Czech pronunciation relies heavily on little marks above certain letters.

These marks completely change the sound of a letter and the meaning of a word.

The two most common marks you’ll see in Czech are the háček and the čárka.

Learning how to read these marks is the first step to pronouncing Czech words correctly.

Here’s exactly how to pronounce letters with a háček and a čárka.

What is a čárka?

The word čárka means “line” or “comma” in Czech.

When you see it above a letter, it looks like a small forward-leaning dash (´).

This mark is only ever placed above vowels.

It doesn’t change the actual sound of the vowel.

Instead, the čárka simply makes the vowel sound longer.

You hold the vowel sound for about twice as long as a normal, short vowel.

How to pronounce the čárka

In English, changing a vowel’s length often changes its core sound completely.

In Czech, the sound remains identical but is just stretched out in length.

A word’s meaning can change entirely depending on whether a vowel is short or long.

Here’s a table showing the short vowels compared to the long vowels.

You’ll notice another mark called a kroužek which is a tiny circle over the letter u (ů).

The letter ů is pronounced exactly the same as ú.

The only difference is a spelling rule where ú is used at the beginning of words and ů is used in the middle or end.

What is a háček?

The word háček literally translates to “little hook”.

It looks like a tiny letter “v” sitting on top of a letter (ˇ).

Unlike the čárka, the háček completely changes the fundamental sound of the letter.

It’s mostly used on consonants to make them sound “soft”.

It can also appear on the vowel e to make the special letter ě.

How to pronounce the háček

When a háček is added to a consonant, it usually creates a “sh” or “ch” type of sound.

For letters with a tall stem like d and t, the háček looks like a small apostrophe (ď, ť) instead of a hook.

This apostrophe is still a háček, but it’s written this way just to save printing space.

Here’s a table showing how the háček changes the pronunciation of Czech consonants.

The hardest letter for many beginners is ř.

You pronounce it by rolling your “r” and making the ž sound at the exact same time.

Let’s also look at the vowel ě.

When you see ě by itself, it usually sounds like “ye” in the English word “yes”.

However, it also softens the consonant right before it.

For example, dě is pronounced the same as ď + e.

Examples of háček and čárka in action

Let’s look at a few examples of these diacritics used in everyday phrases.

Notice how the čárka extends the vowels and the háček softens the consonants.

Once you know the rules for the háček and čárka, you can read almost any Czech word perfectly.