Eastern Europe phrasebook
This Eastern Europe phrasebook for hitchhikers is a work in progress.
Contents
Eastern Europe
Russian is probably the most important language to learn. Many older people speak or at least understand Russian, especially when their mother tongue is a Slavic language. The second most important language is probably Polish, since it is widely understood in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Russian
Polish
Czech
Czech is an incredibly difficult language to learn, but learn these few phrases and you will get around the country a lot more easily, especially outside cities.
Even names of towns can be pronounced incorrectly very easily. Consider the name of the town Olomouc, which is pronounced ollo-moats.
I don't speak Czech - Nemluvím Český [naym-loo-veem ches-kee]
Do you speak English? - Mluvíte Anglicky? [mloo-vee-teh an-glits-kee]
Hello (formal) – Dobrý den [dob-ree den]
Hello (informal) – Ahoj! [a-hoy]
Help! – Pomoc! [poh-moats]
I understand - Rozumím [roz-oo-meem]
I don’t understand – Nerozumím [nay-roz-oo-meem]
It’s also worth remembering that in Czech the emphasis is nearly always on the first syllable of a word, and hardly ever on its second or third syllable.
Slovak
Hungarian
Slovenian
Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian
Bulgarian
Romanian
Romanian is one of the few non-Slavic East-European languages. It is related with French, Italian, Spanish etc. Speakers of one of these languages will find it easier to pronounce and understand Romanian.
Main article: Romanian Phrasebook