The Most Difficult Czech Sound: Ř | Super Easy Czech 7

[@nypala]

We have this sound in Sicilian. My mom uses it even when talking Italian sometimes, without even realizing. Maybe I should start learning Czech 🤔

[@wera9701]

That's interesting! :)

[@MartinPesak-q2z]

yeah, there are some smaller language grupes that use "ř", but the czech one is actually the most "harsh" I guess :))

[@katanoisshkiTRV]

turkish also has this sound in ending of a word but in voiceless way so we turkic people naturally master this sound

[@hectormoreno5195]

Interesting, puoi dire alcune esempi?

[@filipkopec525]

​@Nazar Vasylaščuk it is not the same rz/ż sounds more like ž and there is a difference between ř and ž, a minute one but there still is

[@verdantvoice700]

Thanks so much girls, I'm TRULY grateful, I can finally HEAR IT now! I'm a Polish person, learning Czech on Duolingo website (among a few other languages now) and with the computer-generated pronunciation there I just kept hearing Polish "Ż" instead of the Czech "Ř" every time it appeared in some word, even though I've been told they are not the same. It's not Duolingo's fault, the course is great and I'm really enjoying it so far, but the artificial voice is just not the same as hearing the native speakers talk (especially the ones who deliberately teach us the specific sounds with some helpful examples). I also know that the Polish "RZ" comes from the same Slavic root as the Czech "Ř", if I remember the linguistic history lesson well, (and just to simplify things a bit, because there was a number of phonetic changes in Polish throughout time - from ri, rj, rż to rz). But because "RZ" is pronounced exactly the same as "Ż" in the modern Polish, I just couldn't hear the difference in Czech, UNTIL watching this video! :) Also - I just love the tongue twisters in all the languages I'm learning, so thanks a lot for that too :) And for everyone else learning Czech, I've just found another super helpful video, where the native person (as well as some other foreign learners) explain how to pronounce both Czech "R" and "Ř" in a few easy steps, and give some great advice how to practice on your own. For me as a Polish person the "normal" R is not a problem at all, but I think I've finally learned how to hear and pronounce Ř too, in the middle of the night, haha - what a relief! ;) Here's the link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGqvgneKnqmWqKM The video is called "How to pronounce R/Ř in Czech" and it's on the "Because Czech is Cool" channel, here on KZbin. Happy learning, everyone! Děkuju! :) EDIT: I thought (and read) about is some more, and there are actually a few words in Polish, which are still written with "RŻ" instead of just "RZ", for example: "drżeć" - to shiver, to tremble "rżeć" - to neigh (which is obviously mostly used to describe the sound made by horses, but sometimes also to describe a human laughter which is too loud and boisterous) ;) "rżnąć" - to saw, to butcher, to cut to pieces with a sharp object/tool "rżysko" - a stubble - as in: "the cut stalks of grain plants left sticking out of the ground after the grain is harvested". But to my ears, (which are still inexperienced with listening to Czech, so I might be wrong), "RŻ" in those Polish words still sounds differently than the Czech Ř. The way I hear it, Polish RŻ sounds harder than the Czech Ř, which in turn seems softer (and therefore prettier) to me. Also, if I'm not completely wrong, in Polish those are still two distinctly different souds, spoken one after the other in close proximity (R + Ż) - while in Czech Ř is just ONE sound, as far as I can tell (which is probably why it only has one sign in spelling too). Anyway, for all the fellow language nerds who would like to dig even deeper into the whole subject of Ř, here is another link, to the wikipedia article about it (in English): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%98 Have fun :)

[@권현승-j3u]

This is so true. As a person who was introduced to Polish before Czech, all I could "hear" when I got to ř was ż, and simply thought they would be the same. And yes, the exact same experience and opinion about Duolingo. In any case, I really appreciate all their effort on making good guides to fix that mistake! Thank you for the link as well!

[@verdantvoice700]

@@권현승-j3u Thanks for your comment - it's interesting to know that learners of Polish and Czech might experience similar problems as I do :) And I've already seen some other Poles scolded by the Czech people for stubbornly claiming that "the Czech Ř sounds exactly as the Polish Ż", while it clearly doesn't, so I really feel a huge relief that I could FINALLY experience that difference by myself. I thought there was something wrong with my ears until listening to the real native Czechs explaining it here, haha ;) But if I can hear it, I can also learn to pronounce it, so I think I was "initiated" into the mysterious magic of the Ř sound tonight :) And yes, Duolingo is a great resource to start learning any of the 37 and soon 38 (!) languages they have on offer from English right now - although some language courses are much longer and better developed, (with stories, podcasts and other cool features) than the others. But personally, when it comes to listening on Duolingo, I prefer those languages that are so "rare" compared to the most popular ones, that they didn't even have any "text-to-speech" engine available, so they recorded real voices of people speaking them instead. It happened for Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Esperanto, for example (and I love them all there). I wish ALL of the languages on Duo would have REAL native speakers recorded for every sentence (or just the fluent speakers, when it comes to artifical languages like Esperanto). I know that using real voices instead of machine-generated ones doesn't allow to slow down the recording with the "turtle mode" on Duo, but I still prefer it like that - authentic, vibrant, emotional and ALIVE. But of course - Duolingo itself won't teach us ANY language when used alone, so combining our excercises there with other resources - like all those great videos prepared by native speakers on KZbin, for example on Easy Languages channnel(s) - is a wonderful suplement to our studies :) I'm glad that the other link was helpful for you too - in my opinion it's a surprisingly well done guide how to train our tongue muscles to pronounce R and Ř, and the stories of the foreign learners who could master it through those exercises, and their personal advice given to the viewers are really encouraging and inspiring! :)

[@NataliaNNS]

This is very interesting! I’m studying Czech, and when I watched videos about the polish alphabet, rz just sounded like Ř to me, maybe because I’m not used to hearing it so this was the closest reference my brain had to compare it to.

[@verdantvoice700]

@@NataliaNNS Haha, most probably :) Thanks for sharing! Reading about other people experiencing same, similar or opposite problems is really interesting. And it makes me feel less alone ;)

[@MartinPesak-q2z]

In the czech lang, there are also still some words that have "rž" instead of "ř". E. g. we have the same for the sound that horse does: Ržát (also: řehtat), držet... and also surenames (Ržoncová) As a guy that learns Polish, the polish "rz" is just like the czech "ž", which is funny, coz than it sounds like if a small kid tries to pronounce "ř" :DDD

[@DamianoFS]

You guys are amazing! Thanks for taking the time to make this amazing resource!

[@BarryVaughn-y9m]

Very helpful explanation of how to pronounce R and Ř. Thanks! I figure if I keep working at for another 15 to 20 years I might just about be able to do it!!

[@dorjanas8532]

In Lithuanian we have Ž sound and we also pronounce R hard so it wasn't difficult to pronounce Ř sound alone. Personally I understood most of the sentences with some exceptions due to how similar it is to Polish. Well... Time to learn Czech now :)

[@dashi4660]

Já jsem Čech, kterej sem nějakou náhodou zabloudil, ale stejně koukám na to video jak zařezanej a užívám si ten krásný úsměv :D

[@jaredsmith2283]

Thank you so much for speaking while also displaying the text in Czech and English below. This is such an incredibly helpful technique in learning how to pronounce Czech! Thank you!

[@edwinhidalgo1242]

In Spanish we have this sound in highland dialects: Rioja in Spain, the Andes in South America, and Mexico highlands in North America. And I have heard it in some Hindustani speakers

[@songaesthetics8543]

is it झ?

[@edwinhidalgo1242]

@@songaesthetics8543 I am sorry. I cannot read your alphabet. It is a palatal fricative, in Spanish it is called a sibilant because it sounds like an unvoiced S but with the tongue touching the palate.

[@bonboniya_]

I went down the Language learning rabbit hole & have now found myself here...fascinating video 💕 now back to what I was actually studying...Korean number systems *#help** haha*

[@NoraNabokov]

Same, rabbit-holed myself here #adhd 😂

[@hira6481]

Very interesting video! I'm not learning Czech at the moment, but I remember a few years ago I tried learning some Czech before visiting Prague, and Ř blew my mind, I still can't make the sound, but it's very interesting to hear, and adds so much beauty to the language!

[@hectormoreno5195]

s pozdravem paní učitelko, moc pěkná videa.

[@volusian95]

This is very helpful, but if I'm ever in Czechia I'm still *never* ordering watercress

[@eurooscar1]

Very nice lesson!

[@marinanarutova]

Thank you for this video!! I really would like to learn Czech, but there are not many free materials compared to other languages( I hope you will continue making these videos, they're very helpful!!!❤

[@tommyemaaa]

Where are you from Marina?

[@japanesereadingandwriting]

Úžasné!

[@askarufus7939]

Chciałam się nauczyć już kilka razy w życiu jak tą literę wymawiać ale zawsze kończyło się na tym, że ktoś pisał "to coś pomiędzy polskim ż (zh) i r" i stwierdzałam że to niemożliwe i poddawałam się. Dopiero teraz sie dowiedziałam, że to bardziej miedzy sz (sh) i r! Zupełnie inna sprawa. Myślę, że już umiem.

[@davidscalender]

Great video love the language and Prague is amazing keep the good work coming! Greetings from Scotland #DavidandScotland

[@ControlledCha0s]

Thanks so much for this, just the one I asked for in one of your earlier videos! 😎

[@mikoajbadzielewski3396]

U ciebie okropna flaga Tfu!

[@a.rosegulick]

Як у вас прапор Палестини, а не України?

[@ingesolucionesacademicas5428]

Thanks for this video.

[@Dancis07]

If you want to go straight to the point, skip to 4:18 There you have some practical examples of how to pronounce R and Ř

[@yagi3925]

Ahoj. I'm a native French speaker and I have to confess that I've never understood the fuss about Ř. I have never found it particularly tricky to pronounce this sound. Some Czechs have commended me on my Ř but, honestly, I fail to see what's so difficult about it. I have lots of more serious problems in the Czech language.

[@danilock]

Thank you ! Great video

[@lesiu11111]

In Poland we have a joke, best wife for Poles are Czech girls. For one you are beautiful, second when you speak it's just funny 🤣🤣🤣 🇵🇱❤️ 🇨🇿

[@velkyfanda6753]

We have same joke in Czech. If Polish girl speak its insane sexy. I love Poland girl. Ahoj z Prahy ❤

[@jc3drums916]

The last tongue twister sounds like someone talking underwater! To my ears, the ř sounds almost like zh with a bit of r mixed in somehow, although it seems to change somewhat depending on what other letters are around it. I don't think I can pronounce it though - maybe it has something to do with my inability to roll r's.

[@shadowcat228]

I came here to see what the R with the line over it sounded like. But that second tongue twister (about the 333 syringes) sounds SO cool!

[@Underwaterstories]

Prosta wymowa, to jak po polsku rż. Wreszcie się nauczyłem. Dzięki, piękna pani!

[@polyglotcat]

I'm from Slovakia. "Řeřicha" is a new word for me.

[@davidzachary7152]

Im Polish and i don't have any problem with this sound. Po prostu Żaden problem :)

[@rolandomotta444]

Ahoj camaratka.ja gustavo.form argentina.i love CZ !!!!!

[@smalls5001]

i am going to czech soon!

[@czechistan_zindabad]

how could someone go to “czech” czech aint a place lol

[@NoctisAquila]

Ahoj! I Am Serbian: ř is RŽ but in one breath : Slavic languages, at least for Slavic speakers, cannot have sounds that are too crazy, too schizophrenic : we’ve basically perfected that whole thang, miss thang 😜

[@franny665]

Very interesting🐈

[@wanderleyalves7136]

It's a very interesting video. 🤔☺️👍🏾👍

[@joshua_finch]

Those tongue twisters were amazing. I would tip.

[@ATG-gc2cy]

We need to see the outtakes from the tongue twisters in this video. 😂

[@Slawny_luziski_Wojak]

"pismik Ř hakle je w čěskej rěči" Hornjoserbšćina: "sym žart za tebje?" Ně, nježartuju, tež mamy pismik Ř w hornjoserbskej alfabeće ale wón hłownje stawaje z pismikami k - ř, p - ř a t - ř Dobre wideo!

[@beddccom]

for Poles it is easy because we have the letters rz and ż which sound like Czech ř

[@Jorge-wv4vu]

Slovo "cizinec". A díky za video :)

[@TocaJuliette.]

Me as a czech Can say that ř is very hard 🤌🏻 Dobrá čeština 😊👏

[@takehase9896]

6:59 Wait, this sentence has no vowels at all?

[@Pidalin]

it's a tongue twister

[@marcelb9708]

Thank you but it's very hard to learn. I think I need much more than a year 😉.

[@ControlledCha0s]

7:00 - I'm getting some _strong_ Salishan vibes there... 🤯🤯🤯

[@GigiJakubik]

I am Czech but was born in America meaning I never got any known ledge to the language, but I’m trying to learn

[@michaelbrodsky]

islandština to má taky

[@JustwaitNwatch-w]

Is it similar to saying "je" in french??

[@tukaczmar]

bravo!

[@Riyoshi000]

5:29 F to my poor lips tryna make that word GET OUT SOMEHOW.

[@mikioni]

I LOVE YOU 😀

[@Ahmed-pf3lg]

As an Arab, I simply do not grasp how Ř is considered a distinct sound. To me it sounds EXACTLY like a Spanish R immediately followed by a French J. So a “RJ” sound. So it’s TWO sounds..

[@Ahmed-pf3lg]

After listening more, I noticed that somtimes it becomes more of a “R + CH” sound combination.. And sometimes “R + SH” combination. But it starts with an R tap sound (like in Spanish or Italian) and ends with some softer Sh/J/Ch sound.. But it’s definitely TWO sounds just pronounced extremely fast after one another.

[@zulkiflijamil4033]

Dobrý den.

[@bojanbojic9230]

Do you pronounce hard D every time? I mean - in every word

[@felipematus3021]

Ř se ještě objevuje v hornolužické srbštině a slezštině, ale ty nejsou národními jazyky :(

[@tommyemaaa]

V polštině se Ř vyskytuje také. Ne teda v psané formě.

[@zx6r531]

I’m Serbian & I got confused for a second thinking.. ,,no we don’t have that letter” then I realized you meant the other Lusatia Serbian (or Sorbian)

[@hanselvogis5142]

ještě v některých okrajových slovenských nářečích

[@NoraNabokov]

Somewhere around the 6:40 mark she goes hard in the paint.😅

[@nicholassteel5529]

😳😮woooow!

[@colwilpro]

Doesn't Northern Serbian have the Ř?

[@Slawny_luziski_Wojak]

Upper sorben*

[@dispuncho]

After polish language this sound very easy.

[@israellai]

Nope still can't do it. rz > this sound any day

[@le2zruWtaR8DauQ3]

The problem i have with this letter is, that depening on the word, you either here "sch" or you hear "r" . :(

[@verdantvoice700]

You might find this video useful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGqvgneKnqmWqKM If you prefer to search for it yourself, instead of using the link, the title of the video is: "How to pronounce R/Ř in Czech" and it's on the "Because Czech is Cool" channel, here on KZbin. In the video, the Czech native speaker not only explains how to do it, but also shows the correct tongue position and teaches how to train it, in order to produce the correct sound. There is also great additional advice from a few foreign learners there, who at some point of their studies were successful in mastering both R and Ř :)

[@lukasrba1]

Jakožto Čech lingvista samouk si troufám říct, že Ř není jen v češtině. Polština má Rz, což je prakticky Ř, ale nesmí se vyslovit ostře.. Pak v Hornolužické Srbštině a podobné našemu Ř se objevují fonémy například v dialektech norštiny, afrických jazycích.. Ale pravé jediné ostré a zvučné Ř má jen čeština.

[@Pidalin]

V Islandštině když je R na konci slova, tak to taky zní skoro jako Ř.

[@occihum9115]

Is " Ř, ř " the same as Spanish Rr - rr ?

[@martina-dd6vb]

No it's not. Ř is kind of like a combination of ž (which is pronounced like J in French) and the rolled R sound

[@occihum9115]

@@martina-dd6vb Thank you! The people in the video keep making the sound but they didn't described the way it sounds. That helped me a lot, ty!!!

[@martina-dd6vb]

@@occihum9115 glad I could help. You're welcome :)

[@occihum9115]

@@martina-dd6vb Ty! Wouldn't be more reasonable Ř,ř to be written as "Žr,žr", I think it represents the sound better

[@martina-dd6vb]

@@occihum9115 no because ŽR isn't pronounced like Ř. When you say žr, you pronounce both ž and r respectively. Ř is just one sound, like if you say both r and ž at the same time but a bit harder. It's really hard to explain without being able to pronounce the letters haha sorry😅

[@cvfeqw]

Ahoj

[@abdel5505]

4:30

[@andrewshepitko6354]

Ta druha R to jak Ż v polskim ?

[@felipematus3021]

Čtyři 😭😭😭

[@jasularaez]

I know right 😂😂😂 After a while of practice with the rest of the numbers included with it you will probably make good progress 😁

[@felipematus3021]

4 and 40 are my big problem to pronounce :(

[@vermull19]

@@felipematus3021 you can say čtyry and čtyrycet or štyrycet and štyry, we use it commonly, but you have to writte čtyři and čtyřicet allways

[@felipematus3021]

@@vermull19 I've been told so, but somehow it feels weird, so I force myself to say "čtyři". Besides, it's a good exercise :D

[@le2zruWtaR8DauQ3]

this like the only word with ř I can pronounce.

[@kyblik1376]

Nejaký slovak/slovačka čech/Češka? 👇😂

[@rahmigenis9092]

Nobody got time for that

[@adr111ani]

Facts

[@matildawolfram4687]

The most important thing in life is knowledge of foreign languages! Thanks to foreign languages you can realize all your dreams and realize your grandiose ambitions! I would like to recommend all the practices of Yuriy Ivantsiv ''Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign language". This book will be an indispensable helper, a handbook for every person who studies a foreign language! This book contains invaluable tips, questions and answers, and solutions to problems faced by anyone who studies a foreign language! Knowledge is power! And knowledge of foreign languages is your power multiplied by many times! Success to all in self-development!

[@robertorivas1093]

If I can do a Tandem with you to learn that will be helpful to me. If you are according whith this idea, please send me your e-mail and I'll write you . Thanks!

[@schooltechnology3551]

Nádherný!