlk “wolf”, krk “neck” — no vowels; r and l carry the syllable themselves. These are ordinary Czech words, not typos.
wolfneck
The whole alphabet as a table
The same thing in one list — easy to save or print.
| Letter | Name | Roughly like | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a — short, as in “father” | car | ||
| Á á | a — held twice as long | coffee | ||
| B b | b | shoe | ||
| C c | ts, as in “cats” | price | ||
| Č č | ch, as in “church” | tea | ||
| D d | d | day | ||
| Ď ď | soft d, as in British “duty” | boat | ||
| E e | e, as in “bed” | dog | ||
| É é | e — held twice as long | milk | ||
| Ě ě | no equivalent | to do | ||
| F f | f | photo | ||
| G g | g, as in “go” | garage | ||
| H h | voiced h, as in “ahead” | mountain | ||
| Ch ch | ch, as in Scottish “loch” | bread | ||
| I i | i, as in “sit” | beer | ||
| Í í | ee, as in “see” | wine | ||
| J j | y, as in “yes” | apple | ||
| K k | k | book | ||
| L l | l | forest | ||
| M m | m | bridge | ||
| N n | n | night | ||
| Ň ň | ny, as in “canyon” | kitchen | ||
| O o | o, as in “lot” | window | ||
| Ó ó | o — held twice as long | goal | ||
| P p | p | pen | ||
| Q q | kv | squash | ||
| R r | rolled r | hand | ||
| Ř ř | no equivalent | river | ||
| S s | s | dream | ||
| Š š | sh, as in “shop” | school | ||
| T t | t | warmth | ||
| Ť ť | soft t, as in British “tune” | taste | ||
| U u | u, as in “put” | street | ||
| Ú ú | oo, as in “moon” | Tuesday | ||
| Ů ů | oo — identical to “ú” | house | ||
| V v | v | water | ||
| W w | v — same as “v” | watt | ||
| X x | ks | taxi | ||
| Y y | i — identical to “i” | flat | ||
| Ý ý | ee — identical to “í” | cheese | ||
| Z z | z | winter | ||
| Ž ž | zh, as in “measure” | woman |
Frequently asked
How many letters are in the Czech alphabet?
42. Fifteen of them carry diacritics (á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ú, ů, ý, ž), and ch counts as a single letter even though it's written with two characters.
What do the marks above the letters mean?
There are three. Čárka (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý) doubles the length of the vowel. Háček (č, š, ž, ř, ě, ď, ť, ň) changes the sound itself. Kroužek (ů) is also a long u — it sounds like ú, but appears in the middle and at the end of words.
How do you pronounce ř?
Not as “rzh” — that's what the tables say, and it's wrong. You get the sound by making an r and a zh simultaneously, in one movement. English has no equivalent, so explaining it with letters is pointless: you have to hear it and say it out loud.
What's the difference between i and y?
By ear, nothing: they sound the same. The difference exists only in spelling — být “to be” and bít “to beat” are pronounced identically.
Does Czech have the letters q, w and x?
Formally yes, they're part of the alphabet — but they never appear in native Czech words, only in loanwords: squash, watt, taxi.
Do I need to learn the alphabet before I can speak?
No. You'll learn to read Czech in an evening — the spelling is almost entirely phonetic. The hard part is different: hearing a sound and reproducing it well enough to be understood. That only comes from speaking.
You've heard it. Can you say it?
Reading a letter and pronouncing it well enough to be understood are two different skills. Mluvik listens to you speak and tells you what's off — by voice, in an ordinary Telegram chat.
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