Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Ahoj, já jsem Veronika. Hi everybody! I am Veronika.
Welcome to CzechClass101.com’s “Česky za 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Czech.
In the last lesson, we learned how to be grateful to people by saying Děkuju. In this lesson you’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in the Czech Republic.
Připraveni? Are you ready? Tak začneme! So let’s start!
The most common informal greeting is:
Ahoj!
[slowly] Ahoj.
Ahoj means “hi” or “hello”. We should only use this greeting with friends or relatives.
The most common *FORMAL* greetings will change depending on the time of day. Let’s start with:
Dobrý den!
[slowly] Dobrý den!
Literally, dobrý den means "good day". As a rule of thumb we can use dobrý den only during the daytime—from late morning until early evening.
In the morning we say dobré ráno, which means “good morning!”
[slowly] Dobré ráno.
During the evening we say:
Dobrý večer!
[slowly] Dobrý večer!
Den, ráno, and večer are Czech for “day”, “morning”, and “evening”, respectively. Easy, right?
Dobrý is the form of the adjective used in combination with masculine nouns, and dobré is the form we use with neuter nouns. It means “good”.
What should you say when you leave? Czech people usually say Na shledanou! when leaving in a formal situation.
[slowly] Na shledanou.
Na shledanou means “good-bye.”
If we say good bye to friends or our relatives, we use the informal word Ahoj!
[slowly] Ahoj!
Maybe you have already noticed, but informal “hello” and “good-bye” are the same in Czech. In both situations, we simply say Ahoj.
Now you can greet people in many different ways in Czech!
Let’s review them all again.
First, the greetings:
Informally, we simply say Ahoj.
Formally, use Dobré ráno! in the morning.
Dobrý den! in the afternoon
and Dobrý večer! in the evening.
When leaving in a formal situation, we say:
Nashledanou!
And in an informal situation, it’s:
Ahoj!
It’s easy, isn’t it?
Now it’s time for Veronika’s Insights.
You can also hear other greetings in Czech Republic. For example young people might use Nazdar! for “hello” when they meet each other.
It is also very common to use the word Čau for both “hello” and “good-bye” in informal situations. But I'm sure you could guess what it means if you happened to hear it in the streets.
In the next lesson you’ll learn the meaning of the phrase Mluvíte anglicky? Do you already know it? We'll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Czech in 3 minutes lesson.
Ahoj!

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