ENGLISH
REFERENCE

czech

n. C / U
A2 Elementary US //ˈtʃɛk// czech Dialect

n. the language spoken in the Czech Republic, or a person who comes from that country.

n. the West Slavic language spoken by the majority of the population in the Czech Republic; also, a person of Czech descent or nationality.


SIMPLE

I am learning how to speak Czech.

CONTEXTUAL

The local guide spoke perfect English but preferred to converse in Czech with his colleagues.

COMPLEX

While the grammar of Czech is notoriously difficult for English speakers to master, its phonetic spelling makes pronunciation relatively straightforward once the basic rules are learned.

Synonyms
Origin

Unadapted borrowing from Polish Czech, from Old Polish Czech, from Old Czech Čech, ultimately a variation and contraction of Proto-Slavic *čelověkъ (“human”).

Usage

Uncountable when referring to the language; countable when referring to a person from the Czech Republic.

Pitfall

He is a Czech languageHe is CzechWhen describing a person's nationality, use the word as an adjective or a countable noun, not as the name of the language.

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