Comprehensible input · Czech
Czech texts you can actually read
Czech is a West Slavic language spoken by over 13 million people, known for its complex grammar and lack of articles. Every text is written for your level, every sentence is tappable for a translation, every word is one tap from the dictionary — and the whole story can be read to you out loud.
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A0 · First texts
Readable after your first few lessons
Tiny texts (40–80 words) built from greetings, family, and everyday objects. Short sentences, present tense only, lots of cognates.
Ahoj, nebo dobrý den?
Ahoj or Dobrý den?
Tom is new in Prague and keeps greeting people the wrong way — a micro-dialogue about Czech hellos, for your very first lessons.
Read & listenTo je Jana
This Is Jana
Meet Jana from Prague and her friendly dog Rex — your first Czech text, readable after just a few lessons.
Read & listenMoje taška
My Bag
What's in Jana's bag? A gender-coded tour of everyday objects — ten little nouns, three genders, one curious dog.
Read & listenJanina rodina
Jana's Family
Meet the whole cast: Jana's brother Petr, her parents, babička with the famous garden — and where Rex fits in the family tree.
Read & listenČerná kočka, bílý pes
Black Cat, White Dog
Rex meets the neighbour's cat — a tiny drama in colors, sizes and adjective endings.
Read & listenRáno u Jany
Morning at Jana's
Seven o'clock at Jana's: food for Rex, coffee and breakfast for Jana, and rain outside.
Read & listenA1 · Everyday life
Daily routines, shopping, weather — real situations
Short stories and dialogues (80–160 words) about everyday life. Present tense with natural case usage and frequent question-answer patterns.
Můj den
My Day
Tom describes a plain Prague weekday — breakfast, work, an evening walk with Rex — in the present tense you've just learned.
Read & listenTom se učí česky
Tom Is Learning Czech
Tom speaks three languages — and now he's learning Czech. His method: the tram, the pub menu, and one very patient flatmate.
Read & listenDám si kávu
I'll Have a Coffee
Jana and Tom in their favourite café — and the accusative endings hiding in every order.
Read & listenBydlím v Praze
I Live in Prague
Jana shows Tom her Prague — the river, the bridge, the park and the tram — with the locative case doing the walking.
Read & listenNáš byt
Our Flat
A room-by-room tour of Jana and Tom's flat — the kitchen where everything happens, the small bathroom, and Rex's favourite spot.
Read & listenBez cukru
Without Sugar
Babička is baking her famous bábovka — and the sugar jar is empty. A kitchen crisis powered by the genitive case.
Read & listenNákup na víkend
Shopping for the Weekend
Jana and Tom shop for the chata weekend — a list, a market stall, deka of ham, and one item that isn't on the list.
Read & listenPečení bábovky
Baking a Bundt Cake
A Sunday at grandmother's: baking a marbled bábovka from flour, sugar and cocoa, the whole house filling with its smell, then coffee, cake, and the newspaper in the kitchen.
Read & listenPan Novák
Mr Novák
Tom meets the neighbour — and learns vykání the hard way. A dialogue about ty, vy, and how Czech politeness actually works.
Read & listenJanin týden
Jana's Week
Monday to Sunday in Jana's calendar — school, floorball, babička's lunch — with days, times and one sacred rule about Fridays.
Read & listenJak jezdím do práce
How I Get to Work
Jana's commute: tram number 22, eight stops, one transfer — and why she never drives. The habitual motion verbs at work.
Read & listenCesta tramvají v Praze
Tram Trip in Prague
A ride on Prague's famous tram 22: waiting at the stop, buying a ticket, and watching old houses, the Vltava and Charles Bridge glide past the window.
Read & listenVýlet na hrad Karlštejn
Trip to Karlštejn Castle
A day trip from Prague to Karlštejn Castle: buying train tickets at the main station, the uphill walk, a guided tour past old paintings and weapons, and goulash for lunch.
Read & listenVíkend na chatě
Weekend at the Cottage
A classic Czech weekend: leaving the city on Friday for the family cottage, garden work, mushroom hunting in the forest, and sausages over the evening fire.
Read & listenA2 · Little stories
Real narratives with a beginning, middle, and end
Narrative texts (150–280 words) that tell a story: a trip, a memory, a small adventure. Past tense appears, sentences breathe a little more.
Co se mi líbí na Česku
What I Like About Czechia
Tom's list: trams that come on time, pubs where nobody hurries, forests everywhere — a love letter powered by the dative.
Read & listenPočasí v Česku
The Weather in Czechia
Four seasons with the cast: spring at the chata, a heatwave, mushroom rain, and the first snow — in subjectless weather sentences.
Read & listenVčera byl dobrý den
Yesterday Was a Good Day
Tom tells his whole yesterday in the past tense — with jsem parked correctly in second position all the way through.
Read & listenPlány na víkend
Weekend Plans
Friday evening planning session: budu, půjdu, pojedu — and a weather forecast that changes everything.
Read & listenČetl jsem — a přečetl
I Was Reading — and I Finished
One evening, one book, both aspects: Tom finally finishes his first Czech book — and learns the difference between četl and přečetl.
Read & listenU doktora
At the Doctor's
Tom has a fever and a sore throat — a full doctor's visit in dialogue, from bolí mě to the pharmacy counter.
Read & listenMůj první den v práci
My First Day at Work
Petr starts his first real job — new colleagues, a coffee machine mystery, and the question every Czech office asks at 11:30.
Read & listenZahrádkářská kolonie
The Allotment Garden
A beloved Czech escape from the apartment block: the allotment colony on the edge of town, where city families keep a little hut, grow their own vegetables and fruit, and spend summer weekends grilling and chatting with neighbours over the fence.
Read & listenPraha, nebo Brno?
Prague or Brno?
Jana is from Prague, Petr studied in Brno — the eternal rivalry over one table, with comparatives flying and a šalina in the middle.
Read & listenKolik lidí, tolik chutí
So Many People, So Many Tastes
Planning babička's garden party: five salads, ten rohlíky, many opinions — a story counted entirely in the genitive plural.
Read & listenKdo přišel?
Who's Arrived?
The doorbell rings all Saturday: guests arrive, leave, pop in and pop out — a doorbell farce built entirely on motion prefixes.
Read & listenBabička má svátek
It's Grandma's Name Day
Tom discovers the Czech name-day calendar — why babička gets flowers twice a year, and when exactly every Jana in the country celebrates.
Read & listenVánoční kapr
Christmas Carp
Czech Christmas Eve, from the meat-free lunch and the golden piglet to a carp in the bathtub, fried carp with potato salad, and presents from Ježíšek.
Read & listenVelikonoce a pomlázka
Easter and the Pomlázka
A famous and surprising Czech Easter custom: on Easter Monday, men and boys go house to house with a willow pomlázka, gently whipping the women for youth and health — and are rewarded with painted eggs, sweets, and a shot of slivovitz.
Read & listenLegenda o pražském Golemovi
The Legend of the Prague Golem
The most famous Prague legend: how Rabbi Loew shaped a servant from Vltava clay, brought it to life with a shem — and what happened when he forgot to remove it.
Read & listenPověst o praotci Čechovi
The Legend of Forefather Čech
One of the oldest Czech legends: fleeing war and poverty, a wandering people led by the brothers Čech and Lech reach Mount Říp, where Čech climbs up, sees a green land of milk and honey, and founds Bohemia.
Read & listenČeské pivo a hospoda
Czech Beer and the Pub
Why the pub is the living room of Czech culture: pale lager, hockey on the screen, goulash with dumplings, and the right way to say cheers.
Read & listenB1 · Real stories
Longer stories with feelings, opinions, and plans
Stories and slice-of-life pieces (250–500 words) with several characters, dialogue, and a real arc. Future tense, aspect pairs, and opinions appear naturally.
Psi, nebo kočky?
Dogs or Cats?
Two columns, one eternal question: Jana defends dogs, Petr defends cats — an op-ed pair full of opinion frames. Rex declines to comment.
Read & listenDopis z Dublinu
A Letter from Dublin
Jana's cousin Klára writes home after a year in Ireland — joy, homesickness and the emotion frames with their cases, in one honest letter.
Read & listenKdybych vyhrál milion
If I Won a Million
The lottery daydream, four ways: what Jana, Tom, Petr and babička would do with a million crowns — the conditional in full flight.
Read & listenRady pro turistu v Česku
Advice for a Tourist in Czechia
Tom writes a guide for his visiting friends: what you should do, what's worth it, and the three mistakes every tourist makes.
Read & listenTři filmy na víkend
Three Films for the Weekend
Jana's mini-reviews: a classic comedy, a fairy tale you must see at Christmas, and one film Tom should skip — verdicts included.
Read & listenČeské filmové pohádky
Czech Film Fairy Tales
A cornerstone of the Czech Christmas: the tradition of TV fairy tales, from the beloved 1973 'Three Wishes for Cinderella' to the new film premiered each Christmas Eve — gentle, witty stories where heroes are clever ordinary folk and even the devils aren't truly evil.
Read & listenZprávy týdne
News of the Week
A local news digest, Slavonaut edition: a tram line closure, a record mushroom season, and a dog who found his way home — in real news Czech.
Read & listenČeské pověry
Czech Superstitions
Why you must look people in the eye when toasting, what the Christmas carp scale does in your wallet, and other rules Czechs half-believe.
Read & listenVýlet na Sněžku
Trip to Sněžka
Climbing the highest Czech mountain: by cable car in fifteen minutes or on foot through Obří důl — and why you should pack warm clothes even in July.
Read & listenRomantický Český Krumlov
Romantic Český Krumlov
A fairy-tale town in southern Bohemia on the Vltava: Český Krumlov's UNESCO-listed centre and vast Renaissance chateau, its winding lanes and medieval taverns, canoeing right through town under the castle, and the famous revolving open-air theatre.
Read & listenNo jasně!
Well, Obviously!
Tom finally cracks the particle code: one evening at the pub where no means yes, přece means come-on, and everything is v pohodě.
Read & listenKarel IV. a Praha
Charles IV and Prague
How a 14th-century king who spoke five languages turned Prague into one of Europe's great cities: the New Town, Charles Bridge, the first university in Central Europe, and Karlštejn.
Read & listenJan Hus a husitské války
Jan Hus and the Hussite Wars
The Czech reformer a century before Luther: Jan Hus, who preached in Czech against a rich and corrupt Church, was branded a heretic and burned at the stake in Konstanz in 1415 — his death igniting the Hussite Wars and making him a lasting symbol of moral courage.
Read & listenSametová revoluce
The Velvet Revolution
November 1989, day by day: a student march turns into a national movement, keys ring out over Wenceslas Square, and a playwright becomes president.
Read & listenB2 · Almost native
Texts with style: humour, suspense, and culture
Short fiction and cultural essays (400–800 words). Natural register shifts, reported speech, participles where the language uses them in print.
Dobrý voják Švejk
The Good Soldier Švejk
The world's most famous Czech novel: a Prague dog dealer in the Austro-Hungarian army whose obedient idiocy — real or brilliantly feigned — dismantles the machinery of war.
Read & listenFenomén Jára Cimrman
The Phenomenon of Jára Cimrman
The greatest Czech who never lived: a fictional universal genius, a theatre built on perfect deadpan, and the TV poll he won so convincingly he had to be disqualified.
Read & listenPražské jaro a rok 1968
Prague Spring and 1968
A year of hope crushed: the 1968 Prague Spring, Dubček's 'socialism with a human face' and the end of censorship — then the Warsaw Pact invasion of tanks that ended it overnight, the futile street resistance, and the grey decades of 'normalization' that followed.
Read & listenKarel Čapek a slovo robot
Karel Čapek and the word "robot"
The Czech word that conquered the world: how 'robot' was born in Karel Čapek's 1920 play 'R.U.R.' — suggested by his brother Josef from the old Slavic 'robota' (serf labour) — and how its author became one of interwar Europe's most humane and respected intellectuals.
Read & listen