Spoken Czech & regional flavours
Why people say dobrej and mlíko, and how Brno and Ostrava sound different.
Czech has a big gap between the language you write (spisovná čeština) and the language most people speak every day. Nobody expects you to talk like a textbook, but you do need to understand what you hear.
Obecná čeština: everyday Czech in Bohemia
This is the informal Czech of Prague and Bohemia, and the one you'll hear most in films, on TV and in shops all over the country.
| Feature | Spoken | Written |
|---|---|---|
| ý / í → ej | dobrej, bejt, mlejn | dobrý, být, mlýn |
| é → í / ý | mlíko, polívka, dobrý pivo | mléko, polévka, dobré pivo |
| v- before o- | vokno, voko | okno, oko |
| instrumental plural | s dobrejma lidma | s dobrými lidmi |
| one plural adjective | ty nový auta | ta nová auta |
| -l dropped | řek, moh | řekl, mohl |
| být without j- | sem, seš, sme, ste | jsem, jsi, jsme, jste |
Moravia
In Moravia many people use the ej and í forms much less and stay closer to the written language: you'll often hear dobré mléko rather than dobrý mlíko. A typical Moravian form is su for jsem: Su z Brna. (I'm from Brno.)
Brno
Brno has its own famous city slang, hantec. You don't need to use it, but locals will love it if you recognise a few words:
| šalina | tram (standard: tramvaj) |
| hokna | work (standard: práce) |
| čurina | fun, a laugh (standard: legrace) |
| ajzna | railway station (standard: nádraží) |
Ostrava and Silesia
In the Ostrava region you'll notice two things straight away. Long vowels are often short (mame for máme, dobry for dobrý), and the stress often falls on the second-to-last syllable instead of the first, which gives the region its very recognisable melody. You'll also hear šak (standard však, vždyť), which is common all over Moravia.
Regional speech varies a lot from town to town and from person to person. Treat these as a few signposts, not strict rules. When you write, always use the standard forms.