# Czech language pronunciation question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2002, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771 "2002-03-23T23:24:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2002, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/1 "2002-03-23T23:24:13Z")
Watching a hockey game today, I saw relatively new LA Kings player Jaroslav Bednar in action. However, both announcers pronounced his surname as “Bednash”. I’ve never heard that before. Is a terminal “r” always pronounced as a “sh”? ---
**Author:** ![zedan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a88e4f/32.png) [@zedan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zedan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/2 "2002-03-24T00:05:56Z")
I haven’t lived in Prague for a while so I could be wrong about this, but I believe the Czech letter r with a “hacheck” (a pointy thing over it) is pronounced sort of like a “zsh” sound. However, when a check name is Americanized the hacheck’s are dropped, so you might think the r is pronounced like a normal r… get it? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/3 "2002-03-24T00:55:58Z")
Thanks, the Kings don’t use any of those diacritical marks for the Czech players. Bednar is from Prague. And he’s scored 3 goals in the last 4 games! And the Kings are in first. I will call him however he wishes. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Timchik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@Timchik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Timchik)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/4 "2002-03-24T08:50:49Z")
The “r with a hachek” in Czech is pronounced as “rzh”. If you know how French is pronounced, think of the word _argent_ (silver). The last syllable of Bednar’s name would be pronounced something like the “arg” in _argent_. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/5 "2002-03-24T15:47:19Z")
“Rzh” is a fair approximation and about as well as most foreigners can do, but to get the full flavor you have to pronounce the “r” and the “zh” part _at the same time_. It’s not a good letter. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/6 "2002-03-24T19:03:57Z")
Maybe I will just call him “Jaroslav”. However, the Kings have two guys on the team with that first name. The other one was the surname of “Modry”, which I presume is pronounced similar to the way it is spelled. ---
**Author:** ![flapcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@flapcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flapcats)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/czech-language-pronunciation-question/99771/7 "2002-03-25T17:09:12Z")
I am married to a Czech who’s name was Bednarova, the ‘ova’ indicating her femininity. So, I can pronounce the name Bednar, and saying ‘r’ and ‘zh’ at the same time is quite a good explaination. However: The ‘rzh’ sound is achieved by expelling air slightly quicker than in the rest of the word, curling the tip of your tougue up and quickly letting it flick back to normal. (like that ‘rrrr’ sound you can make that they call ‘rolling’ an r) Immediatly after that let the sound turn to a brief ‘sh’ sound. The whole thing should happen in the space of a normal western ‘r’. It’s hard, but get a Czech to teach you their words for ‘Three hundred and thirty three’ and you’ll understand that ‘Bednar’ is the tip of the iceberg.