Czech Genealogical Word List

Introduction
The Czech Republic Genealogical Word List contains Czech words and their English translations for many words that are found in documents used to research Czech ancestors. Click [[Media:WLCzech.pdf|here]] for the PDF version of the Czech Genealogical Word List.

If the word (or some form of it) you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Czech-English dictionary. See the Additional Resources section below.

Czech is a Slavic language derived from the West Slavic language family. Czech is related to Slovak and Polish and is used in the genealogical sources throughout the Czech Republic. Czech is the language of the Czech Republic and was the official language in the Czech lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the former Czechoslovakia. In addition, the Czech language may be found in the records of Czech communities in the United States, Canada, and other areas settled by Czechs.

Before 1918, the Czech lands were provinces of Austria, which, together with Hungary, constituted the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Records written before 1918 may be in German, Latin, or Czech. Czech records often contain German and Latin words. See the German Genealogical Word List and the Latin Genealogical Word List.

For Bohemian-German words, also consult Sudetendeutches Wörterbuch: Wörterbuch der Deutschen Mundarten in Böhmen und Mähren-Schlesien (not all volumes are available).

For explanations of the different peasant occupations in Czech records, consult Peasant Levels & Occupations.

Variant Forms of Words
In Czech, the forms of most words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who, whose, whom, or marry, marries, married are examples of words in English with variant forms. In Czech, any word may have different forms, depending on how it is used. This word list gives the standard form of each Czech word. The endings of Czech words in a document often differ from what you find in this list.

Surnames

Surnames will have the added ending -ová or -á if the person referred to is female:

Gender

Czech words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe the singular and plural forms of Czech words must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings:

This word list gives only the singular masculine form of adjectives. Thus, starý, stará, staré, and staří (all forms of “old”) are listed here as starý.

The endings of past tense verbs also change, depending on the gender and number of the subject:

This word list gives only the narodil se (“he was born”) form of the past tense verb. You can conclude that narodila se means “she was born,” etc.

Plurals

Plural forms of Czech words usually change the singular word:

Words ending in -a change to -y: žena woman / wife  ženy women / wives

Words ending in -o change to -a: město city  města cities

Words ending in -e and -í do not change: ulice street  ulice streets

Words ending in a consonant add -y. A few words add -i, -ové, or -e to form the plural:

The plural form may change the basic word:

Grammatical Use

The endings of Czech words can also vary, depending on the grammatical use of the words. Czech grammar requires a different ending for a word used as a subject, a possessive, an object, or with a preposition. Czech words fall into several classes, each with its own set of grammatical endings. Certain possessive endings give the meaning “of” to a word.


 * Nouns change the endings to show possession.

Nouns ending with a consonant add -a or -e:

Nouns ending with -a add -y: sestra sister  sestry of sister

Nouns ending with -o add -a: město city  města of city

Plural masculine nouns change to -ů: muži husbands  mužů of husbands

Plural feminine or neuter nouns drop the last vowel: ženy wife  žen of wives


 * Adjectives change the endings to show possession.

Adjectives ending in -ý change to -ého: narozený born  narozeného of the born

Adjectives ending in -á change to -é: křtěná baptized  křtěné of the baptized

Adjectives ending in -é change to -ého: neznámé unknown  neznámého of the unknown

Adjectives ending in -í change to -ího: první first  prvního of the first

Plural adjectives ending in -ý or -í add -ch:

These examples show some endings in context:

Syn zemřelého Josefa Nováka a Anny Plevové means “son of the deceased Josef Novák and of Anna Plevová (Pleva).”

Manželství mezi Karlem Václavem Havlem a Barborou Marií Kozárovou means “marriage between Karel Václav Havel and Barbora Marie Kozárová (Kozár).”

For charts of Czech patterns of declension see this article on Wikipedia.

In genealogical sources surnames may also be spelled in the language of the the text. In German text, Czech surnames may be spelled according to German phonetics. So Černý may be spelled Tscherny. Or, German names can be spelled in Czech phonetics, so Schmidt may be spelled Šmid. Surnames can also be translated into the language of the text. Smith, for example could be translated as Schmidt (German), Kovař (Czech), Kovács (Hungarian), or Faber (Latin).

Prepositions

Prepositions also change the grammatical case of the word(s) following them. Some of the most common prepositions you may encounter in genealogical records are:

z or ze means from > followed by genitive case

u means nearby (often used in place names) > followed by genitive case

s or se means with > followed by instrumental case

v or ve means in > followed by locative case

po means after, but also used in the sense of widow of > followed by locative case

mezi means between > followed by instrumental case

nad means above (often used in place names) > followed by instrumental case

pod means below > followed by instrumental case

před means before > followed by instrumental case

Alphabetical Order
Written Czech uses several letters in addition to the 26 letters used in the English alphabet: á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ,ú, ů, ý, ž. The letter combination ch is also considered a single letter and is alphabetized after h. Letters q, w, and x are used only in words of foreign origin. Czech dictionaries and indexes use the following alphabetical order:

a,á b  c,č  d,ď  e,é,ě  f  g  h  ch  i,í  j  k  l  m  n,ň  o,ó  p  (q)  r,ř  s,š  t,ť  u,ú,ů  v  (w)  (x)  y,ý  z,ž

This word list follows the standard English alphabetical order. However, when you work with alphabetized Czech records, use the Czech alphabetical order.

Spelling
Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. In Czech, the following spelling variations are common:

i, y and j used interchangeably s and z used interchangeably w used for v rz used for ř sz used for š cz used for č

In Czech words are pronounced as they are written.

Additional Resources

 * Czech Republic Reading Aids Translated examples of birth, marriage, and death records, both civil registration and church records, in both German and Czech.

This word list includes the words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Czech-English dictionary. Several are available at the FamilySearch Library in the European collection. The call numbers begin with 491.86321. The following dictionary is helpful when you do genealogical research and is available through most bookstores which carry Czech books:


 * Fronek, Josef. Anglicko-český, česko-anglický slovník. (English-Czech, Czech-English dictionary). Praha: Leda, 2003, c1998. (FS Library book 491.86321)

The following dictionary is also available on microfilm and microfiche for use in FamilySearch Centers:


 * Cheshire, Harold T. Česko-anglický slovník. (Czech-English Dictionary). Praha: J. Otto, 1935. (FS Library book 491.86321 C424c; film 1181683 item 1-2; fiche 6001286-6001287).

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the FamilySearch Catalog under CZECH LANGUAGE—DICTIONARIES or in the Locality section under CZECH REPUBLIC—LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES. These include other dictionaries and language helps, such as Czech grammar books.

You could also use an online translator such as Google translate.

Key Words
In order to find and use specific types of Czech records, you will need to know some key words in Czech. This section gives key genealogical terms in English with Czech translations. For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Czech words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Czech records to indicate marriage.

Numbers
In some genealogical records, numbers are spelled out. This is especially true with dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In actual usage, days of the month are written in ordinal form with a possessive grammatical ending. In the following list, the ordinal number in its standard form is given first, followed by the possessive form (in some cases only the possessive ending is listed):

pátý - the fifth     pátého  - on the fifth (of the month)

Cardinal                                       Ordinal

1 jeden, jedna, jedno                      1st první, prvního 2 dva, dvě                                       2nd druhý, druhého 3 tři                                                3rd třetí, třetího 4 čtyři                                             4th čtvrtý, čtvrtého 5 pět                                               5th pátý, pátého 6 šest                                             6th šestý, šestého 7 sedm                                           7th sedmý, sedmého 8 osm                                             8th osmý, osmého 9 devět                                            9th devátý, devátého 10 deset                                        10th desátý, desátého 11 jedenáct                                    11th jedenáctý, -ého 12 dvanáct                                     12th dvanáctý, -ého 13 třináct                                       13th třináctý, -ého 14 čtrnáct                                      14th čtrnáctý, -ého 15 patnáct                                      15th patnáctý, -ého 16 šestnáct                                    16th šestnáctý, -ého 17 sedmnáct                                  17th sedmnáctý, -ého 18 osmnáct                                    18th osmnáctý, -ého 19 devatenáct                                 19th devatenáctý, -ého 20 dvacet                                        20th dvacátý, -ého 21 dvacet jeden, -jedna, -jedno          21st dvacátý první, dvacátého prvního 22 dvacet dva                                  22nd dvacátý druhý, dvacátého druhého 23 dvacet tři                                    23rd dvacátý třetí, dvacátého třetího 24 dvacet čtyři                                24th dvacátý čtvrtý, dvacátého čtvrtého 25 dvacet pět                                  25th dvacátý pátý, dvacátého pátého 26 dvacet šest                                26th dvacátý šestý,dvacátého šestého 27 dvacet sedm                               27th dvacátý sedmý, dvacátého sedmého 28 dvacet osm                                28th dvacátý osmý, dvacátého osmého 29 dvacet devět                               29th dvacátý devátý, dvacátého devátého 30 třicet                                         30th třicátý, třicátého 40 čtyřicet                                      40th čtyřicátý, -ého 50 padesát                                     50th padesátý, -ého 60 šedesát                                     60th šedesátý, -ého 70 sedmdesát                                70th sedmdesátý, -ého 80 osmdesát                                  80th osmdesátý, -ého 90 devadesát                                  90th devadesátý, -ého 100 sto                                         100th stý, -ého 200 dvěstě                                     200th dvoustý, -ého 300 třista                                       300th třístý, -ého 400 čtyřista                                   400th čtyřistý, -ého 500 pětset                                     500th pětistý, -ého 600 šestset                                   600th šestistý, -ého 700 sedmset                                 700th sedmistý, -ého 800 osmset                                   800th osmistý, -ého 900 devětset                                 900th devítistý, -ého 1000 tisíc                                    1000th tisící, -ího

Date and Time
To understand Czech dates, use the following lists as well as the preceding “Numbers” section. In Czech records, dates are occasionally spelled out. Dates are usually given with possessive grammatical endings:


 * dvacátého osmého srpna, jeden tisíc osm set padesát dva
 * [on the twenty-eighth of August, one thousand eight hundred fifty and two] 28 August 1852

Months of the Year
Czech dates are always given in day-month-year order. Months are often abbreviated using a Roman numeral.

For example, 25 February 1848 could be written as:    25. února 1848    25. 2. 1848    25. II. 1848

The months listed below are shown in their standard form and in the possessive form used in writing dates:

Days of the Week
  Czech          English    neděle         Sunday    pondělí        Monday    úterý           Tuesday    středa         Wednesday    čtvrtek        Thursday    pátek          Friday    sobota        Saturday

Times of the Day
Czech records may indicate the exact time when the birth, marriage, or death occurred. This is usually spelled out.

   Czech                   English     v deset hodin          at 10 o’clock    ráno                       in the morning    dopoledne               forenoon    poledne/ v poledne   noon    odpoledne               afternoon    večer                      in the evening    v noci                     at night    půlnoc/ o půlnoci     midnight

General Word List
This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list. In this list, optional versions of Czech words or variable endings (such as some plural or feminine endings) are given in parentheses. Some Czech phrases and their translations are listed [in brackets] under the most significant Czech word, not the first word, of the phrase. Words in parentheses in the English column clarify the definition.

Czech English

C
C, Č

R
R, Ř

S
S, Š

T
T, Ť

Z
Z, Ž