The 100 Most Common Czech Words

These are the 100 most common Czech words, ranked by how often they appear in real Czech text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	a	ah	and
2	být	beet	be
3	ten	ten	this
4	v	v	in
5	on	ohn	he
6	mít	meet	have
7	že	zheh	that (conjunction)
8	s	s	with
9	z	z	from
10	který	KTEH-ree	which
11	na	nah	on
12	do	doh	to
13	i	ee	also
14	ale	AH-leh	but
15	se	seh	self
16	co	tsoh	what
17	jak	yahk	how
18	po	poh	after
19	tak	tahk	so
20	moci	MOH-tsih	can
21	rok	rohk	year
22	o	oh	about
23	k	k	toward
24	člověk	CHLOH-vyek	person
25	když	gdish	when
26	jen	yen	only
27	už	oosh	already
28	čas	chahs	time
29	den	den	day
30	chtít	khteet	want
31	vědět	VYEH-dyet	know
32	říci	RZHEE-tsih	say
33	velký	VEL-kee	large
34	nový	NOH-vee	new
35	dobrý	DOH-bree	good
36	dva	dvah	two
37	jiný	YEE-nee	other
38	muset	MOO-set	must
39	vidět	VEE-dyet	see
40	první	PURV-nyee	first
41	celý	TSEH-lee	whole
42	my	mih	we
43	ty	tih	you
44	svůj	svooy	own
45	také	TAH-keh	too
46	ještě	YESH-tyeh	still
47	kde	gdeh	where
48	jít	yeet	go
49	dát	daht	give
50	práce	PRAH-tseh	work
51	pro	proh	for
52	jako	YAH-koh	as
53	za	zah	behind
54	od	oht	from (away from)
55	tento	TEN-toh	this (specific)
56	aby	AH-bih	so that
57	nebo	NEH-boh	or
58	kdo	gdoh	who
59	u	oo	at (someone's place)
60	před	przhet	before
61	mezi	MEH-zih	between
62	pod	poht	under
63	nad	naht	above
64	při	przhih	at (during)
65	bez	behs	without
66	sám	sahm	oneself
67	každý	KAHZH-dee	each
68	takový	TAH-koh-vee	such
69	všechno	FSHEKH-noh	everything
70	stát	staht	stand
71	říkat	RZHEE-kaht	say (imperfective)
72	mluvit	MLOO-viht	speak
73	myslet	MIS-let	think
74	dostat	DOHS-taht	get
75	přijít	PRZHIH-yeet	come
76	žít	zheet	live
77	tady	TAH-dih	here
78	tam	tahm	there
79	teď	ted'	now
80	pak	pahk	then
81	dnes	dnes	today
82	velmi	VEL-mih	very
83	moc	mohts	much
84	ani	AH-nih	not even
85	nic	nyits	nothing
86	něco	NYEH-tsoh	something
87	druhý	DROO-hee	second
88	tři	trzhih	three
89	poslední	POHS-led-nyee	last
90	život	ZHIH-voht	life
91	svět	svyet	world
92	místo	MEES-toh	place
93	slovo	SLOH-voh	word
94	věc	vyets	thing
95	doba	DOH-bah	time (period)
96	dům	doom	house
97	ruka	ROO-kah	hand
98	žena	ZHEH-nah	woman
99	země	ZEH-myeh	country
100	dítě	DYEE-tyeh	child

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Ranked by lemma frequency in published Czech corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn Czech online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about Czech words

How many Czech words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Czech?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Czech word list come from?

From published Czech word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.