The Slovak Alphabet

Level 1

Slovak uses 46 letters. Many of them carry a small mark, like č, á, ä or ô, and three are written with two characters: dz, dž and ch.

How It Works

Here is the whole alphabet in order: a, á, ä, b, c, č, d, ď, dz, dž, e, é, f, g, h, ch, i, í, j, k, l, ĺ, ľ, m, n, ň, o, ó, ô, p, q, r, ŕ, s, š, t, ť, u, ú, v, w, x, y, ý, z, ž. That makes 46 letters, the longest alphabet in Europe.

Four marks make new letters.

  • The dĺžeň (´) makes a sound long: á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, and also ĺ and ŕ. See long vowels.
  • The mäkčeň (ˇ) marks č, ď, ľ, ň, š, ť, ž and dž. See soft consonants.
  • Two dots appear only on ä. See the letter ä.
  • The vokáň (ˆ) appears only on ô, a sound like uo. See diphthongs.

Three letters are written with two characters. dz (as in bryndza), dž (as in džem, jam) and ch (as in chlieb, bread) each stand for one sound, so each counts as one letter. In a dictionary, ch has its own section after h. When a word is built from two parts, the characters can also meet by chance. In odzemok (a folk dance), the prefix od- meets z, so there is no dz sound there.

Some sounds are not letters. The diphthongs ia, ie and iu are written with two ordinary letters and are not part of the alphabet. The diphthong ô, however, is a letter of its own.

Letters for foreign words. q, w and x appear only in borrowed words and names, such as watt and xylofón (xylophone). Czech letters such as ě, ř and ů are not Slovak letters at all.

Examples (5)

  1. Slovo chlieb nájdeš v slovníku za slovom hrad.

    You will find the word chlieb after the word hrad in a dictionary.

    Ch is one letter that comes after h, so chlieb follows hrad.

  2. Dáš si chlieb s džemom?

    Would you like bread with jam?

    Ch in chlieb, š in dáš and dž in džemom are each a single letter.

  3. Bryndza je slovenský ovčí syr.

    Bryndza is a Slovak sheep's cheese.

    The dz in bryndza is one letter with one sound.

  4. Na lúke je kôň.

    There is a horse in the meadow.

    Ô is its own letter. It sounds like uo.

  5. Ďakujem, to je všetko.

    Thank you, that is all.

    Ď is a separate letter from d.

Common Mistakes

  • Using Czech letters or words in Slovak.

    Děkuji za pomoc.
    Ďakujem za pomoc.

    Ě, ř and ů do not exist in Slovak, and děkuji is the Czech word. The Slovak word is ďakujem.

  • Writing ô as uo.

    Kuoň je v stajni.
    Kôň je v stajni.

    The sound is like uo, but Slovak always writes it with one letter, ô.

  • Leaving out the marks.

    Dakujem, mam sa dobre.
    Ďakujem, mám sa dobre.

    The marks are part of the letters. Without them, words can be misread or even change meaning.

How It Connects

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The Slovak AlphabetLevel 1

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