Czech pronunciation: i/y

Is Czech pronunciation a problem for you? I offer you another short training. Today´s topic: vowels i and y.

„Soft“ i and „hard“ y

I: Czechs call this letter „soft“ i.

Y: And we call this letter „hard“ y.

Look at the title of this article and tell me: can you hear a difference when you pronounce mít and mýt? The correct answer is… NO. In Czech, we pronounce I and Y the same way.

Words – training i/y

Practice the Czech pronunciation of „soft“ and „hard“ i/y. Listen to these words and repeat.

Audio

pivo                                   pít                                      šaty                                   křída

kino                                   víno                                   košile                                příklad

ryba                                  rýma                                 dluhy                                dýchat

prosit                                prosím                              blesky                               blýskat

sešit                                  sýr                                     květy                                 vítat

byt                                     být                                     krychle                             líže

bit                                      bít                                      cibulka                              povídat

kytara                               dříví                                   hry                                    výtvor

boty                                  číslo                                  hromy                              mísa

kalhoty                             rýže                                   kolik                                  mýto

motyka                             třída                                  vila                                    žít

šaty                                   počítač                              syrový                               ozývat

Sentence – training i/y

Listen to this sentence and repeat. Ten times, twenty times… So many times until you pronounce the same way as the audio voice.

Audio

Ty se mýlíš, když si myslíš, že nevím, že budeš bydlet v novém bytě v Písku.

(You are wrong when you think I don´t know you are going to live in a new flat in Písek.)

Did you succeed? Perfect. Try it a bit faster now.

 Audio

Czech pronunciation: how to practice more?

• Here you can find other sentences and audio. Listen and repeat.
• If you use Lída Holá books, here you can find all audio. Listen and repeat. E.g. Čeština expres 1.
• Read also the first (length), fourth (h/ch), seventh (ř), and eighth (r) part of our „pronunciation serial“.

Czech version of this article.

11th September 2018