Learn the Czech Alphabet

Česká abeceda

Learn to read the Czech Alphabet (Česká abeceda): all 42 letters with names, sounds and audio, plus flashcards, listening, typing and matching practice.

Letter	Name	Latin letters	Sound
A a	A	a	a short, open 'ah' (tam)
Á á	Dlouhé á	á	the same 'ah', held twice as long (máma)
B b	Bé	b	b as in bed; sounds like p at the end of a word (zub)
C c	Cé	c	always ts as in cats, never k or s (co)
Č č	Čé	č	ch as in church (čaj)
D d	Dé	d	d as in dog; before ě, i, í it softens to ď (dítě)
Ď ď	Ďé	ď	a soft d: d and y squeezed into one sound, like British 'duty' (ďábel)
E e	E	e	e as in bed, short (pes)
É é	Dlouhé é	é	the same 'eh', held longer (mléko)
Ě ě	Ije	ě	'ye' after b, p, v, f (věc 'vyets'); after d, t, n it softens them (děti 'dyeti'); after m it is 'mnye' (město)
F f	Ef	f	f as in fish
G g	Gé	g	hard g as in go; mostly in loanwords (guma)
H h	Há	h	a voiced, breathy h, like the h in 'ahead' said with a hum (hora)
Ch ch	Chá	ch	a raspy sound at the back of the throat, like ch in Scottish loch (chléb)
I i	Měkké i	i	short i as in sit; softens d, t, n before it (ticho 'tyicho')
Í í	Dlouhé í	í	ee as in see, held long (bílý)
J j	Jé	j	y as in yes, never English j (jablko)
K k	Ká	k	k as in skate, without a puff of air
L l	El	l	l as in lamp; can even be the core of a syllable (vlk 'wolf')
M m	Em	m	m as in man
N n	En	n	n as in no; before ě, i, í it softens to ň (nic)
Ň ň	Eň	ň	ny as in canyon (kůň)
O o	O	o	a short, pure 'oh' (oko)
Ó ó	Dlouhé ó	ó	the same 'oh', held longer; mostly in loanwords (gól)
P p	Pé	p	p as in spin, without a puff of air
Q q	Kvé	q	kv; only in foreign words
R r	Er	r	rolled r (ruka); can be the core of a syllable (Brno, krk)
Ř ř	Eř	ř	a uniquely Czech sound: a rolled r and the s in measure at the same time (řeka, Dvořák)
S s	Es	s	s as in sun, never buzzing (sýr)
Š š	Eš	š	sh as in ship (škola)
T t	Té	t	t as in stop; before ě, i, í it softens to ť (ticho)
Ť ť	Ťé	ť	a soft t: t and y squeezed into one sound, like British 'tune' (chuť)
U u	U	u	short oo as in book (ruka)
Ú ú	Dlouhé ú	ú	oo as in moon, held long; written ú at the start of a word (úterý)
Ů ů	Ů s kroužkem	ů	exactly the same long oo as ú, but written inside or at the end of a word (dům)
V v	Vé	v	v as in van; sounds like f at the end of a word (lev)
W w	Dvojité vé	w	the same v sound as V; only in foreign words
X x	Iks	x	ks as in box; mostly in loanwords (taxi)
Y y	Ypsilon	y	sounds exactly like short i, but keeps d, t, n hard (ty 'you' vs. ti 'those')
Ý ý	Dlouhé ý	ý	the same long ee as í, but keeps d, t, n hard (dobrý)
Z z	Zet	z	z as in zoo (zima)
Ž ž	Žet	ž	the s in measure (žena)

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