Do you struggle with Czech pronunciation? Here is my offer: another practising. Today´s topic: stress and prepositions.

Prepositions and stress in Czech

What is stress and where it is in Czech

• Stress = we pronounce the first right part of the word strongly = BANG.
• Stress in Czech = always on the first syllable or on the preposition with a vowel.

What is a syllable?

• 1 syllable: dům, sklo, říct, mám, vím. The whole words has the stress.
• 2 syllables: máma – má/ma (akcent = má), nevím – ne/vím (akcent = ne), Praha – Pra/ha (akcent = Pra), Brno – Br/no, místnost – míst/nost, pražský – praž/ský. The first syllable has the stress.
• 3 syllables: dokument – do/ku/ment, nádraží – ná/dra/ží. The first syllable has the stress.
• 4 syllables: republika – re/pu/bli/ka, učebnice – u/čeb/ni/ce. The first syllable has stress.

Listen and repeat. Audio

Prepositions and stress 

If the preposition has a vowel, the stress is on the preposition.

• What is a vowel: a, e, i/y, o, u

We pronounce the preposition strongly (BANG). There is no pause between the preposition and the word.

a) Preposition with a vowel – words

do školy, na fotbal, ke kamarádovi, u metra, ze Španělska, se sestrou, před obchodem, nad stromem

Prepositions do/na/ke/u/ze/se/před/nad have the vowels = the stress is on the preposition.

Listen and repeat. Audio

b) Preposition with a vowel – sentences (slowly and strongly)

Ve středu půjdeme ze školy do fitness. Ve tři hodiny pojedeme na nákup do supermarketu.

Listen and repeat. Audio

c) Preposition with a vowel – sentences (normal pace of speech)

Ve středu půjdeme ze školy do fitness. Ve tři hodiny pojedeme na nákup do supermarketu.

Listen and repeat. Audio

If the preposition doesn´t have a vowel, the stress is on the first syllable.

There is no pause between the preposition and the word. We pronounce the first syllable strongly (BANG).

a) Preposition without a vowel – words

v létě, k poště, s maminkou, k moři, s kamarádem, z Česka, v Evropě, z obchodu

Listen and repeat. Audio

Have a look at the video where students practise.

b) Preposition without a vowel – sentences (slowly and strongly)

V létě jezdíme k moři. Moře v Itálii je čisté. Z Itálie jedeme domů. Bydlíme v Česku, v Praze.

Listen and repeat. Audio

c) Preposition without a vowel – sentences (normal pace of speech)

V létě jezdíme k moři. Moře v Itálii je čisté. Z Itálie jedeme domů. Bydlíme v Česku, v Praze.

Listen and repeat. Audio

d) You can find another Training here.

• v Evropě, v Asii 
• v práci, v Praze

And now, let´s compare the stress on prepositions with a vowel and without.

How to practise 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.
• You can find other audio in handouts for A1 or A2 levels.

Read also the other parts of this „pronunciation serial“:

• length mark and accent 
• I/Y 
• H/CH 
• Ř 
• R 

Czech version of this article.

10th of March 2023