Czech Letters: The 15 Special Characters, What They Do and How to Copy Them
Czech uses 15 letters you won’t find in English: á č ď é ě í ň ó ř š ť ú ů ý ž, plus ch, which counts as one letter. They’re built from three marks: the háček (ˇ) changes a sound, the čárka (´) makes a vowel long, and the kroužek (˚) appears only on ů. Tap any letter above to copy it.
The special Czech letters, grouped by what they do
| Group | Letters | What the mark does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Háček on consonants | č š ž ř ď ť ň | Changes the sound: s → sh, d → soft d | šest six |
| Háček on e | ě | Softens the consonant before it | děti children |
| Čárka on vowels | á é í ý ó ú | Makes the vowel long | máma mum |
| Kroužek | ů | Long u inside a word | dům house |
| Two-character letter | ch | One sound, as in “loch” | chléb bread |
Uppercase and lowercase
Every special letter has both cases: Á Č Ď É Ě Í Ň Ó Ř Š Ť Ú Ů Ý Ž. Two look different in lowercase: ď and ť carry the háček as a small stroke to the right, because there’s no room above a tall letter. Capital Ď and Ť use the full v. CH capitalises as Ch at the start of a word (Chorvatsko, Croatia) and CH in all-caps text.
Which special letters you’ll meet most
In running Czech text the most frequent accented letters are í, á, ě, ž, ř, é and č. Ď, Ť, Ň and Ó are rare, because the softness of d, t, n is usually written with i or ě instead (see soft consonants).
Writing Czech without accents: what goes wrong
Czechs can usually read text without diacritics, and texting without them was common for years. But accents carry meaning, and dropping them creates real ambiguity:
- byt (flat) vs být (to be)
- pas (passport) vs pás (belt)
- sál (hall) vs šál (shawl)
- rada (advice) vs ráda (glad)
For names, addresses and anything official, always use the accents. Our typing guide covers every device, and the Czech keyboard layout page shows where each letter sits.
Character codes for developers
| Letter | Unicode | HTML |
|---|---|---|
| č / Č | U+010D / U+010C | č / Č |
| ř / Ř | U+0159 / U+0158 | ř / Ř |
| š / Š | U+0161 / U+0160 | š / Š |
| ž / Ž | U+017E / U+017D | ž / Ž |
| ě / Ě | U+011B / U+011A | ě / Ě |
| ů / Ů | U+016F / U+016E | ů / Ů |
Frequently asked questions
What are the special letters in the Czech alphabet?
Á, Č, Ď, É, Ě, Í, Ň, Ó, Ř, Š, Ť, Ú, Ů, Ý, Ž, plus CH.
How do I copy Czech letters?
Tap or click any letter in the grid at the top of this page; it’s copied to your clipboard.
Does Czech use the Cyrillic alphabet?
No. Czech uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics. Neighbouring Slovak and Polish do too.
Keep going
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Czech orthography”: en.wikipedia.org
- Unicode Consortium, Latin Extended-A chart: unicode.org
