Learn some Czech tongue twisters
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some Czech tongue twisters? |
| Veronika: And are many Czech words hard to pronounce? |
| Antoni: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee is making a list of the most popular Czech tongue twisters. She asks all of her friends for suggestions, including her classmate Ela Erbanová: |
| "Do you know any Czech tongue twisters?" |
| Sasha Lee: Znáš nějaké české jazykolamy? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Znáš nějaké české jazykolamy? |
| Ela Erbanová: Strýc Šusta suší švestky. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Znáš nějaké české jazykolamy? |
| Antoni: "Do you know any Czech tongue twisters?" |
| Ela Erbanová: Strýc Šusta suší švestky. |
| Antoni: "Uncle Šusta dries plums." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this conversation, we hear Sasha make a request, "Do you know any Czech tongue twisters?" |
| Veronika: Znáš nějaké české jazykolamy? |
| Antoni: Her friend, Ela, responds with the tongue twister, |
| Veronika: Strýc Šusta suší švestky. |
| Antoni: which translates to "Uncle Šusta dries plums." |
| Michael Hillard: A tongue twister, or |
| Anna Juul: jazykolam, |
| Antoni: is a fun way to practice your pronunciation. When you’re first learning a language, and even when you reach a more advanced level, tongue twisters are a great way to perfect your enunciation. Challenge yourself by speeding up the tongue twister every time or competing against a friend to see how many times you can repeat the phrase without making a mistake. Let’s look at a few other Czech tongue twisters and their translations. First, we have |
| Veronika: Strč prst skrz krk. |
| Michael Hillard: Let’s hear that one more time, shall we? |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] Strč prst skrz krk. |
| Antoni: This translates to, "Stick your finger through your throat." What makes this tongue twister interesting is that it’s well known for being a grammatically valid clause even though it doesn’t have a single vowel in it. Let’s try another one. |
| Veronika: Pět švestek, šest švestek. |
| Antoni: This tongue twister translates to "Five plums, six plums. |
| A little bit slower now. |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] Pět švestek, šest švestek. |
| Antoni: Why don’t we try a third one? This time, let’s do something a little bit longer. |
| Veronika: Třistatřiatřicet stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes třistatřiatřicet stříbrných střech. |
| Antoni: This tongue twister translates to "Three hundred and thirty three silver quails flew over three hundred and thirty three silver roofs." |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] Třistatřiatřicet stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes třistatřiatřicet stříbrných střech. |
| Antoni: You might think that this is the longest Czech tongue twister, but it isn’t. So far, that record belongs to |
| Veronika: Kmotře Petře, nepřepepřete mi toho vepře, jak mi, kmotře Petře, toho vepře přepepříte, tak si toho přepepřeného vepře sám sníte. |
| Antoni: This translates to "Godfather Petr, don't put so much pepper on that pig. If you put so much pepper on that pig, you will eat that pig by yourself." Got it? Let's listen to it again. |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] Kmotře Petře, nepřepepřete mi toho vepře, jak mi, kmotře Petře, toho vepře přepepříte, tak si toho přepepřeného vepře sám sníte. |
| Antoni: Isn’t that one fun? Can you think of other tongue twisters in Czech? Consider practicing a new tongue twister each week to make pronunciation practice in Czech fun and easy! |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: Those tongue twisters have shown us how difficult Czech pronunciation can be. True enough, Czech words are some of the most difficult words to pronounce. Allow us to give you some examples: |
| Veronika: čtvrtek |
| Antoni: This word means “Thursday” in Czech. |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] čtvrtek |
| Antoni: Here’s another one: |
| Veronika: křovinořez |
| Antoni: This word means “brushcutter.” |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] křovinořez |
| Antoni: Let's have a look at our next example, |
| Veronika: přiškvařit |
| Antoni: meaning "to spoil." |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] přiškvařit |
| Antoni: Let's have a look at one more example, |
| Veronika: pařížští. |
| Antoni: This simply means "Parisian" and is referring to people who live in Paris, |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] pařížští. |
| Antoni: And, just to raise the bar a bit, let's have a look at our last example, |
| Veronika: šíříš |
| Antoni: meaning "you spread," |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] šíříš. |
| Antoni: What makes these examples difficult to pronounce is the dense presence of the letters with diacritics such as |
| Veronika: ř,í,ž, and š. |
| Michal: While Czech uses the Latin alphabet like English, its orthography is modified and consists of 42 letters, which is 16 more letters than that of English. Most of the letters are not difficult to pronounce, but there are sounds that don’t exist in the English language, including the two we mentioned a while ago. |
| The good news is that, as you continue to study Czech pronunciation, and this includes practicing some tongue twisters, you will get used to the challenging parts, and they will become easier for you. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Antoni: When talking about tongue twisters and words difficult to pronounce, we need to mention compound words that can actually be expanded endlessly. Just to give you an example of such a word, let's look at |
| Veronika: nejnezpravděpodobnostňovávatelnějšími, |
| Antoni: which means "most unlikely to be." What makes the word so difficult to pronounce is its length. Especially for beginner learners, it may take a few attempts to read it right. But don't worry if you cannot master it right away, Czech native speakers often have trouble pronouncing these kinds of words. This is why they're not often used in daily conversations. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Veronika: Na shledanou! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Veronika Ageiwa (Czech, Prague), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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