Your Email Address in Czech: Zavináč, Tečka & Everything in Between
There is a special moment in every Czech learner’s life. You are at the doctor’s office. Or at the bank. Or registering for a course. Or talking to someone on the phone. Everything is going well. You understand the Czech. You are forming complete sentences. You are feeling confident. And then someone says:
Jaká je vaše e-mailová adresa? = "What’s your email address?"
Suddenly, you forget every Czech word you have ever learned. Because how do you say @? How do you say .? And how on earth do you spell the letter w in Czech?
Don’t worry. This is actually much easier than it looks. Once you learn a few key words and the Czech names of the letters, you can give your email address confidently even when someone is writing it down by hand. And yes, there is a very important Czech word for @. It is gloriously strange.
First: the two words you absolutely need
Let’s start with the stars of the show.
@ = zavináč
In Czech, the @ symbol is called: zavináč
Literally, it is related to something wrapped or curled around something else. But you don't need to worry about the literal meaning.
Just remember:
@ = zavináč
Here is how to pronounce it.
For example: painlessczech@gmail.com
can be read aloud as:
„painless czech zavináč gmail tečka com“
Notice something important: Czech does not use the English word "at" here. If you remember only one Czech word from this article, make it zavináč. It is one of those words that makes you feel like you have accidentally entered a Czech comedy sketch.
. = tečka
The dot is:
Literally, tečka means "little dot." And it is used for the dot in an email or website address.
That's it.
@ = zavináč
. = tečka
Congratulations. You have just learned the two most important words for surviving an email address in Czech.
How do you actually spell the letters?
This is where things get interesting.
Imagine you tell someone:
„Můj e-mail je anna@painlessczech.com.“
"My email is anna@painlessczech.com."
The other person looks at you.
„Jak se to píše?“
"How do you spell it?"
Now you need to spell the address letter by letter.
And Czech letters have Czech names.
Here are the ones you are most likely to need when spelling an email address:
A — á
B — bé
C — cé
D — dé
E — é
F — ef
G — gé
H — há
I — í
J — jé
K — ká
L — el
M — em
N — en
O — ó
P — pé
Q — kvé
R — er
S — es
T — té
U — ú
V — vé
W — dvojité vé
X — iks
Y — ypsilon
Z — zet
And yes, there is one particularly important letter here:
W = dvojité vé
Literally: "double V."
This is very logical. You have vé for V. Then W is dvojité vé — "double V."
So if your email contains a W, don't panic. Although at this point the person writing it down may begin questioning their life choices too.
The most important distinction: i and y
If you are spelling an email address, you may need to distinguish between:
i = í
and
y = ý
For example:
„Je tam měkké i, nebo tvrdé í?“
"Is it i or y?"
You can answer:
měkké „Í.“v = "I."
or:
tvrdé „Í.“ = "Y."
Note: When spelling we call “y” either “ypsilon” or “tvrdé í” (literally hard i)
This is one of the reasons Czech speakers sometimes spell things out even when the word seems obvious. When you're dealing with an email address, nobody wants to discover five minutes later that michal was actually mychal.
What about accents?
Here's another important thing. Czech has letters with diacritics: č, š, ž, ě, ř, ů, á, é, í, ó, ú, ý
But ordinary email addresses usually don't use Czech diacritics.
So if your name is Jiří Novák, your email might be something like:
not:
That means you will often need to spell the address using the basic Latin letters.
For example:
„j i r i tečka novak zavináč seznam tečka cz“
"j i r i dot novak at seznam dot cz"
A real-life situation
Imagine you're signing up for a Czech course. The receptionist asks:
„Můžete mi dát váš e-mail?“
"Could you give me your email?"
You say:
„Jasně. Je to anna zavináč painlessczech tečka com.“
"Sure. It's anna at painlessczech dot com."
The receptionist types.
Then:
„Můžete mi to prosím vyhláskovat?“
"Could you spell it for me, please?"
No problem.
You say:
„Á, en, en, á, zavináč, pé, á, í, en, el, é, es, es, cé, zet, é, cé, há, tečka, cé, ó, em.“
"A, n, n, a, at, p, a, i, n, l, e, s, s, c, z, e, c, h, dot, c, o, m."
And you're done. You have successfully communicated an email address in Czech. Nobody died. Your Czech teacher is proud. The receptionist can finally go home.
How to ask someone to spell their email
You will also want to understand what the other person is asking you.
Here are some very useful phrases:
„Jak se to píše?“ = "How do you spell that?"
„Můžete mi to vyhláskovat?“ = "Could you spell it for me?"
„Můžete to říct ještě jednou?“ = "Could you say it one more time?"
„Je tam i, nebo ypsilon?“ = "Is it i or y?"
„Je tam tečka?“ = "Is there a dot?"
„Je tam zavináč?“ = "Is there an @ sign?"
And if you have absolutely no idea what is happening:
„Promiňte, můžete mi to prosím poslat písemně?“ = "Sorry, could you please send it to me in writing?"
Honestly, this is also a perfectly legitimate language-learning strategy.
Want your Czech to work in real life?
Knowing grammar is one thing. Actually getting your mouth to cooperate when a Czech person is standing in front of you is another.
That's exactly what I work on in Czech Your Tongue a practical course designed to help you speak Czech more naturally, confidently, and without translating every sentence in your head first.
And if you want Czech to become a regular part of your life with lessons, practice, support, and Czech teacher to talk to, come join the Painless Czech Club.
