de / te / ne / le / di / ti / ni / li

Soft D, T, N and L Before E and I

Level 1

Before e, i, í, ia, ie and iu, d, t, n sound like ď, ť, ň. Deti (children) sounds like ďeťi, and nie (no) like ňie.

How It Works

The rule. When d, t, n or l comes before e, i, í, ia, ie or iu, it is written without a mark but said soft:

  • deti (children) sounds like ďeťi
  • ticho (quiet) sounds like ťicho
  • nie (no) sounds like ňie
  • deň (day) sounds like ďeň

This is why you write deti but ďakujem: before a, the soft sound needs its mark. See soft consonants.

What about l? The official pronunciation rules also soften l here, so leto (summer) is ľeto in careful speech. In everyday speech, many people say a plain l in these words. Both are heard, so focus first on d, t and n.

Words that stay hard. Learn these as exceptions:

  • a few common words: ten (that), tento (this), jeden (one), teraz (now), vtedy (then)
  • most borrowed words: telefón (telephone), politika (politics), titul (title)
  • adjective endings: mladé (young, as in mladé ženy) and the men's plural mladí (as in mladí muži) have a hard d. See plural adjectives.

y keeps it hard. After d, t, n and l, the letter y always means a hard sound: ty (you) is hard, but ti (to you) is soft. See i and y.

Examples (5)

  1. Deti sú v škole.

    The children are at school.

    Deti sounds like ďeťi.

  2. Nie, ďakujem.

    No, thank you.

    Nie sounds like ňie. Ďakujem needs the mark because a follows.

  3. V lete ideme k moru.

    In summer we go to the sea.

    Ideme has a soft d: iďeme.

  4. Ten telefón je nový.

    That phone is new.

    Ten and telefón are exceptions with a hard t.

  5. Ty mi pomôžeš a ja ti pomôžem.

    You'll help me and I'll help you.

    Ty (you) has a hard t, but ti (to you) has a soft ť.

Common Mistakes

  • Saying d, t and n hard before e and i.

    deti [de-ti]
    deti [ďe-ťi]

    In native words, d, t and n are soft before e and i even without a mark.

  • Writing a mäkčeň where the vowel already makes it soft.

    Dobrý ďeň!
    Dobrý deň!

    The d before e is soft by itself, so the word is written deň.

  • Softening the common exceptions.

    Ten telefón je nový. [ťen ťelefón]
    Ten telefón je nový. [ten telefón]

    Ten and borrowed words like telefón keep a hard t.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

de / te / ne / le / di / ti / ni / liLevel 1Soft D, T, N and L Before E and I

Learn This First

Before Soft d, t, n and l Before e and i, learn Soft Consonants and the Caron. Soft d, t, n and l are the sounds written ď, ť, ň and ľ elsewhere.