Czech 141 Fall 1995

Czech Vowels (the approximate pronunciation in the parentheses)
A
(up, butter)
vana, pata, basa, vata
Á
(father, car)
káva, máma, táta, mává, banán
E
(pet, set, get)
nese, vede, bere, les, pes, den
É
(air, hair, pair)
léto, mléko, zelené, celé
Ě
(yes, yesterday)
věda, světlé, pět, devět, měla, oběd
I
(sit, pick, lip)
pil, pila, list, klid,
Í
(meet, meat, seat)
síla, mít, pít, Míla, víla
O
(Ontario)
okno, voda, doprovod, dolar
Ó
(awe,)
óda, haló
U
(push, put, full)
ucho, uzel, koruna, ulice, hluboká
Ú/ů
(root, fool, shoot)
úsilí, útok, ústa, dům, stůl, stromů, domů
Y
(pronounce as i)
byl, kyselý, kryla, (Czech y is called ypsilon)
Ý
(pronounce as í)
mýt, být, krýt, sýry
OU
(diphthong - show)
koule, boule, fousy, dlouho
AU
(diphthong - brown)
au! auto, automat
(Czech i is called iota)
Remember:
Czech has two kinds of vowels: short and long.
Czech diacritical marks ' (čárka) and ° (kroužek) make a vowel long; kroužek is used
exclusively above the vowel u in the middle or at the end of a word (dům, domů).
Another diacritical mark ÿ (háček) is used mostly with consonants. It makes them soft. The only
vowel with háček is ě. It can follow the ambiguous consonants b, p, v and m: běda, pět, věta,
město. If it follows the hard consonants d, t, n, it transforms them into the soft consonants ď, ť,
ň: děkuji, tělo, něco.
The same rule applies to the Czech vowel i (iota); it softens d, t, n into ď, ť, ň: dítě, děti, nic.
If not followed by either ě or iota, ď and ť are written with the apostrophe instead of háček.