Online Dictionaries

Note: Unfortunately, none of the online dictionaries can replace a good printed dictionary or its CD-ROM version. They can be a very useful guide, however. See Bookstore for references to real dictionaries. 

http://www.wordbook.cz
A decent English/Czech - Czech/English dictionary. Contains an ingenious system for typing in letters with accents for those without a Czech keyboard.

http://www.translator.cz
Multilingual Dictionary and Translator also available as a commercial application. It translates between Czech and six other languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Note: To reverse the direction of translation click on button Otoč.

http://www.slovnik.cz 
A decent online dictionary which doesn't use diacritics, however (could be a plus if you're not sure about a particular Czech word). Also contains a German/Czech dictionary.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010
James Naughton's page offers a learner's dictionary to download and use offline. Also many classical Czech texts with annotations and translations.

http://www.mtranslations.cz
Moravia Translations provide a decent dictionary. It tends to show less frequent equivalents first, however. Also contains a description of the Czech alphabet. The company specializes in software localization.

http://www.oplatek.cz/0deutsch.htm 
German-Czech Dictionary offered by an electronic dictionary maker.

http://www.czechprimer.org 
A cute picture dictionary offering the most basic vocabulary with hand-drawn illustrations.

http://www.travlang.com 
Basic Czech phrases with sound plus an online dictionary using a peculiar transcription system. (Also available for many other languages.)

http://www.maxdorf.cz/psm/psm.html 
Czech to Czech dictionary of medicine.

http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/ht/Czech.html 
Alternative Czech Dictionary of about 34 vulgarisms translated into English. Uses peculiar transliteration. Contains vulgarisms in a number of other languages.

http://www.vegateam.cz/slovnik  
A page (including a short dictionary) describing the differences between Prague Czech and various Moravian dialect.

Buy the best printed dictionary from Amazon in the UK
Release in 1999 written by Josef Fronek, this is the only dictionary worth anything for serious language learning.

http://www.leda.cz 
Czech dictionary publisher Leda which offers dictionaries both in print and on CD-ROM.

http://www.onelist.com/messages/Czechlist 
A group of Czech/English translators discussing problems with translating from Czech into English.

http://goethe-verlag.com/tests  
A number of tests and quizzes for vocabulary and phrase between many languages. Includes correct answers but is not interactive.

www.unforgettablelanguages.com/frames_a10.html
Although it brands itself a full language course, this is too ambitious. But it can be recommended as an interesting vocabulary building aid which may be very useful to some users. It introduces Czech words through associations with English words and phrases. No grammar is mentioned. Only a sample is free but a full course can be had for relatively little (under US$10).

Online Grammars

http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline
Complete detailed grammar of Czech (still under development). Also includes detailed information about the language.

http://www.seelrc.org/casebooks  
Detailed and erudite grammar of the Czech case system focusing on meaning by Laura Janda. (In PDF). The site also contains additional Czech exercises with more being developed.

http://mujweb.cz/www/grammarcz
Good overview of Czech declension and conjugation and mentions of other parts of speech. Provided by authors of WinCzEdu CD-ROM at http://mujweb.cz/www/winczeduc. Also contains Czech history at http://mujweb.cz/www/historycz. 

http://www.locallingo.com
Contains some language exercises and a brief but useful grammar overview.

http://czech.ya.cz
An interesting site for Russian speakers. Contains declension and conjugation tables as well as other aspects of Czech grammar explained in Russian. Excerpts from Czech poets are also placed on the site.

Online Corpora

http://ucnk.ff.cuni.cz 
Czech National Corpus with a limited search tool available to the public.

Note: Many of the sites listed here in connection with History, Culture, and Literature  could be used as a makeshift corpus. Some search functions in Online Newspapers can also be used for language research purposes.

Information about Czech Language and other Resources for Learners

http://www.bohemica.com/essays
A number of articles about Czech language and culture.

http://www.czech-language.cz 
Excellent site describing Czech from a linguistic perspective. Contains many useful links.

http://www.locallingo.com
An impressive site with a lot of information and a few interesting exercises. There are greatly useful lists, for example a list of Czech name days and nicknames.

http://www.slavic.ohio-state.edu/people/holdeman/czech
A list of resources for teachers and learners of Czech as a foreign language. Particularly useful to US residents. Also contains database of places where Czech can be learned around the world. 

http://www.language.brown.edu/CZH
Excerpts from selected works of Czech literature with exercises for advanced students.

http://www.language.brown.edu/NAATC
Official website of the North American Association of Teachers of Czech (NAATC) which includes PDF versions of past newsletters.

www.baylanguagebooks.co.uk
Online shopfront of a major distributor of language textbooks with an extensive selection of Czech language materials hard to get elswhere.

http://www.bama.ua.edu/~adrozd/czech  
Sundry exercises to practice Czech vocabulary organized by themes.

http://www.ujc.cas.cz
Ústav pro jazyk český Akademie věd (Czech Language Institute at the Academy of Sciences) is all in Czech but contains an online FAQ about the language from the point of view of native speakers. You can also ask your own questions in Czech.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7953/Intro.html 
A site dealing with Czech-English translation problems.

http://www.tsjechisch.nl
A Dutch site about Czech.

http://www.masteringczech.com  
A small info site run by a Czech expat living in the US as a supplement for her lessons. Includes pronunciation tips, a list of textbooks and a list of Czech authors translated into English.

http://www.czechstepbystep.cz 
Site connected to a new textbook 'Czech Step by Step' with a free sample.

http://www.radio.cz
Even though these are the pages of a Czech radio. The Living Czech and Czechs in History sections are excellent resources for learners of Czech language and culture.

http://www.slovio.cz
An interesting project to try and establish a pan-Slavic language which will be intelligible to all Slavs. Its chances of success are slim, but it can give a student a good idea of what is Slavonic in Czech. There is also a related site with a self-explanatory name at http://www.panslavia.com. Also see Czech Grammar above and Information about Czech Culture, History and Literature below.

Information about Czech Culture, History and Literature

Literature

<History and Culture>

http://www.ceskaliteratura.cz 
Probably the most complete Czech-based resource for Czech literature. Contains many texts and excerpts and links to others.

http://www.cuni.cz/cte 
Czech library of electronic texts. Contains texts and links to texts both Czech originals and Czech translations.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/CLS/Czech
'Brown University Online Czech Anthology' is an excellent starting place for anyone wanting to read Czech literature in the original. It contains excerpts from Čapek and Hašek with voice recordings and vocabulary links. There are also several exercises.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~tayl0010
James Naughton's page containing many resources for Czech literature hosted by Oxford University as well as links to other sites. Resources include full texts of some Czech classical texts with annotations and translations. A learner's dictionary is also available for download.

http://www.lf1.cuni.cz/~dcasl/litera3.html
Czech literature page with many excerpts and further links (all in Czech). Mirrored on http://www.mujweb.cz/www/literatura. 

http://www.bohemistika.cz
A site of announcements for literary critics interested in Czech studies. All in Czech.

http://www.twistedspoon.com
Prague-based publisher of translated Czech literature in English (specializing in but not limited to books written by Prague Jews at the turn of the last century). Well worth having a look.

http://www.noveknihy.cz
Online version of weekly New Books magazine which containing a searchable database of nearly all books published in Czech since roughly 1990. Over 30,000 titles (including translations from other languages) with brief bibliographical information and a synopsis are listed by the site. 

http://maj.kgb.cz
Complete text and translation of a famous romantic poem by K. H. Mácha Máj.

http://www.labyrint.cz
Complete text and translation of Labyrint světa a ráj duše by Commenius. Also contains a fascinating 3D presentation.

Note: All other links to specific works and authors can be found in one of the link collections above.

History and Culture

<Literature>

http://www.locallingo.com 
Local Lingo provides much useful information about the Czech culture and habits.

http://mujweb.cz/www/historycz 
A summary of Czech history in English.

http://www.czech-tradition.cz 
Site dealing with Czech traditions month by month, amply illustrated with texts both in English and Czech.

http://www.libri.cz/capka 
A complete Czech History in Dates in Czech. Provided by the publisher of many Czech encyclopedias. Also a comprehensive index of Czech historical personalities, their dates of birth and death and links to key events.  

http://www.czech.cz
Information resource about Czech history, culture and tourism in English, provided by the Czech Ministry of foreign Affairs.

http://www.radio.cz
Even though these are the pages of a Czech radio. The Living Czech and Czechs in History sections are excellent resources for learners of Czech language and culture.

http://www.klic.cz/remesla
An excellent site in Czech describing traditional Czech Arts and Crafts and folklore. Also contains a season by season description of Czech customs and superstitions.

http://www.cesky-svet.cz  
Site for tourists with much useful information about Czech history, symbols and Culture. Both in English and Czech. (Some sections under construction).

http://www.prague-photos.com
Lots of photographs from Prague and other interesting Czech things.

http://www.fipro.cz/pranostiky 
List of Czech 'weather-lore' proverbs (more complete than the one at http://www.czech-tradition.cz). 

http://www.recepty.cz
Traditional as well as international recipes in Czech. Great resource for language learning with much appeal to the fifth sense.

http://www.onelist.com/messages/Czechlist 
A group of Czech/English translators discussing problems with translating from Czech into English including many cultural issues.

http://www.divadlo.cz
All about Czech theatre including schedules.

http://www.cfn.cz
České filmové nebe (Czech Film Heaven) contains a year-by-year listing of hundreds of Czech films since 1930 and dozens of short profiles of famous Czech actors. It is being constantly updated.

http://homepages.go.com/~phonik
English/German site listing 255 Czech and Slovak TV serials broadcast since 1959. It contains short descriptions of some of them and profiles of several actors.

http://www.dokina.cz
Current film listings including reviews and brief film descriptions.

http://www.jokes.cz
Hundreds of jokes of variable taste, but all in Czech and useful for the learner.

http://pes.internet.cz/hudba/ukazky.htm
Many samples of Czech classical and folklore music (as well as some other classical music) as part of Neviditelný pes.

http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-03.htm
http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-04.htm 
Two texts dealing with issues of Czech culture and history stored at the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy  website. They are Traditions and present problems of Czech political culture and Czech philosophy in the XXth century. Other related texts are also available at the site.

http://www.geocities.com/goodolejoe/songs.html
Page with over 70 Czech Polka songs as sung in Texas. Unfortunately, it does not contain háčky and čárky (i.e. accents).

Also see Information about Czech above, and portals and newspapers below.

Online Newspapers and Other Resources

http://www.quick.cz
Links to some important news resources. Also includes full text search going back several years. Invaluable to any researchers and all free. (This item supplements listing sites of all the   newspapers it services.)

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz
Daily online paper published by CTK (Czech Press Agency). 

http://www.lidovky.cz
Online edition of one of the most respectable Czech dailies.

http://www.idnes.cz
http://www.mfdnes.cz
Online edition of the best selling Czech daily Mladá Fronta Dnes, offering up-to-date news and many online only features such as Inet interviews with celebrities and politicians. (Second link goes directly to electronic version of the paper edition).

http://www.ihned.cz
Leading Czech business daily (equivalent of Financial Times) services this web site which also provides other business services such as tax advise.

http://www.respekt.cz
Political commentary weekly with an archive going back to 1993. It publishes a week in review on its last page.

http://www.ringier.cz
Major publisher of magazines and tabloid newspapers such as Reflex and Blesk. This site contains links to full online editions of all of them including the cult youth technology monthly magazine ABC. 

http://www.tyden.cz
A popular weekly magazine.

http://pes.eunet.cz 
Neviditelný Pes (Invisible Dog) is the first online paper edited by a sci-fi writer Ondřej Neff. Its commentary is often used by mainstream printed media, such as Lidové Noviny.

http://www.blisty.cz
News and commentary by a Czech journalist, Jan Čulík, living in Glasgow. Summarizes daily news and comments on Czech realities from the UK perspective.

http://www.zive.cz
Source for computer related news in Czech.

http://www.nova-pritomnost.cz
http://www.new-presence.cz
Monthly political review both in Czech and English. Its publication was discontinued in April of 1999 but the web site contains archives of all issues going back through 1997. Issues are also available to be downloaded in PDF (readable by Adobe Acrobat).

Most of the portals listed below also provide daily news.

http://www.lf1.cuni.cz/~dcasl 
Czech literature site with excerpts and complete stories from many key works by Czech writers. 

http://prague.tv
New expatriate Prague newspaper. Refers about Czech culture as well as expat happenings.

Online Radios and TV

http://www.radia.cz
Radia (Radios) lists all Czech radios both online and terrestrial. It contains links to many interesting sites.

http://www.radio.cz 
Czech Radio broadcasts aimed abroad in several languages including Czech. It also offers daily email with a news summary in several languages.
(Notice the URL differs from the above only in the last letter [Radio as opposed to Radios]). 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/czech
Broadcasts of the World Service in Czech. Also offers written news in Czech and English lessons for Czechs. Has some instructions in English.

http://www.voa.gov/czech
Voice of America broadcasts in Czech. No special services available.

http://www.tv-nova.cz
The largest commercial Czech TV station broadcasts selected programs online.

http://www.ct1.cz
Czech public TV station broadcasts the news and other selected programs online. The site also contains an archive of news broadcasts.

http://tv.idnes.cz
An online-only channel of news broadcasts. You can also find clips from film trailers and other archive materials.

http://live.atlas.cz
Archive of video material. Clips of interviews, sporting events, independent short films and children's TV. 

Portals and Search Engines

http://www.seznam.cz
"Czech Yahoo" this is the most successful Czech web site with over 50000 hits a day (increasing constantly). Offers both full text search and search by category. Also hosts two news services http://dnes.seznam.cz which summarizes news and relevant information from other sources and http://www.novinky.cz . Also offers map search for major Czech cities. Offers web mail.

http://www.atlas.cz
The second most important portal. Offers all that Seznam does and adds further services. Its services include: free web hosting, web mail, online radio, map search, news and video clips.

http://www.centrum.cz
A thriving new portal with probably the best full-text search results on the Czech web.

http://www.czlist.com
New portal for tourists and expats. One of the few all in English (although it does have a Czech version).

http://www.expats.cz
A website for all foreigners that live - and will be relocating to - the Czech Republic.

http://www.czechonweb.cz
Provides a whole range of information on the Czech Republic in English: geography, cuture, architecture, government, etc.

http://www.quick.cz
One of the newest portals established in September 2000 by Czech Telecom. Provides many resources including the phone book. Also offers free internet connections.

http://www.zlatestranky.cz
Czech Yellow Pages online.

http://www.praha.cz
Portal to sites and news related to Prague.

http://www.uzdroje.cz
The very first portal, now largely forgotten, although still functional.

http://www.centraleurope.com
An English portal and news source for things Central European with an extensive Czech section.

http://www.slavophilia.com
A useful by-category search engine of all things Slavonic.

http://www.allpraha.com
A useful new portal for expats living in Prague listing all sorts of websites with Czech-relevant info.

Czech Summer Schools/Courses

This section lists sites with information about Summer Schools and Courses in the Czech Republic. The list is by no means exclusive, focusing mostly on schools that provide at least one summer intensive program. Nearly all private language schools in Prague also offer Czech for Foreigners.

Czech courses (as well as those of other 'Less Commonly Taught Languages) available in the USA at all levels are listed at http://carla.acad.umn.edu/lctl/access.html. In the UK, Czech is taught at University College London, University of Bristol, Oxford University, University of Glasgow, University of Sheffield and University of Wolverhampton. 

If you want to know where to learn Czech in your country get in touch with a local embassy or consulate. Many Czech Centers associated with embassies also offer Czech courses. A list of all Czech embassies, consulates  and Czech Centers  can be found at http://www.czech.cz (The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs web site).

A very comprehensive if slightly out-of-date list can be found at  http://www.slavic.ohio-state.edu/people/holdeman/czech/main.htm. Some of the information is incomplete or no longer accurate but always a good pointer.

http://www.prague-hotel.cz 
A travel agency which might make it easier to find accommodation in Prague or the Czech Republic.

Prague Based Courses

http://www.sfservis.com
Prague Summer University: summer school as well as year-long courses organized by SF Servis of the Student Council of Charles University Faculty of Philosophy.

http://www.pedf.cuni.cz/~www_kcj/kurz_e.htm
A three-week course organized at the Faculty of Pedagogy in July 2001. Mostly for Prague residents but available to anybody. Caters to Russian speakers as well.

http://praha1.ff.cuni.cz/~holubj/ubs
Summer School of Slavonic Studies and other courses organized by the Czech Department of the Charles University Faculty of Philosophy.

http://www.cuni.cz/cuni/ujop/czech.htm.en
Also associated with Charles University some courses take place in Poděbrady a lovely spa town not far from Prague. Provides Czech as a foreign language training to prospective students at Czech Universities.

http://www.chp.cz
Jerome of Prague College offers a Summer Program of which Czech for Foreigners if just one part. This is in conjunction with their Semester Abroad for students at selected US universities. Materials from http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline  are also used.

www.praguesummerschool.com
All sorts of courses organized by 'Prague Institute'. Not much information about the institute was available and the prices seem slightly high.

Courses Outside Prague

http://www.phil.muni.cz/info/courses/czech_for_foreigners.html
A variety of courses including a summer school at the Faculty of Arts at the Masaryk University of Brno (the second largest city of the Czech Republic and the unofficial capital of Moravia).

http://lsss.upol.cz
Summer School of Slavonic Studies organized by Palacký University in Olomouc (Moravia).

http://www.jcu.cz/stud/cestina/cestina_en.html
Summer School at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (the home of the original Budweiser near the beautiful UNESCO-protected Český Krumlov).

http://www.people.memphis.edu/~cehall/summer.html
International Summer Language School at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (Plzeň - the home of the best of Czech beer).

www.lang.uni-linz.ac.at
Course for German-speaking students held in České Budějovice organized by  Johannes Kepler Universität Linz. Wirtschaftsraum Österreich - Tschechien.  8. - 21. 9. 2002

Czechs Abroad and Genealogy

This is a list of sites established by Czechs around the world.

http://www.czechland.org
'A Czech Culture-Heritage Web Site' from Nebraska contains many useful links to expatriate sites around the world. Also a good starting place for genealogy.

http://www.muselik.com 
Provides extensive information about the Czech Republic in English. 

http://www.hurontel.on.ca/~hurychj
Hurontaria: A Czech expatriate forum in Canada.

http://www.geocities.com/goodolejoe/indexf.html  
A great site dealing with Czech Texas heritage. It contains a sample of Texas Czech and lots of lyrics to Czech folklore and polka songs. There are also a few pictures of Czech national costumes as worn in Texas as well as some old Czech records in Real Audio.

http://www.czech-books.com
Distributor of Czech books, mostly in the original, in the US.

http://www.cesky-dialog.cz
A magazine in Czech for expatriates around the world as well as patriots living in the Czech Republic.

http://www.czech.com
A clearing house of information for Czech and Slovak expatriates and those with business interests there. Also publishes the newsletter Czech & Slovak Connections.

http://www.ncsml.org 
A web site of the Czech and Slovak museum located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

http://www.czech.cz 
Czech foreign ministry's page contains links to Czech centers around the world.

http://www.czech-republic.org
http://www.kulturklub.cz 
Two sites for German-speaking expatriates 'promoting Czech and Sudeten-German cultural and heritage societies. Information in German and English.

http://www.telecom.cz
This is an extremely useful tool for the initial stages of genealogy research. It is nothing else but the Czech Republic phonebook online. You can try searching for your name in different cities to see where it is most common.

Fonts and Keyboards

For Windows 95 and 98, no additional fonts are necessary.

http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/rf.htm  
Many fonts including Czech. Czech fonts listed are only for Macintosh.

http://www.muselik.com/czech/fonts.html 
Czech info center points to most important font sources both for Windows and Macintosh.

http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~aatseel/keyboards.html 
Links to Slavonic fonts from American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL).

http://www.cestina.cz 
Covering all aspects of encoding Czech on the internet. (In Czech only).

http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline
Contains detailed description of installing and using Czech keyboard included with Windows 9x.

http://www.masteringczech.com/czechkeyboard.html
Instructions on how to install Czech keyboard on Windows 2000 (probably applies to XP as well).