Languagle #11: Slovak
Bez práce nie sú koláče
"Without work there are no cakes."
What it means
If you want the reward, you have to do the work. The saying rhymes in Slovak (práce, koláče), which makes it easy for children to remember, and it is one of the first proverbs Slovak children learn.
How to say it
BEZ PRAH-tseh NYEH soo KO-lah-cheh
Slovak always stresses the first syllable of a word. C is said ts, and č is the ch in 'church'.
Word by word
- Bez bez: without
- práce PRAH-tseh: work (from práca)
- nie sú NYEH soo: there aren't
- koláče KO-lah-cheh: cakes, from koláč, a round sweet bun
Where it was found
Slovak calls a proverb a príslovie. This one is from a list of Slovak sayings and proverbs on Eduworld, a study site.
Similar sayings
- Czech: Bez práce nejsou koláče. The same proverb, almost letter for letter.
- English: No pain, no gain
How to recognise Slovak
Slovak uses the Latin alphabet with háčeks (č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň, ľ) and long vowels marked with an acute accent. Its own giveaways are ä, ô, ĺ and ŕ. Czech looks very similar but has ř and ů, which Slovak never uses. Slovak also has the vowel pairs ia, ie, iu and ô, as in nie, kôň and piatok.
About the Slovak language
Slovak is a West Slavic language spoken by around 5 million people, mainly in Slovakia. It is so close to Czech that the two are mutually intelligible, and people from both countries routinely talk to each other in their own languages. It is written in the Latin alphabet with diacritics, including the letter ä and the ô. Like Czech, it allows whole words with no vowels, where r or l carries the syllable, as in 'vlk' (wolf) or 'krk' (neck).
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