Eastern Europe phrasebook

This Eastern Europe phrasebook for hitchhikers is a work in progress.

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.

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
Do you speak English? - Mluvíte Anglicky?
Hello (formal) – Dobrý den
Hello (informal) – Ahoj!
Help! – Pomoc!
I understand - Rozumím
I don’t understand – Nerozumím

Czech Pronunciation

Here are the main differences from regular English pronunciation:

c – ts, as in cats, even if it comes at the beginning of the word
č – ch, as in chin
ch – soft, as in the Scottish word, loch
j – y, as in yellow (Y is also pronounced the same way, but is very rare)
ň – nya, as in onion
r – a rolled R sound
ř – a rolled R sound that ends in a soft Z
(ž) sound, as in Dvořak
š – sh, as in shoe
ť – tya, as in stew
w – v
ž – a soft Z sound
(zh), as in pleasure

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.

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.