The most common Czech words

Why learn Czech words by frequency

A handful of words do most of the work in any language, and Czech is no exception. Little words like a (and), v (in), na (on) and být (to be) appear in almost every sentence. If you learn vocabulary in frequency order, every word you add is one you will actually meet.

The list shows dictionary forms

Czech nouns, adjectives and pronouns change their endings for case, and verbs change for person and tense. The list gives each word in its dictionary form: the nominative for nouns, the infinitive for verbs. So být appears once, but you will meet it as jsem, je, jsou, byl and bude. Ten (that) turns up as ta, to, toho, tom and more.

Words that surprise learners

• se is the reflexive particle, and it sits beside many verbs that are not reflexive in English: učit se means "to learn", jmenovat se "to be called".
• v / ve and s / se: these prepositions gain an -e before a cluster of consonants that would be hard to say, as in ve škole (at school) and se sestrou (with my sister). That se means "with" and has nothing to do with the reflexive se.
• ten, ta, to: Czech has no articles, so ten often does the job English gives to "the".

How to make them stick

Knowing a word means recognising it in a sentence and recalling it when you need it. Reading a list once does neither. Spaced repetition does: you review each word just before you would forget it. That is how the Czech Learner drill works. Add the words to your drill and it schedules the reviews for you.