How to say … in Czech

How do you greet in Czech, how do you congratulate, ask for help and how to say those things that make all the difference when said in the language of the locals. Here are a few phrases that can make your stay in the Czech Republic easier.

The czech language is a very difficult language to learn. The locals know it and they don’t expect the tourists to speak it. However, if you say a few words in this tongue-twister-like Central-European language, the people will appreciate it a lot and probably tell you how good your Czech is.

Czech is currently spoken only in the Czech Republic and some communities abroad where Czech migrated in the past, specially in the United States, Canada and Argentina. There are three Czech dialects, bohemian, moravian and silesian:

• Bohemian dialect is spoken in Bohemia, which takes, roughly speaking the left side of the Czech Republic if we “split it” in two halves
• Moravian dialect, which is spoken in Moravia and takes the right side of the previously “splitted” Czech Republic
• Silesian dialect, which is spoken in Silesia, which is a small region in the north-east at the border with Poland

The bohemian dialect was used as base for the standardized version of the language. Thankfully, nobody called it “Bohemian language”. Although many scholars agree that moravian dialect should have been used as reference, for being closer to slovak and polish.

Czech is a west-slavic language. This means that is a close relative of Slovak and Polish languages. Furthermore, if you learn the basics of Czech, you will be more than able to communicate with Slovaks and Poles, specially with the first ones.

Below you can find a table with a list of the most common greetings and sentences for your daily use. This becomes specially useful if get lost while wandering around Prague!

How did it go? Will you and the Czech language be friends? For more facts explore General & Trivia.