If you have been living in Slovakia long enough, you might have noticed certain words or phrases that tend to be repeated quite often. In this article, we will take a closer look at them, what they mean and how you can use them effectively to your benefit and meeting new people.
Greetings
“Ahoj [ahoi] “
“Ahoj” is the most common greeting word in Slovakia, and is used mainly for the moment of meeting people who you know, or people who are familiar to you.
“Dobré ráno. [dobrae rano]”
“Dobrý deň. [dobree daen]”
“Dobrý večer. [dobree vaechaer]”
“Dobrú noc. [dobru nots]”
If you want to be more aligned with the time of the day however, you better use a phrase which corresponds to a specific time of the day. For example, “Dobré ráno” means “good morning” , “dobrý večer” stands for “good evening” and “dobrú noc - good night”. There is one more though, which is a bit more general, and that is “Dobrý deň - Good day.” Even though it is mainly in the afternoon, people often use it in the morning or also in the evening.
Being polite
In the more common situations though, especially those where you need to be polite and nice to people, you can use following phrases and words: For example, for “Thank you” you can use “Ďakujem”, which is usually followed by “nieje začo” , which means “you are welcome.
“Ďakujem” [dakuyem] ”
“Nieje začo [nyeye zaco] ”
In a restaurant
It is very important to know the phrases for the situations when you go to the restaurants with friends and ask about or comment on food. In this case you can choose what you would like to have, and after that use the word “Prosím” , which stands for “please”. Also, it is very common for Slovaks to say “Dal by som si”, which is followed by the specific dish which you have chosen.
As you might have noticed, there are many dishes which are made of cheese in Slovakia, including fried cheese , which is usually served with french fries or fried or boiled potatoes and ketchup or mayonnaise on the side. However, a very typical Slovak dish is called “Halušky”, which is made of potato gnocchi with traditional sheep cheese and fried bacon.
Be careful though, as this dish is very heavy and you can get full very quickly. Once you get the food and everybody is ready to eat, feel free to say “Dobrú chuť” (Enjoy your meal). After you have finished, in case you really liked the food you can praise the food and say “Bolo to skvele” (It was great).
“Prosím” [proseem]
“Dal by som si” [dal be som se]
“Dobrú chuť” [dobru hoet]
“Bolo to skvelé” [bolo to skuele]
When you are asking for price in a shop, you can ask “Koľko to stojí?” (How much is it?)
Usually they answer you directly with the number together with currency “eur” which signifies the price of the product or service.
“Koľko to stojí?” [kolko to stoye]
Whether you want to practice Slovak language in real life or just want to get through , these phrases might help you and make your life easier. You can be sure that Slovak people will also appreciate the effort, as it is not common at all to hear foreigners speaking Slovak language, or using its phrases.
Try these phrases next time you have a chance and let us know how it turned out for you! :)