The Czech phrases that win Prague over in your first week

Walk into a Prague bakery, say nothing and point at a pastry, and you will be served. Say dobrý den first and the whole exchange changes. Shoulders drop, faces soften, and your English gets met halfway. Czech is hard, but a dozen phrases cost you one afternoon and pay back for the whole trip.

The trick is that Czech politeness is front-loaded. The greeting matters more than the grammar that follows it, and a badly pronounced hello beats a perfect sentence delivered cold. Locals are rarely testing you. They are checking whether you noticed they are there.

Hello and goodbye

Dobrý den (DOB-ree den) means "good day" and is the standard hello. Czechs say it on entering shops, waiting rooms, lifts and small cafés, often to nobody in particular. Say it back, and say it to the room, not just the person behind the counter.

Na shledanou (NAH skhle-da-no) is the goodbye for leaving a shop or a doctor's waiting room. Ahoj (AH-hoy) covers both hello and goodbye, but only among friends or people your age in casual settings. Use it on a bartender and you are being friendly. Use it on a bank clerk and you are being odd.

Also handy: dobré ráno (good morning), dobrý večer (good evening) and dobrou noc (good night, which is a goodbye at the end of the evening, not a greeting).

Politeness, Czech style

Prosím (PRO-seem) is the Swiss Army knife of Czech. It means please, you're welcome, here you are, and "pardon?". A waiter who puts your plate down and says prosím is not asking you anything. Děkuji (DYEH-ku-yi) is thank you, and díky is the shorter, friendlier version.

Promiňte (PRO-min-tyeh) gets you past someone on a tram or into a conversation with a stranger. Omlouvám se is "I am sorry", saved for when you have actually trodden on a foot.

At the table

• Jedno pivo, prosím. One beer, please.
• Menu, prosím. The menu, please.
• Dobrou chuť. Enjoy your meal. You will hear it a lot. Say it back.
• Na zdraví! Cheers. Look people in the eye when you clink.
• Účet, prosím. The bill, please. Zaplatím (I'll pay) works too.

Numbers help with orders: jedna, dva, tři, čtyři, pět for one to five. Dvě piva is two beers, tři piva three. Notice that the noun changes with the number, which is Czech grammar peeking round the door. Do not fight it. Copy the pattern you hear and move on, because the rules (two to four take one ending, five and above take another) arrive later and make more sense once your ear has them.

Getting around and getting help

Kde je…? means "where is…?" Add metro, zastávka (stop) or toaleta and you are in business. On toilet doors look for Dámy and Páni (ladies and gentlemen), or Ženy and Muži.

Kolik to stojí? asks "how much is it?". Mluvíte anglicky? (MLU-vee-teh ANG-lits-ki) asks whether someone speaks English, and asking it in Czech lands better than launching straight into English. Nerozumím means "I don't understand", and it is more useful than it sounds, because people usually slow down or switch language when they hear it.

One local phrase worth stealing: on a packed tram or metro carriage, vystupujete? (are you getting off?) is how Prague passengers sort out who needs to move before the next stop. It is short, it is polite, and answering ano or ne (yes or no) is all that is required. It saves you the awkward shoulder-barge that gives newcomers away.

On doors, tlačit is push and táhnout is pull. Learn those two and you stop looking like a tourist at every shop entrance.

Say it so people understand

Czech stress is easy: always on the first syllable. So PRA-ha, DOB-rý, DĚ-ku-ji. An acute accent (á, é, í, ó, ú) or the ring on ů means the vowel is held longer, not louder. The č is "ch" as in chair, š is "sh", ž is the "s" in measure, c is "ts" and j is "y". That gets you most of the way.

Skip the worry about the notorious ř. Nobody expects a visitor to manage it, and a plain r or zh will be understood. There is a whole piece on the sounds if you want to go deeper.

The mistakes newcomers make

The common one is dragging the stress to the middle of a word. The second is saying ahoj to everyone because it is the one word you know. The third is waiting for the other person to start. In a Czech shop the customer greets first, and a silence from your side reads as a cold start, not shyness.

A smaller trap: prosím at the end of an order and prosím in answer to your thanks are the same word. If someone says it to you with a rising tone, they may be asking you to repeat yourself. Smile, say it again, slower.

A first-week script

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to speak Czech in Prague?

No. English is widely understood in the centre, in hotels and among younger people. Czech opens doors in neighbourhood shops, at the post office and with older staff, and it earns goodwill almost everywhere.

Is it rude to speak English first?

Not if you greet in Czech first. Say dobrý den, then ask Mluvíte anglicky? and carry on in English.

How do you say 'sorry' in Czech?

Promiňte gets attention or passes someone in a crowd. Omlouvám se is a proper apology.

What is the difference between děkuji and díky?

Děkuji is the standard thank you. Díky is shorter and more casual, like 'thanks'.

How do I say cheers in Czech?

Na zdraví, with eye contact. Folk belief says looking away brings bad luck, and your friends will tease you.

Start with three

Pick dobrý den, prosím and děkuji, and use them on your next coffee order before you touch your English. Add jedno pivo, prosím in the evening. By the weekend you will say na shledanou to a shopkeeper without thinking.