Language

Slovak language is an Indo-European language used in Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, USA and in other countries (almost 6 million people). It belongs to a large family of Slavic (Slavonic) languages (subgroup of Indo-European languages):

• West Slavs: Slovak, Czech, Upper & Lower Sorbian (minority languages in Germany), Polish
• East Slavs: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Rusyn
• South Slavs: Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian

Czechs and Slovaks can easily understand each other. Polish is also very similar to Slovak, some words can be understood by slovaks.

Translator

The tool above can translate from any language to any language. For translating from or into Slovak language, please, follow the easy instructions:

1. Enter the text to be translated into the first line (instead of the “hello world” sign).
2. The text can be of any lenght.
3. In the left box choose the language of the original text. (If you’re translating from Slovak to other language, pick “slovak” here.)
4. In the next box choose the desired language which the text should be translated into. (Pick “slovak” if you are translating into Slovak.)
5. Click on “Translate” button, the translation should appear.
6. Sometimes, the translation might be too long and you won’t see the whole translated text rightaway. In that case just use the scrollbar(s) (up & down or right & left).

Useful phrases

Conversation

Yes – Áno
No – Nie
Maybe – Možno
Good morning – Dobré ráno
Good evening – Dobrý večer
Good night – Dobrú noc
My name is … – Volám sa …
You are welcome – Nemáte za čo
Thank you – Ďakujem
Please – Prosím
It is nice to meet you – Teší ma
Welcome – Vítajte
How are you? – Ako sa máš?

Signs

Entrance – Vstup
Exit – Východ
Information – Informácie
Open – Otvorené
Close – Zatvorené
Prohibited – Zakázané
Police – Polícia
Toilet – Záchod/Toaleta/WC
Men – Muž
Women – Žena

Language difficulties

I (don’t) understand – (Ne)Rozumiem
Do you speak English? – Hovoríte po anglicky?
Does anyone here speak English? – Hovorí tu niekto po anglicky?
What does it mean? – Čo to znamená?
Can you show me …? – Môžete mi ukázať …?

Transport

Boat/Ship – Loď
Bus – Autobus
Plane – Lietadlo
I would like a one way/return ticket. – Chcel by som jednosmerný/spiatočný lístok.

Accommodation

I’m looking for … – Hľadám …
Guesthouse – Penzión
Hotel – Hotel
Hostel – Hostel or Ubytovňa
Where is there a cheap hotel? – Kde je tu lacný hotel?
What is the address? – Aká je to adresa?
Could you write it down, please? – Môžete mi to, prosím, napísať?
How much is it? (per night/per person) – Koľko to stojí? (na noc/na osobu)
Do you have any rooms available? – Máte nejaké voľné izby?
Is breakfast included? – Sú raňajky v cene?

Reservation

I’d like to book … – Chcel by som si rezervovať …
Date – Dátum
From (date) – Od
To (date) – Do
Credit card – Kreditná karta
Number – Číslo
Please confirm – Prosím o potvrdenie
Price – Cena
One night – Jedna noc
One person – Jedna osoba
Room – Izba
Bathroom – Kúpeľňa

Directions

Where is? – Kde je?
Which way? – Kadiaľ?
Go straight ahead – Choďte rovno
Turn left/right – Zabočte do ľava/prava
Stop! – Stop!/Stojte!
At the corner – Na rohu
Behind – Za
In front of – Pred
Far – Ďaleko
Close – Blízko
North – Sever
South – Juh
West – Západ
East – Východ

Numbers

0 – zero – nula
1 – one – jeden
2 – two – dva
3 – three – tri
4 – four – štyri
5 – five – päť
6 – six – šesť
7 – seven – sedem
8 – eight – osem
9 – nine – deväť
10 – ten – desať
11 – eleven – jedenásť
12 – twelve – dvanásť
13 – thirteen – trinásť
14 – fourteen – štrnásť
15 – fifteen – pätnásť
16 – sixteen – šestnásť
17 – seventeen – sedemnásť
18 – eighteen – osemnásť
19 – nineteen – devätnásť
20 – twenty – dvadsať
21 – twenty-one – dvadsať jeden
22 – twenty-two – dvadsať dva
…
30 – thirty – tridsať
40 – fourty – štyridsať
50 – fifty – päťdesiat
60 – sixty – šesťdesiat
70 – seventy – sedemdesiat
80 – eighty – osemdesiat
90 – ninety – deväťdesiat

100 – hundred – sto
1000 – thousand – tisíc
1000000 – million – milión

185 – onehundred-eighty-five – sto-osemdesiat-päť
943 – ninehundred-forty-three – deväťsto-štyridsať-tri
1215 – onethousand-twohundred-fifteen – tisíc-dvesto-pätnásť
8532 – eightthousand-fivehundred-thirty-two – osemtisíc-päťsto-tridsať-dva

Time and Date

What time is it? – Koľko je hodín?
When? – Kedy?
In the morning – Ráno
In the afternoon – Poobede
In the evening – Večer
Today – Dnes
Tomorrow – Zajtra
Yesterday – Včera
Day – Deň
Week – Týždeň
Month – Mesiac
Year – Rok

Monday – Pondelok
Tuesday – Utorok
Wednesday – Streda
Thursday – Štvrtok
Friday – Piatok
Saturday – Sobota
Sunday – Nedeľa

January – Január
February – Február
March – Marec
April – Apríl
May – Máj
June – Jún
July – Júl
August – August
September – September
October – Október
November – November
December – December

Paperwork

Name – Meno
Nationality – Národnosť
Date of birth – Dátum narodenia
Place of birth – Miesto narodenia
Gender – Pohlavie
Passport – Pas
Visa – Víza

Slovak Grammar

Slovak language uses Latin alphabetic, certain letter in certain circumstances have diacritics: ˇ, ´, ¨, ^ above them. Most letters (without any diacritics) are pronounced more or less the same as you read it.

The acute mark (or prolongation mark) indicates a long vowel, for example: í = ee. This mark may appear on any vowel and it may also appear above the consonants l and r (which, in such cases, are considered vowels).

The circumflex exists only above the letter o. It turns o into a diphthong, for example: “ôt” is read as “what”.

The umlaut (two dots) is only used above the letter a. It indicates a raised vowel, almost as “ae” in Vanessa Mae.

The caron (palatalization mark or softener) indicates either palatalization or a change of alveolar fricatives into post-alveolar, in informal Slovak linguistics often called just palatalization. Eight consonants can bear a caron. Not all “normal” consonants have a “caroned” counterpart:

• In printed texts, the caron is printed in two forms: (1) č, dž, š, ž, ň and (2) ľ, ď, ť (looking more like an apostrophe), but this is just a convention. In handwritten texts, it always appears in the first form.
• Phonetically, there are two forms of palatalization: ď, ť, ň, ľ are palatalized consonants, while č, dž, š, ž are post-alveolar affricates and fricatives.
• To accelerate writing, a rule has been introduced that the frequent character combinations: ďe, ťe, ňe, ľe, ďi, ťi, ňi, ľi, ďí, ťí, ňí, ľí are simply written without the caron: de, te, ne, le, di, ti, ni, li, dí, tí, ní, lí. These combinations are usually pronounced as if there were a caron above the consonant. There are exceptions:
  1. foreign words (for example: TV = televízor is pronounced with a hard t and a hard l)
  2. the following words: ten = that, jeden = one), vtedy = then, teraz = now
  3. nominative masculine plural endings of pronouns and adjectives do not soften preceding d, t, n, l (for example: tí smelí mladí chlapi = those brave young guys)
  4. short e in adjectival endings, which is derived from long é shortened by the rhythmical rule, does not soften preceding d, t, n, l (for example: krásne domy = beautiful houses, červené domy = red houses)
• ľ has always been pronounced by many speakers, particularly from western Slovakia, as a non-palatalized l, especially in li and le where the caron is not written. Some western Slovaks consider palatalized pronunciation of li and le a middle and eastern dialect feature only, or a sign of hypercorrectness.

In addition, the following rules hold:

• When a voiced consonant having a voiceless correspondent (that is b, d, ď, dz, dž, g, h, z, ž) stands at the end of the word before a pause, it is pronounced as a voiceless consonant (that is p, t, ť, c, č, k, ch, s, š, respectively), for example: ship = loď is pronounced as loť
• When v stands at the end of the syllable, it is pronounced as non-syllabic u, with the exception of the position before n or ň, for example: home = domov is pronounced as domou, but uprise = povstať is pronounced as povstať because the v is not at the end of the syllable (po-vstať), funny = zábavný is again pronounced as zábavný because v stands before n.
• The assimilation rule: Consonant clusters containing both voiced and voiceless elements are entirely voiced if the last consonant is a voiced one, or voiceless if the last consonant is voiceless. For example: pictures = obrázky is pronounced obrásky. This rule applies also over the word boundary, for example: to be at home = byť doma is pronounced as byď doma. The voiced counterpart of ch is h.
• The rhythmical rule: A long syllable (that is, a syllable containing á, é, í, ý, ó, ú, ŕ, ĺ, ia, ie, iu, ô) cannot be followed by another long syllable in the same word. This rule has morphonemic implications, for example: to women = ku ženám but to daughters = ku dcéram) and conjugation (for example: I wear = nosím but I judge = súdim). There are several exceptions to this rule. This rule is typical only for Slovak language, it does not appear in Czech, or in some Slovak dialects.

Pronunciation Guide