Vowels! | Basic Slovak Lesson 1 | Slovak With Sam

Slovak has been named the 'hardest language of the world' multiple times online, but how hard is it really? Not at all! In these video lessons I will be teaching you the Slovak language and let me tell you, there is nothing to be afraid of! And by the end of this course you can proudly walk up to your friends or colleagues and say "I can speak the hardest language in the world!"
In this first video lesson I cover how to pronounce vowels and dipthongs present in Slovak. If after watching the video you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below and I will answer them!
Want private tutoring or conversation lessons? Email me at "[e-mail]" !
Please do like the video and subscribe to be notified when another lesson is released!
All contents of this video are my own, images are of public domain used for educational purposes and protected under creative commons.

[@clydetheprince7225]

i really need to learn slovak, because my bf and future partner was from slovakia 😊 so i started to follow your channel and waiting for the next lessons ❤ thanks

[@deleted.account]

I'm learning Slovenčina and these series of videos will be very helpful because it's not easy to find free Slovak courses.. Ďakujeme a dovidenia! -

[@1kahlaa]

I wish this had been continued. An excellent lesson 1

[@climbingapplied]

Perfect teaching method. Can't wait for the next video.

[@thatwakandaboy]

This is a gold mine. Thank you

[@joalexsg9741]

Thank you so much for this video lesson!

[@ratnaciconindrati1972]

I wish I could speak Slovak even though basic. I work on American cruise line for 7 months and spend a month in my country, it's Indonesian and one month in Slovakia, my husband's country. But still it is very hard for me to learn, memorize vocabulary or using in a sentence. From your channel more less I get help. Thank you.

[@mohamedchart]

Your style is very interesting, please complete the lessons, Thanks for the video

[@andraspeshti5395]

Fantastic video, it was immensely helpful for getting started. Thank you!

[@dinoTrovao]

watching this video i was twice surprised. firstly for how easy slovak vowels are and secondly for the use of ô. great video, sam

[@nazarkarimov9889]

i am going to travel to Slovakia ...i started to follow your videos just now and today .

[@ehsaanamjad5927]

Great!

[@lightattheendofthetunnel10834]

Ahoj! New subscriber here. I hope you'll continue with your Slovak lessons since it's really helpful and informative. 😊💙

[@aidenpearce4409]

I think Slovak is only slavic language to have the letter "ä" Like Najmä, pät. Hovorim slovenský, ale maly. Krasný jazik i slovensky narod silný! Ne rozumiem, prečo mad'arsko nenavidia slovensko. žiarlivosť? :D

[@Juli-mp5ds]

Baltijas Vilks your Slovak language isn't perfect, you got a little bit mistakes but(I'm from Slovakia)

[@usel7226]

Baltijas Vilks áno. Mimochodom je rozkošné ako píšeš po Slovensky^^ Veľa šťastia! Yes. Btw ur Slovak leanguage is cute^^ Good luck!

[@Eugensson]

Letter - yes. Sound - no.

[@hernimaniak2379]

U have many gramatical mistakes but good job xd

[@whydoineedaname8182]

Did you even read the name of the country? “*Slovak*” BOI that’s made to be a slavic country!

[@authenticitywins]

So good, thank you🙌

[@mirjanawalzer8635]

Great lesson, please do more videos

[@periclesdasilva5973]

God bless!

[@jellkellysebonga5155]

Thanks for this informative video. 😊 It’s help me a lot. Interested to learn Slovák.

[@verna0072001]

Cool. Thanks

[@lamebubblesflysohigh]

Your english is amazing (including almost non-existing accent)... I was told I sound like drunk Scot, I would expect Russian or something like that but Scot? :D :-/

[@Mrkva22296]

slovaks dont have russian accent when speaking english.... russians sound horrible when theyre not even trying ....

[@memoriesadrift]

Afaik the "Slovak accent" in English sounding a bit like the Scottish dialect may be caused by the way Slovak people approximate the English vowels, but I'm no expert on this by any means.

[@_youtubeasoum8512]

amazing thank you

[@user-rf5to3rr3j]

The letter "ä" is still pronouced different in some regions like Gemer and it's not that uncommon to still use that. It sounds more good too :)

[@runningwithlola]

Please make more videos, they are great! I'm trying to learn Slovak but it isn't easy to find resources. :)

[@harlanmichael7088]

Thank you.

[@kandarelian9466]

Cool video! Gretings from north😉 🇸🇰🇵🇱

[@tyroneashby5420]

Sam thanks for this I am also trying to learn Slovak to surprise my BF who comes from Bratislava (which by the way is a lovely place and I really was made to feel so welcome by all the people there). Ty

[@nataliamesarosova9473]

Veľmi dobre to vysvetľuješ.

[@velizabethful]

I love the similar pronunciations of the Spanish language

[@magaliarista6805]

More videos please!

[@elpapito24529]

thank you so much

[@MrMsBaart]

Thanks a lot. Very useful indeed :)

[@michaelamuchyova]

Sam thank you for inspiriing others to learn my home launguege ( AKA SLOVAC!) and others thanks for LEARNING slovac

[@user-zq4ni4sg4e]

Please continue

[@shishachannel1377]

Hi, I am Thai girl and interesting in your language and Thank you for your teaching , this is so great and good choice for me to start to learning. So so clearly to listen.

[@toomanyblocks8448]

I'm Lithuanian and going to Slovakia soon, surprised how easy these were

[@MistaRichard0]

Great video! Keep it up! Ďakujem ^^

[@memoriesadrift]

Aj ja ďakujem! Thank you very much :)

[@dar322sk]

Excellent video. Next one?

[@angduyanh4368]

still waiting for the next lession ....

[@pampalini9344]

Its hereee

[@cintapriskaguitarini1405]

Very informative video.. I am interested in learning Slovak..

[@Vanes55]

good luck!^^

[@obiechinaldo3648]

Cinta Priska Guitarini me too. I'm in Slovakia now and it's so hard. I just go around looking so dumb

[@obiechinaldo3648]

Need this so badly.

[@natyl3879]

I am from Slovakia, if you want I can learn you...

[@SM-gu9dk]

@@natyl3879 i want need to learn Slovak language

[@sighisoaraa]

When will you upload lesson 2?

[@midwestwarlord272]

very good video, I am a American and this is probably the best video I have seen on the Slovak alphabet, will definitely keep watching these video!

[@michaelamuchyova]

WOW AN AMERICAAAAN OMG AWOSOME

[@yuliashcherbakova2197]

I like the way you're explaining things so much! Very pleasant manner, very pleasant voice. Would definitely like to see more of it on this channel! P.S. You said you live in Bratislava, in three weeks you'll have a very big linguistic event there (polyglot conference), expect many people to search where and how to pick up on some Slovak before it for traveling or after because they'll fall in love with the language)) and in case - see you there)))

[@jgerka]

Learn SLOVAK - is the most simple and logical grammar structured of all the Slavic languages conlang ever. Which Latin language has the most letters of the alphabet? Slovak alphabet is an extension of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Slovak language. It has 46 letters which makes it the longest Slavic and European alphabet. The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an uppercase and a lowercase form: A a. B b.

[@duke489live4]

Good video, but one think was bad "slovak is very hard language bcs that i and y in words is hell to learn btw i am from slovak. Majte sa všeci dobre a prajrm vam pekný zvyšok vášho života

[@fdeexvgesxfg]

This is the best video lesson about Slovak language

[@mpati198906]

It's similar like my native language, polish. It's easy to lern because of it.

[@outahere201]

You are a great teacher. Very informative. You are very clear in your thought and actually in your speech. Best I have found so far. Unfortunately, we need more. and perhaps visual to see your lips. Thank you so much.

[@Aqonomic]

Thank you, I'll try to make the sounds clearer in the next video, where we cover consonants :)

[@phoenixparadiso6434]

Teším sa viac videá! Ďakujem :)

[@Aqonomic]

videí* ;) (Genitive case ending for the word video) I'll get back to the videos asap!

[@phoenixparadiso6434]

Ďakujem za opravu :)

[@laszlovondracsek]

@@Aqonomic But isn't it more correctly "Tesim se NA viac videi" ???For me seems an incomplete sentence without "NA". PS. Zeptal jsem se protoze mam cesky puvod a cestina i slovenstina maji temer stejna pravidla. Zdravim z Rumunska!

[@junliu9336]

This lesson is awesome! Thank you!

[@user-yq4lv1by6r]

please share another video it was so useful to me ~

[@louscannon1335]

I don't get it. This is a great introductory lesson. I'm trying to learn Slovak so I can communicate with my wife's family (she's Slovak obviously), and I'm really interested in future lessons. It's been almost a year. Have you decided not to continue?

[@memoriesadrift]

I have now resumed!

[@NodDisciple1]

07:24 Perhaps you should put the term "Trolley" and/or "Subway" next to "Tram" as these two words are more familiar to speakers of the U.S. variants of English. I do know the term Tram, but to most U.S. locals that know this term, it's considered very "British."

[@IvanKleshnin]

Interesting. I'm not a native speaker and to me "ti" and "ty" clearly sound different (being pronounced by slovaks). While in some words, yes, those letters sound equally.

[@danielgrossman4370]

I'm learning Slovak now. I saw this and think you explain it the best! Where's Lesson 2?

[@patrikbaron1888]

Rozumieš mi? :D

[@LloydSkyLion]

ironically my other tounge prevents me to tell apart umlaut ä and e . So this makes me very happy.

[@LloydSkyLion]

*mother tounge

[@Aqonomic]

As the Slovak say: šťastie v nešťastí (luck in unluck) ;D

[@heyhey0012]

ahoj more please😭

[@PocahontasOutlaw]

Hi Sam, thank you for the vowel pronunciations video! Have you discontinued posting videos? (Hopefully not) La Donna

[@memoriesadrift]

Hi! I have resumed the series and post videos 2-3 times a week now!

[@matej_grega]

i love ô, ô is the best, ôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôôô

[@JackBartholomew90]

With the diphthongs, does not the combinations of "au" as in auto and "ou, ov" as in domov count? And with it being referred to as the hardest language in the world, I believe that is just because of the scarce learning materials, most of the globe does not even know it exists sadly. I am thankful for people like you because Slovak is a wonderful language and I hope you carry this series on!

[@radekhiko]

The Language Hub "au" and "ou" are not diphthongs, they are pronounced "letter by letter". Words ending in "ov" follow another rule called "spodobovanie" (approximation). Letter "v" gets approximated to "u" for the convenience of pronunciation, therefore "ou" and "ov" end up to be pronounced the same way

[@Aqonomic]

The dipthongs I mention are the dipthongs that are officially dipthongs. One could argue that all double vowel sounds are dipthongs, but that's not how it is. The dipthongs mentioned in the video are those that were set as dipthongs when the Slovak language was standardized and codified. Sadly, I don't have a better reason to say why they aren't ^^" My studies in linguistics didn't really cover what sounds qualify as dipthongs and which don't but the textbook rule is that if the sounds "connect" together they count as dipthongs. The difference between au/ou and ia/ie is that the ia/ie sounds sound much faster, sort of like the Russian ja/je letters, while the au/ou sounds sound much longer and less together -> each letter is pronounced.The ia/ie are pronounced much faster -> dipthong -> individual letters are less distinct. I hope this helps explain it, thank you for your comment and sorry for the absence ^^"

[@pifci]

The Language Hub Thats not how it works. Diphthongs are two different consecutive vowels in one syllable. If they are consecutive but in two syllables it's called a hiatus: prIA-teľ (friend) - diphthong ak-cI-A (sale) - not a diphthong Therefore some vowel combinations in words like AU-to, EU-ro etc. should definitely be considered diphthongs. I guess they are never mentioned because they only appear in foreign words.

[@FishikK]

There are more problems with this video. Y and I are not sounding absolutely same. Same goes with Ä and E. If they do it's probably because of spoken dialect but with *correct* pronounciation they should not be sounding same. Example, young pigeon is correctly Holubä, and it should not be pronounced as simply Holube. It's not that hard to notice the differences in pronouncing when there is ä in the word. But of course it *CAN* sometimes sound just like E. Depends on how much enphasis speaker puts into Ä. When it's too much it sounds like ridiculous level of silly and when it's far too little it just sounds like E. You need to do it just right.

[@memoriesadrift]

@@FishikK While ä and e may be argued to have a difference (there is no clear reference to them being the same sound) y and i are officially used to denote the same phoneme and thus are pronounced the same, see www.juls.savba.sk/ediela/psp2000/psp.pdf page 13, the third paragraph.

[@emmeg6220]

Very well explained. 🤗

[@juicylemon4154]

The sound for *e* has the same sound for *é* in English | *(ä)*

[@adam1908]

Thank you! Your English is great, too :)

[@SaadAltuilaai]

Where is your next video?

[@elastanuch7359]

where are more lessons?

[@offthecouchexperience]

Are there no more lessons? I only see this one on your page :(

[@Aqonomic]

Hey Christopher, I got side-tracked with some other projects of mine and didn't continue this as it didn't gain a lot of initial traction. Seeing the positive response now, I'll resume this project in the following weeks ;)

[@cysco1187]

Aqonomic I'm still only seeing one video. I'm trying to learn to communicate with relatives in Slovakia.

[@magaliarista6805]

Waiting for the next videos 😔

[@memoriesadrift]

The long wait is over! With a new surge of free time I have resumes the series :)

[@soniasetey]

if there's anybody who would like to learn slovak language, i can teach you.

[@MirGaGu]

I want and need to learn!

[@Anton_Danylchenko]

So there are no sounds like /ɪ/ and /ɨ/ in Slovak at all? Was "y" pronounced differently in Old Slovak (e.g. as /ɪ/ or /ɨ/) or was it always pronounced as /i/?

[@memoriesadrift]

The letters i and y correspond to the same phoneme in modern Slovak. I don't know about Old Slovak, it is likely there was once a phonetic distinction, given other Slavic languages. However, in modern Slovak, the two graphemes of the phoneme /i/ pertain to the written language entirely.

[@mehgok3902]

zimanek pirr xweş

[@fyrhunter_svk]

Pokračuj v týchto videách :((((

[@sitataylor2023]

Hello! Sam, do you still teach Slovak?

[@lydiasulovska]

Hey, Im his sister his a bit busy but dobt worry he will continue

[@rachmattalks2239]

I Will tO learn this language.

[@881terror]

why? it is hard language

[@lekate7410]

i am from slovakiaaaa

[@obiechinaldo3648]

Toriel or Katka oh I need you as friend. It's so hard getting by your country with no knowledge of slovensky

[@asmaafawzy3924]

Hi Kate, my husband and I are interested in learning Slovakian language , so if you like teach us online would be appreciated. if yes kindly send me your e-mail or what's app number to contact you fro arrangements

[@SaimonThapa]

why isn't r' a vowel? we can keep on saying that with our mouth open. even in sanskrit, or sanskrit based languages like nepali and hindi, ऋ (like slovak r') is a vowel

[@SaimonThapa]

nice

[@clxudyrxses4410]

some slovakians (including me) say "r" with mouth closed. so i dont think really.

[@kandarelian9466]

Ä is like "a" in word "cat"

[@clxudyrxses4410]

Not really. In british they say "cat" with a normal "a" and in american they say "cat" with normal "e" (sorry if im wrong)

[@verna0072001]

How to speak ' fifth ' ? Piate? Piaty? Piat?

[@kajcabayerova7315]

Yung Piaty

[@verna0072001]

@@kajcabayerova7315 謝謝

[@verna0072001]

@@kajcabayerova7315 Ďakujem

[@clxudyrxses4410]

Piaty.

[@pashaev81]

Why so little lessons?

[@memoriesadrift]

I'm working on revamping this. I'm working on a full curricuum with culture lessons and such :)

[@ragedinah4610]

Why is "j" not a vowel?

[@Pakanahymni]

"Phonemic language" is not a real term in linguistics, you mean that it has a simple sound to grapheme relationship.

[@memoriesadrift]

This is what I meant: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic_orthography

[@Pakanahymni]

@@memoriesadrift Yes, orthography is not language.

[@chernikot6570]

Ты знаешь еще и русский язык?

[@justalex6986]

Slovak language is very old...

[@TheVoiceTrumpetYT]

I know what trams are... They ruin the streets of Oslo...

[@argon3547]

What does the slovak say? ÁÄédzšdžžčňľĺóôúýťŕ No to je dosť nelatinských

[@clxudyrxses4410]

Aj iné jazyky majú niektoré z tých písmen :)

[@Mrkva22296]

you should have taught them how to pronounce "ch" "dz" and "dž" ... well dž is easy for english speakers, but they will have trouble learning dz & ch...

[@Samuel-kd8rh]

Will jemand deutsch lernen?😂

[@ankapetkova8634]

Actually, you have big mistake right at the start: slovak has more letters than 26, you forgot all the "Ä, DZ, DŽ, Ď, CH" (yes, those actually are separate letters in Abeceda!) + you also read those first samohlasky wrongly right away cos you read those short ones as long one and only when you read those long ones zou read those short once correctly (what a mess, bro!), cize cele zle, kamo...palec dole = dislike (dalej som to uz radsej ani nepozerala...)

[@anuraagtomar8715]

can anyone help me learning slovak

[@williamhunter3553]

Sam: pronounce TH (eg this that there their ) it is not pronounced as a D. You sound like a man from Pennsylvania.