A Czech Vocabulary List For Learners
If you don’t know where to start learning Czech, we made a Czech vocabulary list for you. You can use this as your personal list for vocabulary recap every week. The Czech words are listed by how often they are used. We also provide you with detailed grammatical information, and part of speech. The words also come with IPA phonetic spelling, so you always know how to pronounce words correctly. Each entry comes with a bilingual sample sentence, so you can see them being used in context. They also provide you with bilingual reading practice.
MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries can be downloaded as ebooks from our website. They are also available as paperbacks on Amazon. These dictionaries provide vocabulary in various levels of fluency: beginners, intermediates, advanced, and near-fluent vocabulary for learners. These links above are affiliate links. Meaning, we might get a small commission if you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you.
How Many Words Should You Know To Achieve Fluency At Different Levels?
Beginner – 250 to 500 words should suffice if you are just beginning to learn a language. You'll be able to hold basic conversations and navigate in tourist situations after just one week of studying. 500 words is enough to get you through everyday life in most languages.
Conversational – With only 1,000 to 3,000 words, you can communicate in almost all languages. You can then ask people about their day and tell them how you are doing.
Advanced – You will become more fluent in a language by learning between 4,000 and 10,000 words. This will allow you to use more specific vocabulary to discuss professional topics, current events, opinions and other complex topics. The 5000 most common Czech words bundle will allow you to take your language skills up a notch.
Fluent – With around 10,000 words in your vocabulary, you can speak about almost any topic with ease. Additionally, you can recognize unfamiliar words with enough knowledge. Save even more and get a bigger discount if you order the 10,000 most common Czech words at once.
Native – Word counts in different languages are not the same, so it can be difficult to estimate how many words native speakers know. An estimate of the number of words a native English speaker could know ranges between 10,000 and 65,000+
Czech Vocabulary List
The Foundation
These are the most commonly used words you can find in the Czech vocabulary. This is the key on how you can construct the most basic sentences or answers to basic questions.
Ano means “yes”
Ne means “no”
rozumíš? means “do you understand?”
Nerozumím means “I don’t understand”
Nevím means “I don’t know”
ztratil jsem se means “I'm lost”
nemám ponětí means “I have no idea”
Nemluvím česky means “I don’t speak Czech”
Introduce Yourself
Maybe you found yourself in a situation where you need to meet and chat with someone you don’t know. Here are some ways to introduce yourself to them:
Jmenuji se… means “my name is…”
Jsem… means “I’m…”
jak se jmenuješ? means “what is your name?”
Jsem z… means “I am from…”
What’s Up
These are ways to ask someone what’s going on with their lives or a specific situation. You can use these Czech words and phrases to start small talks:
jak se máte? means “how are you?”
co se děje? means “what’s up?”
jak to jde? means “how‘s it going?”
Co to děláš? means “what are you doing?”
co se děje? means “what is happening?”
Etiquette Words
Etiquette can bring you to places around the world! Learn these polite Czech words:
nemáš zač! means “you’re welcome!”
prosím means “please”
Promiňte means “excuse me”
Promiňte means “sorry”
Děkuji means “thank you”
Požehnej ti means “bless you”
Essential Questions
These are the key questions you might use any time to any context:
co? means “what?”
SZO? means “who?”
když? means “when?”
kde? means “where?”
proč? means “why?”
který? means “which?”
jak? means “how?”
Czech Pronouns
Pronouns are essential to make our sentences clearer, less awkward, and smoother. It is important to consider the gender of the noun to address them accordingly:
já means “I”
vy means “you”
on means “he”
ona means “she”
my means “we”
ony means “they”
Greetings
It’s a nice thing to know how to greet other people. You can start with a simple ahoj!:
Ahoj means “hello”
dobré ráno means “good morning”
dobré odpoledne means “good afternoon”
dobrý večer means “good evening”
dobrou noc means “good night”
Saying Goodbye
It is polite to say "goodbye" and let the other person know you are leaving before you go:
Ahoj means “goodbye”
uvidíme se později means “see you later”
Uvidíme se means “see you”
uvidíme se zítra means “see you tomorrow”
opatruj se! means “take care!”
hezký den! means “have a nice day!”
brzy se uvidíme! means “see you soon!”
šťastnou cestu! means “have a good trip!”
Days of the Week
Talking about specific times or dates, you should know how to say the days of the week:
Neděle means “Sunday”
Pondělí means “Monday”
Úterý means “Tuesday”
Středa means “Wednesday”
Čtvrtek means “Thursday”
Pátek means “Friday”
Sobota means “Saturday”
Other Time Words
Of course you can’t miss the general terms used to address the time! Here are some:
předevčírem means “day before yesterday”
včera means “yesterday”
rok means “year”
den means “day”
měsíc means “month”
století means “century”
hodina means “hour”
dnes means “today”
týden means “week”
svítání means “dawn”
zítra means “tomorrow”
ráno means “morning”
půlnoc means “midnight”
poledne means “noon”
minuta means “minute”
noc means “night”
pozítří means “day after tomorrow”
sekundy means “seconds”
odpoledne means “afternoon”
Nuclear Family
Addressing your family member is necessary, isn't it? You should know how to address them in your target language so that when you speak to them or talk about them with others, they would know who you are talking about:
otec means “father”
táto means “dad”
matka means “mother”
maminka means “mom”
bratr means “brother”
sestra means “sister”
syn means “son”
dcera means “daughter”
blízká rodina means “close family”
Personality and Emotions
With these Czech words, you can describe your feelings and other people’s character:
rozradostněný means “joyful”
legrační means “funny”
vážné means “serious”
plachý means “shy”
statečný means “brave”
šílený means “crazy”
obsah means “content”
šťastný means “happy”
ustaraný means “worried”
nervový means “nervous”
klidný means “tranquil”
uklidnit means “calm”
vzrušený means “excited”
Start Learning Today!
Although we provided you with a general Czech vocabulary list in this article, it isn’t enough to achieve a level of actual fluency in the language. Learn more with MostUsedWords Frequency Dictionaries! Each dictionary follows the same layout. The only thing that differs is the range of vocabulary. You can download them as ebooks on our website, or as paperbacks on Amazon.
Each of the dictionaries contains English translations of the Czech words, accompanied by example sentences to know the right use of words in context. Each word also has IPA phonetic spelling as pronunciation guide, as well as a detailed part of speech information!
- 2500 Most Common Czech Words for Beginners
- 2501-5000 Most Common Czech Words for Intermediates
- 5001-7500 Most Common Czech Words for Advanced Students
- 7501-10,000 Most Common Czech Words for Near-Fluent Learners
You can expand your vocabulary by learning new words through context. Reading can help you to understand the flow and grammar since this mimics natural language learning and will help you learn new vocabulary by allowing you to use context. You'll be able to retain words quicker if you are exposed to them repeatedly.