The Czech language is treacherous and complex - a significant share of the problems falls on grammar and diacritics, because of which you can become discouraged and put an end to the development of the language.
Fortunately, there are a number of online services that can help you magic wand They will decline the words you need by case and arrange all the gacheks and glasses. God forbid you use them in the future - these services should help you understand the language faster, make fewer mistakes, and not deceive teachers at all.
Declension by case
The basis of grammar is the declension of words in all cases. The entire annual course covers the study of cases, but foreigners begin to speak and write completely correctly, at best, only after years of staying in the country. If you are writing something serious and don’t want to make a mistake, you can check yourself using case declension services. I consider the best solution to be one as part of the website “Internetová jazyková příručka” (Russian. Online Language Guide) from the Institute of the Czech Language of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, because it is dictionary-based and therefore does not require specifying word attributes.
Usage is as easy as shelling pears - first insert the text without diacritics or with partially placed diacritics:
Then we press the button and the service magically places the glasses and gacheks. Words with controversial spellings are underlined in red so that you can manually check them.
By analogy with this service, you can use the more ascetic nlp.fi.muni.cz/cz_accent/ from the Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University. In addition, if you need to perform the opposite operation (remove diacritics), you can use http://textmod.pavucina.com/odstraneni-diakritiky.
Total
Many of the above services are used even by Czechs, so don’t be shy about going to them when you don’t have a definite answer. Of course, don’t forget about , they will save you from many typos and simple mistakes.
Many of the sites listed contain additional information. tools, reference sections on Czech grammar and therefore you will probably find other useful aspects for yourself in them. If you know useful services for Czech grammar and I didn’t mention them in the article, write in the comments, let’s make the world a better place.
Please do not use the services for homework or exams, as... This is not only dishonest, but also stupid - you pay money to learn a language, but in the end your computer learns instead of you. Write correctly!
Cases in Czech are quite complex, with many nuances, exceptions and irregular forms.
One of the most paradoxical aspects in Czech for Russian-speaking students is the vocative case, because in Russian it has long become a relic of the past, leaving a barely noticeable trace in the language, while in the Czech Republic one cannot do without the vocative case in everyday communication.
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 pad/Nominativ | kdo? co? |
| Druhý pád/Genitiv | koho? What? |
| Třetí pad/Dativ | who? What? |
| Čtvrtý pád/Akkuzativ | koho? co? |
| Patý pád/Vokativ | |
| Šestý pád/Lokál | (o)kom? (o) čem? |
| Sedmý pád/Instrumental | kým? What? |
As you can see, case questions in Czech practically coincide with Russian ones and are intuitively clear. But there are also discrepancies with the usual case system: in Czech, the vocative case (Vokativ) follows the accusative case (Akkuzativ), and the prepositional case (Lokál) precedes the instrumental case (Instrumentál) - don’t get confused about the endings!
Let's look at a case system based on the noun hrad (castle, fortress), which is inflected as for all inanimate nouns, the stem of which ends in a hard consonant:
- Nominative: hrad
Hrad je starý.- The castle is old. - Genitive: hradu
Z hradu vycházejí lidé.- People are leaving the castle. - Dativ: hradu
Cesta vede ke hradu.- The road leads to the castle. - Akkuzativ: hrad
Vidim hrad.- I see a castle. - Vocativ: hour
The vocative case is used only in constructions that involve addressing someone or mentioning/pointing to something. - Local: hradu
Mluvim o hradu.- I'm talking about the castle. - Instrumental: hradem
Za hradem je les.- There is a forest behind the castle.
Prepositions are often indicators of one case or another: for example, a noun in Genitiv is often preceded by a preposition z/ze(from), and k/ke(k) and do(c) - prepositions that indicate Dativ. By the way, nouns in Nominativ and Vokativ always have no preposition.
We offer you a table that contains the most common prepositions in Czech, after which the noun always appears in one case or another.
| Case | Prepositions | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Nominative | |||
| 2. Genitiv | bez/beze- without blizko- around, nearby do– in, before od– from, from, for, with okolo/kolem- around, about u- around, near vedle- near, around z/ze– from, from |
bez přítele- without a friend blizko domu- near the house do školy- to school od kamarada- from friend okolo/kolem města- around town Dům stojí u jezera.- The house is located by the lake. | |
| 3.Dativ | k/ke- To kvůli- because of, for the sake of navzdory- despite, in spite of |
Petr je k Evě hodný, ale ke Karle ne.- Peter is kind to Eve, but not to Clara. Dělám to kvůli tobě.- I'm doing this for you. navzdory jeho námitkám- despite his objections Ty jsi vždycky proti mně.- You are always against me. Učinili jsme opatření vůči případným škodám.- We have taken measures against possible losses. |
|
| 4. Akkuzativ | na- on o- about, on, with, in pro- for, for, because of |
Dej knihu na polici.- Put the book on the shelf. opřít kolo o zeď- lean the bike against the wall pro you- for you přes jeho námitky- despite his objections lístek za deset korun- ticket for ten crowns |
|
| 5. Vocativ | |||
| 6. Local | na- on po- after v/ve- V |
Kniha je na polici.- The book is on the shelf. Mluvíme o Petrovi.- We're talking about Peter. Po večeři vždy chodíme na procházku.- After lunch we always go for a walk. v zásuvce- In the box |
|
| 7. Instrumental | mezi- between nad- above pod- under před- before s/se- With |
číst mezi řádky- read between the lines Nad náměstím létají ptáci.- Birds fly over the square. Under stolem spí pes.- The dog is sleeping under the table. Sejdeme se před divadlem.- Meet me in front of the theater. Jsem s tebou.- I'm with you. Stojím za tebou.- I'm standing behind you. |
P.S. Learning Czech with a tutor is more productive than figuring it out on your own! Pass
This manual is a system of grammar exercises following grammar rules. The grammar is given sequentially, the exercises reinforce its individual phenomena. The manual consists of three parts: a phonetic course, an introductory grammar course and a basic grammar course. The phonetics course provides information about pronunciation, intonation and spelling. The introductory grammar course provides basic information about the case system and changes in pronouns, adjectives and nouns. In the basic grammar course, students can learn about all the exceptions and atypical cases in morphology and syntax. The manual is intended for students of the faculty international relations and everyone who studies Czech as a foreign language.
PHONETICS COURSE
Lesson 0 (LEKCE 0)
CZECH ALPHABET
name - pronunciation - examples
kratké - (a) -
Sister where, there, sister
dlouhé - (a:) -
národ, závod, láska
People, factory, love
Beech, bar, woman
Lesson 1
CONSONANTS
There are 25 consonant sounds in the Czech language. Many consonants in their formation and pronunciation are close to the corresponding consonants of the Russian language. Such consonants include
p, b, v, f, m, n, r, s, z, c, d, t, k, ch, g, j.
Differences are observed between consonants
In Russian they are dental, in Czech they are alveolar. Compare:
dej - děj, nemá - němá, ty - ti
Lesson 2
CONSONANT Ř
Consonant
A specific Czech sound, where the tip of the tongue vibrates during articulation. The sound can be pronounced loudly or dully. As a voiced one, it is pronounced before vowels and voiced consonants:
řeka, řada, říkat, řemen, dřevo
Like a voiceless one, it is pronounced before voiceless consonants, after voiceless consonants, at the end of a word:
tři, při, přitel, přes, keř, nekuřte
Lesson 3
STRESS
The stress in Czech is constant and falls on the first syllable:
národ, kupoval, západ
But along with the main one, there may also be a side stress, mainly on odd syllables. It is weaker than the main one, but appears with a slow pace of speech and careful pronunciation of polysyllabic words:
malokterý, pětadvacet, černobílý
Monosyllabic prepositions
na, po, u, do, za, pro, ze, od, bez
always have the main stress, and the word following them loses it, and the preposition becomes, as it were, the first syllable of the word:
INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR COURSE
PART I
Lesson 4
NOUNS
These are changeable words that denote living beings and different things and their parts, for example:
a) - persons and their parts:
muž, žena, tělo, ruka
b) - public entities:
rodina, nation, state
c) - animals, plants and their parts:
pes, růže, ocas, list
Lesson 5
Linking verb být
The Czech language has a linking verb, which is used in cases where there is no main verb (compare with auxiliary verbs in English or German languages). This is a verb
Lesson 6
In Czech the construction “
I have
” is expressed using the verb “to have” -
Verb conjugations
Lesson 7
PREPOSITIONAL CASE (LOKÁL)
In the prepositional singular case, nouns with a fixed stem have the following endings:
časopis - v časopis
In the magazine
Lesson 8
IN genitive case singular number has the following endings:
a) for masculine nouns with a solid base, for nouns female on
The Czech language is the sixty-sixth most spoken language in the world. Twelve million people consider it their native language, and hundreds of thousands of students study it as a second foreign language. Czech is in the group Slavic languages- conversations in Czech become understandable to a Russian-speaking tourist almost immediately after arriving in the country. Despite the general clarity Czech language There are grammatical subtleties, complexities and exceptions that are worth knowing in order to master it perfectly.
How the Czech language developed
Before traveling to the Czech Republic, most tourists are interested in what language the citizens of this country speak. From the Middle Ages until now state language The Czech Republic is officially considered Czech.
There are three periods of formation of the Czech language: ancient, old and modern Czech.
Until the beginning of the 10th century, there was no written language in the Czech language. For the first time, Czech words and phrases begin to appear in German literary works and books in Latin at the beginning of the 13th century.
Full-fledged books in Czech appeared in the first half of the 15th century, when a Czech grammar was published in Prague. During the same period, a proposal appears to include in the writing Czech words foreign diacritics that convey sounds in writing that have no analogues in the Latin alphabet. This prescription was accepted, but only in the 16th century was it possible to forever supplant digraphic letter combinations that convey sound by writing several letters.
Czech writing served as the basis for Slovak, which was formed much later. The Czech alphabet was also used to try to latinize some Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Belarusian.
Dialects in official language four stand out:
- Czech dialects;
- Central Moravian dialects;
- North Moravian dialects (also known as Silesian);
- Slovak dialects.
The Latin alphabet is used to express in writing the features of all four dialects of Czech.
The Czech language is also divided into literary, bookish, spoken and general Czech. Most local residents use the common Czech language. basis literary language is considered a colloquial Central Czech dialect, which belongs to the interdialects of the central part of the country.
The main rules of Czech grammar and syntax
Identify the determinants of this National language rules that distinguish him from other representatives of the Slavic group.
- The language includes ten phonemes, differing in length, consonants are divided into voiceless and voiced.
- The stress always falls on the first syllable of a word, this also applies to combinations of nouns with prepositions (for example, “ˈdo Prahy” - “to Prague”, “ˈdo nás” - “to us”).
- There are only two numbers - singular and plural, and seven cases, which coincide with Russian cases.
- Nouns are declined according to gender, adjectives - according to hard and soft types.
- Numerals are assigned five main categories according to their lexical meaning.
- There are ten types of pronouns, and their short forms are often used in colloquial speech.
- As for verbs, there are perfect and imperfect species, which form four tenses - present, past, future and infinitive.
- Regular verbs decline according to general rules five separate classes, and incorrect ones are classified as exceptions and require memorization.
- The order of words in sentences is determined by meaning. At the end of the sentence is placed the noun or verb that is worth emphasizing. For example, the sentence: “Danylo miluje Anju” (Danilo loves Anya) conveys who Danilo loves, and the sentence: “Anju miluje Danylo” (Anya loves Danilo) conveys who loves Anya.
Despite the similar phonetics of the Russian and Czech languages, some phrases in Czech sound incredibly comical to Russian speakers. For example, “shark” will sound like “zhrapok”, “theater” - “divadlo”, “bachelor” - “baby”. The Czechs will call an airplane “letadlo”, a persimmon – “kaki”, and a cucumber – “butt”.
There are also false friends of the translator - words that, although they sound the same, have antonymic meanings. These include the word “čerstvý”, which means “fresh” in Czech, “ovoce”, which translates to fruit, and “úžasný”, which conveys strong admiration.
Also, for the Russian ear, Czech is unusual in words with a large number of consonants in one word or at the junction of words. For example, the word "čtvrthrst", meaning "quarter of a handful", consists of ten consonant letters.
One of the most famous "consonant" sentences in Czech is "Strč prst skrz krk", which translates to "put your finger down your throat". This sentence is included in all textbooks and tutorials as a textbook example of the phonetic rigidity of the Czech language. This is one of the few languages in the world that uses such sound combinations.
Basics of the Czech language for tourists
Despite belonging to the same Slavic language group, Russian and Czech differ significantly. Before coming to this country, it is recommended to master a minimum number of everyday phrases. This will make you feel more comfortable when communicating with Czechs and get help if necessary.
If the language is not your thing, don’t worry: most Czechs communicate with tourists in Russian.
| Phrase | Translation |
|---|---|
| Everyday: | |
| Good afternoon | Good day! |
| How are you doing? | Yak sya mash? |
| OK, thank you. | Dobzhe, dyakui. |
| Please. | Please |
| Goodbye! | Na shledanou. |
| Do you speak Russian (English, German)? | Mlyuvite Rushtina (English, German)? |
| Can you help me? | Can you help me? |
| Not really. | Ano/not. |
| Sorry. | Prominte. |
| Tourist: | |
| Do they provide information to tourists here? | Is that tourist information? |
| I need a city map. | Mate plan minesta. |
| When does the exhibition/museum open? | Where are the exhibitions/museums? |
| In the shop: | |
| What is the price? | How long are you standing? |
| It is very expensive. | That is mots drage. |
| I do not like. | Don't libi. |
| I'll take it. | Let's take this. |
| Give me 1 kg of cheese. | Give me one kilo of sire. |
| In the restaurant: | |
| Give me the menu, please. | Yidelni leaf, please. |
| Bread/tea/coffee with milk. | Bread/tea/kava with milk. |
| Wine red/white. | Wine cervene/bile. |
| Soup/fish/meat/salad/dessert. | Vole / fish / maso / salad / dessert. |
| Breakfast lunch dinner. | Snidane/offense/evening. |
| At the hotel: | |
| I made a reservation with you. | Mom, you have a reserve. |
| Do you have a double room? | Are Mate free of peace? |
| With balcony/shower/toilet. | With balcony / sprhou / vätse. |
| How much is the room per night? | Kolic stand still for a moment? |
| Can I see the room? | Can I rest in peace? |
| Where can I park my car? | Where should moss park? |
| In different situations: | |
| Where is the bank/exchanger? | Where is the bank/change point? |
| Where's the phone? | Where can I call? |
| I need a doctor. | Ask a doctor. |
| Call the police/ambulance. | We ask you to please the police/protect the service. |
| Where is the police station? | Where is the police station of the commissarship? |
Basics of learning Czech
Perception and knowledge of language are different concepts. Interlingual homonyms, dialects, the presence of diacritics and peculiarities of sentence construction hinder the majority of Russian-speaking students in learning Czech.
To learn Czech, you need to abstract from the grammatical rules, phonetics and syntax of the Russian language.
The main rule for successful learning is to always know and remember that the Czech language is complex and independent.
If you plan to learn this language on your own, start by listening to songs and films in Czech, then connect to a simple tutorial, and, if possible, communicate with native Czech speakers in special applications.
The best results in learning Czech are achieved by students who attend special courses. These language schools pay more attention to dialects, which represent independent units of the Czech language, teach correct pronunciation. Only here you will be able to perfectly understand the intricacies of grammar and learn the language faster, since you will have to speak Czech all the time.
Conclusion
The Czech language, being the official language of the Czech Republic, is also found in the Czech diaspora in neighboring countries. This language has gone through a long historical path of formation, therefore it includes four different dialects and special grammatical rules.
If you are planning a trip to the Czech Republic, learn everyday phrases in this language in advance to feel comfortable speaking with native speakers.
Czech language | A short excursion for beginners: Video
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