Stories, audio, and videos can all help you learn Czech when you can follow what they mean. That is the idea behind comprehensible input: learning from Czech you can mostly understand. Learners on Reddit say Czech has few graded readers, so much of the easy Czech comes from podcasts and videos that teachers make. Czech TV helps too: in 2025, Czech Television added Czech subtitles to more than 80% of its programs, so you can often read along with what you hear.
These apps and sites help you find Czech at your level, or make the Czech you choose easier to follow. For courses, speaking practice, and tutors, see our Czech app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Learn Czech with a path made just for you. Start with your level, what you like, and why you want to learn. Your path grows as you learn, with new lessons that fit you. Bubblegum also has news and stories, so you can read and listen to a mix of Czech about music, food, family, or daily life.
Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each lesson for you. If a sentence is hard to follow, just ask her to explain a word or why an ending changed.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help you with Czech you found yourself. For a show, a podcast, or an article you already picked, LingQ and Language Reactor are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, news, and stories about things you like.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, so you review them by reading instead of using flashcards.
- Ask Poppy for help as you read.
- AI voices read each lesson, not recordings of Czech speakers.
- You cannot bring in your own books, shows, or articles.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Read and Listen to Stories for Learners
LingQ
LingQ lets you read and listen to Czech from its library or bring in your own. It highlights the words you have not met yet and the words you are still learning, so you can see what is new. One learner on r/learnczech calls it the standard app for reading, and adds that you will still want a textbook for grammar.
- Start with Mini Stories, more than 60 short lessons that repeat basic Czech patterns.
- Read along with learner podcasts such as Čeština s Michalem and slowczech.
- Import your own videos, books, and articles, and review words with flashcards.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Duostories
Duostories is a volunteer project that brings Duolingo's short stories to more languages, with Duolingo's permission. Its Czech stories are about everyday moments, from ordering a coffee to shopping at the supermarket. Refold's community list of Czech resources files it under beginner reading.
- 60 free Czech stories with audio, in 15 short sets.
- Answer short questions as you read each story.
- A listening mode plays a story and skips the questions.
MobileWeb
Watch and Listen to Czech TV and Radio
Czech Television and Czech Radio, the country's public broadcasters, share many of their shows for free in these apps.
iVysílání
iVysílání is the free streaming app of Česká televize, Czech Television. Learners on r/learnczech like its short children's shows, such as Čeština s Mínou a Týnou, five-minute cartoons about a cat and a mouse that go over new words at the end of each episode.
- Watch Czech series, films, documentaries, and news for free, with no account.
- Find shows for children on ČT :D, Czech Television's channel for kids.
- ČT24 news plays everywhere, even outside Czechia.
MobileWeb
mujRozhlas
mujRozhlas is the app and website of Czech Radio. A learner on r/learnczech suggests it for free audiobooks and radio plays. It suits learners who can already follow some spoken Czech.
- Listen live to every station of Český rozhlas, the Czech public radio.
- Find fairy tales for children, radio plays with Czech actors, and all of its podcasts.
- Download shows to listen offline.
MobileWeb
Read and Watch Czech You Choose
Language Reactor helps you learn from the Czech shows and videos you pick yourself. It suits learners who already know what they want to watch.
Language Reactor
Learners on r/learnczech suggest Language Reactor for Netflix shows with Czech audio and subtitles, and for its catalog of Czech YouTube videos with subtitles. It is free to install, with paid extras.
- See Czech subtitles beside a translation on Netflix and YouTube.
- Look up words in a pop-up dictionary.
- Pause and replay one line when it goes too fast.
Browser extension
Free Podcasts, Videos, and Easy News
Podcasts made for learners are where many people start. slowczech tells stories and holds conversations in slow Czech on its podcast and YouTube channel, and one learner on Reddit calls its videos probably the best beginner resource for Czech. Čeština s Michalem has more than 980 natural, unscripted episodes for B1 to C1 learners. Its host also makes a podcast for beginners, with short, slow episodes and the text of each one in its notes. Dread Czech posts five-minute episodes of slow, repetitive Czech three times a week, with free transcripts and word lists. Czech Easily talks slowly about everyday life in Czechia, and Czech Your Day builds each week toward a Friday story, with transcripts on its host's website.
On YouTube, Easy Czech asks people on the streets of Prague about everyday topics, with Czech and English subtitles, and its Super Easy Czech videos use slower Czech. Comprehensible Czech tells simple stories with pictures, gestures, and repetition, so complete beginners can follow from context. Czech by Zuzka, a channel from a Czech tutor, comes up often in learner threads. Kluci z Prahy make videos about Prague in Czech, and learners point out that their English channel, Honest Guide, often covers the same topics, so you can compare.
Children's TV is another easy start. Learners suggest searching YouTube for Večerníček, short animated bedtime stories for children. Zprávičky, the news show on Czech Television's channel for kids, tells each day's news in about five minutes, in words children understand. Short Czech news from Czech Step by Step tells current stories in simple Czech for foreigners, with Czech subtitles, and you can slow the videos down on YouTube.
For reading, Časopis AHOJ is an online magazine for people learning Czech, with articles about life in Czechia at three levels, from easy to hard. You buy it online, and one learner on Reddit calls it the best reading for learners. Czech Step by Step also publishes adapted books, such as old Czech legends retold for learners, and two of them come with MP3 audio.
Learn Czech in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps’ counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings, except Language Reactor (Chrome Web Store). iVysílání and mujRozhlas are in Czech, and so are the podcasts and YouTube channels, some with English. Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| LingQ | 17 | Full list |
| Duostories | 1 | Full list |
| Language Reactor | 27 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (9)
- ReadlangA web reader that shows what a Czech word or phrase means when you tap it, on any web page or in its library of Czech texts.
- CzechClass101Short audio and video lessons built around Czech conversations, with lesson notes. You can join for free.
- Fluent Fiction: CzechShort audio stories set in places such as Prague and the Krkonoše mountains, with bilingual audio and a word list for each one.
- TinyLingoA podcast player with word-by-word transcripts and tap translations, first built for Czech podcasts such as Čeština s Michalem, and now with graded stories from A1 to C2. It is new and growing.
- MolibooksA free website with 14 Czech classics, such as Karel Čapek's Dášeňka, paired sentence by sentence with English and marked by level. It is new and growing.
- AnyLangRead books, news, and articles and watch videos in Czech and more than 20 other languages, with one-tap translations and a word list.
- ErlaShort Czech stories, from fairy tales to fun facts, with a translation for any sentence you tap, plus chats with an AI tutor. It is new and growing.
- Noo SpeakA free newsletter with short Czech news summaries every weekday, in one of three lengths.
- AnkiA free flashcard app that many Czech learners on Reddit use to review words from what they read and hear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to learn the seven cases first?
Not before you start. Czech has seven cases, and each one can change the end of a noun, so kočka (cat) also shows up as kočku and kočkou. Easy stories and podcasts repeat the common endings again and again. When one puzzles you, look it up in a grammar book, or ask Poppy in Bubblegum to explain it.
How much of a text should I understand?
Pick something where you already know almost every word. Researchers Hu and Nation found that readers follow a story well when they know about 98% of its words, which is about one new word in fifty. If you stop on almost every line, switch to something easier, such as a podcast for beginners.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Hu and Nation (2000), Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension
- Lupa.cz: Česká televize spustila nepřetržité skryté titulkování programu ČT24 (86.45% of ČT programs subtitled in 2025)
- Universal Dependencies: Case in Czech (seven cases)
- Wiktionary: kočka (Czech declension)
- r/learnczech: Czech comprehensible input for A1-A2?
- r/learnczech: From nothing to fluent in 2 years
- r/learnczech: New Czech listening podcast for beginners (with transcripts)
- r/learnczech: Čeština s Mínou a Týnou on iVysílání
- r/learnczech: Best Czech kids tv shows for absolute beginners?
- r/learnczech: Suggest me Czech YouTubers!
- Česká televize: iVysílání questions and answers
- Refold: Czech comprehensible input and immersion resources
- Comprehensible Input Wiki: Czech
- Bubblegum
- LingQ
- Duostories
- mujRozhlas
- Language Reactor
Checked on October 8, 2026 against each app's own pages.
