Slovak for foreigners
Slovak lessons: pronunciation guide volume 2
Dipthong ô
is spelt ô, ha brief u gliding into o
ô like stôl, skôr
ou, au,eu
these sequences are not conventionally analysed as diphtongs. The are pronounces as the first vowel followed by an English „w “ sound
ou rukou, malou
au auto, august
eu európsky, euro
Consonants
K, p, t are similar to their English counterparts.
For example kilo, ruka, kúpil, ten, to, talent
Ch is like Ch in the Scottish pronunciation of the word loch.
Chlap, chyba, ucho
R is briefly flapped, also as in Scottish English.
Rád, rieka, hora
Both r and l can act as vowels, sometimes even lenghtened to ŕ and ĺ.
For example
Prvý, plný, hlboký – hĺbka, vŕba
V is mostly like English v but at the end of the word it sounds like English w, also between a vowel and the following consonant:
Víno, Viera – but domov, krv, polievka, pravda
Qu and w only turn up in foreign words like Quido(kvido) and WC (vétsé)
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