A church is kostel in Czech and kostol in Slovak, and a reason is důvod in one and dôvod in the other. Many words differ like that, by a letter or a sound.
You can tell the two apart on paper by the letters each one uses.
| Czech | Slovak | |
|---|---|---|
| Letters you'll only see in it | ě, ř and ů, as in přítel (friend) | ä, ľ, ĺ, ŕ and ô, as in priateľ (friend) |
| Long vowels | Can follow each other in one word | Slovak's rhythm rule keeps two long vowels from coming one after the other |
| Talking to someone by name | A special ending, so Jan becomes Jane | Usually the name as it is |
| Months | Slavic names, like říjen (October) | Latin names, like október |
| Where it's official | The Czech Republic, where about 10 million people speak it | Slovakia, with about 5 million first-language speakers |
| Meaning | Czech | Slovak |
|---|---|---|
| Thank you | děkuji | ďakujem |
| Who | kdo | kto |
| Goodbye | na shledanou | dovidenia |
A U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI) course in Czech or Slovak lasts 1,012 class hours and ends when its students can handle the language on the job.
| Study per week | FSI full-time course, Czech or Slovak (1,012 hours) |
|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 5 years 6 months |
| 7 hours | About 2 years 9 months |
| 14 hours | About 1 year 5 months |
| 28 hours | About 8 months |
How long it takes to learn Slovak compares these hours with a Bratislava university's course aiming at B1.
| If you want to… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Move to Prague or Brno | Czech |
| Pass the Czech exam for permanent residence | Czech |
| Move to Bratislava or Košice | Slovak |
| Talk with family from Slovakia | Slovak |
Czech: Greetings and Politeness
Zdravení a zdvořilost
Good day, Marie.
Good day, Jan.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Slovak: Good Day
Dobrý deň
Good day.
Good day. How are you?
Good. Goodbye.
Goodbye.
Marie greets Jan as Jane in the Czech lesson, with the ending from the table above. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons like these for Bubblegum, a language app.
Bubblegum
Bubblegum is the best app for serious learners. You learn from text and audio you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Besides lessons, Poppy writes stories in Czech or Slovak that go on for several chapters.
- Tap a Czech or Slovak word to see its forms in a table, and the Slovak tables explain when the rhythm rule shortens an ending.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- Your own Czech or Slovak books can't become lessons. Pasting a paragraph from one into the chat works instead: Poppy goes over it sentence by sentence.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, 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
Do Czechs and Slovaks Understand Each Other?
Mostly, yes. The dialects of eastern Slovakia are the exception: they're closer to Polish, and Czech speakers find them harder to follow.
Which App Should a Beginner Choose?
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 your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Czech–Slovak languages (most varieties mutually intelligible; the standard forms are easy to tell apart by vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation; river řeka / rieka, church kostel / kostol, reason důvod / dôvod, who kdo / kto, thanks děkuju / ďakujem; Czech months of Slavic origin like říjen, Slovak months of Latin origin like október)
- Wikipedia, Czech language (spoken by about 10 million residents of the Czech Republic; the vocative case is used to address people)
- Wikipedia, Slovak language (about five million first-language speakers; official in Slovakia and in the EU; six cases, the vocative optional and mostly unmarked; the rhythmic law forbids two long vowels in a row; eastern Slovak dialects are less intelligible to Czech speakers and closer to Polish)
- Wikipedia, Czech orthography (ě and ř; ů and ú both write a long u)
- Wikipedia, Slovak orthography (46 letters with four diacritics, including ä, ô, ĺ, ľ and ŕ)
- Wiktionary, přítel (Czech: friend)
- Wiktionary, priateľ (Slovak: friend)
- Wiktionary, děkuji (Czech: thank you)
- Wiktionary, Jan (Czech name; vocative Jane)
- Wiktionary, na shledanou (Czech: goodbye)
- Wiktionary, dovidenia (Slovak: goodbye)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (Category III: Czech and Slovak, about 44 weeks or 1,012 class hours, for an ILR 3 in speaking and listening)
- Bubblegum
Checked on October 5, 2026 against each app's own pages.
