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Slovak-English Vocabulary - Grocery Shopping

Posted by Margarete on Jul 28

I added a few more sets of illustrated vocabulary in the resources section: town, grocery store, and shopping, including a couple of pages with items such as fruits and vegetables.

Just so that I mention it again, these PDFs are in A4-size format, not in letter size. For those in the US who are planning to print them (what do they use in Canada? Letter or A4?), the bottom of the page may be cut off.

Slovak-English Vocabulary page

Slovak-English Vocabulary

Posted by Margarete on Jun 11

Since I’ve been a teacher of English and also a student of the Slovak language in a classroom setting, I have quite a collection of study materials for both languages. I’ve recently come across some materials that I think others would find useful and wanted to make them available through the website.

First, I have a collection of vocabulary organized by subject. The first set I’ve gathered is of vocabulary all having to do with a house and contents that are found in various rooms. The cool thing is that the vocabulary is numbered on to illustrations and so these pages are useful for the English speaker learning Slovak or the Slovak speaker learning English.

As I organize more of these collections, I’ll place them in the “Resources” section under “Language Study”.

Here’s the first set for House vocabulary

Dialog at a Doctor's Office

Posted by Margarete on Nov 15

This entry is a part of the Slovak dialog series. Read the Introduction to Slovak Dialogs for more information.

The following dialog is provided as a sample of typical phrases and questions that may be spoken at a doctor’s office.

A: Hello.

A: Dobrý deň.

B: Hello, doctor.

B: Dobrý deň, pán doktor.

Languages of Central Europe

Posted by Margarete on Sep 15

I never had any experience with the languages of Central Europe before I moved there. Up until adulthood, English had been the only language I had ever spoken. However, I did know that German is from a very different language “family” (German is from the Germanic family) than Slovak (Slavic), and also significantly different from the Hungarian (Finno-Ugric) language. When I moved to Vienna after having lived in Slovakia, I realized I was living in an interesting location between Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest; three completely different language families in such close proximity!

Dialog at a Deli Counter

Posted by admin on Aug 18

This entry is a part of the Slovak dialog series. Read the Introduction to Slovak Dialogs for more information.

The following dialog is provided as a sample of typical phrases and questions that may be heard at a deli counter, for example, in a grocery store:

A: Next, please

A: Ďalší, prosím.

B: Hi. I’d like 15 decagrams of smoked Edam, please.

B: Dobrý deň. Pätnásť deka udeného Eidamu1 prosím.

Dialog at a Train Station

Posted by admin on Jul 17

This entry is a part of the Slovak dialog series. Read the Introduction to Slovak Dialogs for more information.

The following dialog is provided as a sample of typical phrases and questions that may be heard at a ticket window in a train station.

A: Two tickets for Prague, leaving today, please.

A: Dva lístky na dnes do Prahy prosím.

B: One way or round trip?

B: Jednosmerné alebo spiatočné?

Dialog at a Post Office

Posted by admin on Jul 16

This entry is a part of the Slovak dialog series. Read the Introduction to Slovak Dialogs for more information.

The following dialog is provided as a sample of typical phrases and questions that may be heard at a post office.

A: Hi. I’d like to mail this letter to Canada. I’d like to send it registered.

A: Dobrý deň. Chcel(a) by som poslať tento list do Kanady. Rád/Rada by som to poslal(a) doporučene.

B: Fill out this form. Write the name and address of where it is going into the recipient section, and the your name and address into the sender section.

B: Vyplňte tento formulár. Napíšte meno a adresu kam to ide do časti príjemca a Vaše meno a adresu do časti odosielateľ.

Reading and Pronouncing Slovak Diacritics

Posted by Margarete on Jul 16

How are you supposed to learn how to read or pronounce Slovak if you can’t tell what sounds the accent marks are intended to make in words? Here’s my explanation of Slovak diacritics and samples of words to help you learn how to pronounce them:

When looking at the Slovak language, the first thing you might notice over some of the letters is an inverted caret which looks like this ˇ. The function of this symbol is to ‘soften’ the sound of the letter. Most notably it changes the sound in the letters c, s and z.

č = the sound like ch as in church: mačka = cat
š = the sound like sh as in show: šalát = salad
ž = the sound like s in vision: môžem = I can

Introduction to Slovak Dialogs

Posted by admin on Jul 15

What do you do if you speak little to no Slovak and need to ask for something? Well, it depends on your personality. Some might throw their reservations to the wind and use hand gestures, facial expressions, or any kind of body language to make themselves understood. For other who are more self-conscious or plain shy, they might simply decide to do without. For these kinds of people, particularly, it helps when you can memorize or become familiar with some of the vocabulary needed to complete your task.