Czech belongs to the West Slavic branch of the Slavic language family. This family also includes Polish, Slovak, Sorbian, Ukrainian, Russian, Croatian, and others. They share many grammatical features and roots.
High Intelligibility with Slovak
Czech and Slovak are highly mutually intelligible. During the Czechoslovak era, the two languages were used interchangeably in media and education. Most adults in both countries can understand the other language without any special study.
Comparison of Common Words
| English | Czech | Slovak | Polish | Russian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| water | voda | voda | woda | voda |
| bread | chléb | chlieb | chleb | khleb |
| day | den | deň | dzień | den' |
| school | škola | škola | szkoła | shkola |
| mother | matka | matka | matka | mat' |
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