How to pronounce Czechia, Prague and common Czech place names

You are on the platform at Praha hlavní nádraží and the announcement says "Plzeň". Or you are telling a taxi driver you live in Žižkov and he looks politely puzzled. Czech place names look like a keyboard accident to English eyes, yet the sound system underneath is more regular than English. Three rules and a handful of names will get you most of the way round the map.

Czechia first

The English short name Czechia is said CHEK-ee-uh. The first syllable rhymes with "deck", not with "cheek", and the "ch" is as in "chair". The formal name, the Czech Republic, is still correct in official contexts. Czechia has been promoted as the everyday English short form since 2016. Inside the country people say Česko (CHES-ko), and the adjective and the language are both český or česky.

Prague is the English name. The Czech name is Praha, said PRAH-ha. The "h" in the middle is a real breathy sound, not silent as in "Sarah". Say "Prague" in English and you will be understood perfectly well. Say "Praha" inside a Czech sentence and you will get a small smile.

Three rules that do most of the work

Stress comes first. In Czech words the stress falls on the first syllable, every time. Not the second, not the last. So it is PUL-zen-y, KAR-lovy, VISH-eh-hrad. English speakers tend to lean on a middle syllable ("Vi-SHEH-rad"), which is the commonest slip.

Accents mean length, not stress. The acute accent on á, é, í, ó, ú, ý and the ring on ů make the vowel longer. The stress stays on the first syllable. Smíchov is SMEE-khov: long "ee", stress on the front.

Letters with hats are just letters. The hacek (the little wedge) changes a consonant: č is "ch" as in "church", š is "sh", ž is the "s" in "measure". Plain c is "ts", as in "cats", so Holešovice ends in -vit-seh. And j is a "y", so Jindřišská is not "Jin-" but "Yin-".

The sounds worth a minute

ch is not "church". In Czech it is a rough breath from the back of the mouth, the same as the end of Scottish "loch". It is a single letter in the Czech alphabet, filed after h. That is why Chuchle and Chodov are not "chew-chle" and "show-dov".

ř is the famous one. It is a rolled r and a "zh" said at the same moment, and even many Czech children take years to manage it. For a visitor, the sensible approach is to say a plain "rzh" and move on. Dvořák, the composer, is DVOR-zhak in everyday English use, and nobody will correct you. There is a separate guide on Czech letters, accents and the notorious r if you want to go further.

ě is a quiet one. It has no sound of its own: it tells you the consonant before it is softened, so "dě" sounds like "dye", "tě" like "tye" and "mě" like "mnye". So Město (town) is said MNYES-to, and the district name Vinohrady keeps its plain VIN-o-hra-dy because it has no ě at all.

Syllabic r and l. Czech lets r and l act as vowels. That is how you get Brno, Vltava, Plzeň, and the old tongue-twister "strč prst skrz krk" (stick a finger through your throat), which has no vowels at all. When you meet a word like that, add a tiny "uh" before the r or l and keep moving.

Day-trip and district names

Once you have the rules, the usual Prague addresses fall into line. Hradčany (the castle district) is HRAT-cha-nee, the d softening to a "t" before the c. Malá Strana is MAH-lah STRAH-na. Karlštejn, the castle south-west of the city, is KARL-shtayn. Kutná Hora is KOOT-nah HO-rah, and Český Krumlov is CHES-kee KROOM-lov. For a rail trip, remember that Czech railways write the destination in Czech on every board, so "Plzeň" will not appear as "Pilsen".

Beer is the other place pronunciation pays off. Pilsner is the German form of Plzeň, and the brewery name Pilsner Urquell comes from the German Urquell, meaning original source. In Czech the beer is Plzeňský Prazdroj, which you can read off the label with the rules above.

Politeness beats accuracy

Czechs are used to foreigners mangling their language and are usually pleased by the effort. A clear "dobrý den" in a shop does more than a perfect "ř". For greetings, start with saying hello and thank you in Czech, then widen out with Czech phrases every visitor should know.

Frequently asked questions

How do you say Czechia?

CHEK-ee-uh. The first syllable sounds like 'check' with a long ending, not 'cheek'. The Czech word for the country is Česko, said CHES-ko.

Is it Czechia or the Czech Republic?

Both are correct. Czechia is the short name in English and the Czech Republic the formal long name. In conversation Czechs say Česko.

How do you say Prague in Czech?

Praha, said PRAH-ha, with a sounded h in the middle. The stress is on the first syllable.

Which syllable is stressed in Czech place names?

The first, in native words. Accents mark vowel length only; they never move the stress.

Next time you board a train, read the destination aloud in your head, front syllable first, before the announcement does it for you.