11 Fascinating Facts about the Czech Language

by Petra Mainer

Languages are actually fascinating. Undoubtedly, their importance is actually huge. No nation, no civilization would ever last for long without its own language. This is the source of mentality, customs, traditions, the commonness and unity of a definite group of people.

Languages identify different groups of people, showing their own unique point of view and the way they interact with the world. The influences of different events and people create, alter and structure languages. Some are formed out the similar language. The others are formed out of a great number of pretty strange languages. One of the most interesting world languages is the Czech Language. This language has its own history, which is captivating. In order to understand it better, you should learn some interesting facts about this language. Probably, you would like to become an essay writer and could use them in your paper.

The use of diminutives plays an essential role in the forming of new words. It is easy to invent a new vocabulary with the combination of diminutives and metaphors.
Some Czech words have various degrees of diminutives. For example, kníha - knížka - knížečka. All these words have the same translation – “book”. Nevertheless, the size of the book will be understood with the help of these words.
Diminutives may likewise serve as a slight difference in the meaning of some words. For instance, three words pivo - pivko - pivečko, which stands for “beer”. All of them are suitable when you wish to order beer a restaurant or bar. However, they all cannot be used when you wish to ask how much beer was sold in a definite period of time when you’re on a brewery.
The Czechs do not sell people to hell, they tell them to go to the woods (do háje / do prčic).
The Czechs don’t use the meaning “absent minded”. When they characterize a person in that way they use an expression that sounds more like “staring into stupid” (čumět doblba).
These folk doesn't use the expression “at the crack of dawn” in order to determine the time they wake up. They are getting up with the chickens (vstávat se slepicemi).
Another funny expression, which will sound interesting for you considers the moment when they wish to pass somebody. They don’t say “excuse me”. They use the expressions, which can be translated like “mind your backs!” (s dovolením) and it is better to step aside.
Some of their expressions are pretty close to some English and American. However, they differ. For instance, the expression “kill two birds with one stone” sounds similarly, but they say “kill two flies with one hit” (zabít dvě mouchy jednou ranou).
Some of their common expressions sound with dread. We say “put pressure on somebody. In the meanwhile, they say “put the knife on someone’s throat” (dát někomu nůž na krk). Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it?
The Czechs do not use the expression “it's raining cats and dog”. In their language, it will sound like “the rain pours like from a watering can” (lije jako z konve).
Another very intriguing and uncommon fact about the Czech Language is that seems to “avoid” the use of vowels. There some words, which are used without a single vowel! These include chrt (hound) hrb (hump), krb (fireplace), krk (neck), plch (dormouse), prst (finger, toe), smrk (spruce), trh (market) and vlk (wolf). Such fact is really uncommon and may be very complicated for the foreigners.

As you can see, there are many funny and interesting facts about this nice language. Some of them are pretty weird. However, they are great at the same time and really enjoyable. The flexibility of this particular language is unbelievable. It is very similar to the Russian or Ukrainian languages. You can move all the words in a sentence in almost any way you wish.

You should also know that there is another unbelievable fact about this language. Almost 1 percent of the Internet is written in Czech. What does it mean? It means that this language belongs to the 15 most widely spread languages over the Internet. Therefore, it is really popular because its native speakers are very active online.

There are many other facts about this nice language that you might find interesting to know. Though it may seem a bit challenging to learn it, you will surely love it within some time.

About the writer

Petra Mainer is a student and blogger. She started writing short stories a long time ago, but now she is eager to become a regular contributor for different educational and entertainment blogs. You can follow her on Twitter @PetraMainer.

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