# Consonants



## PocketWatch

My Czech book that I have as well as online sources say that noun endings differ according to soft and hard consonents. What exactly are these consonants of the Czech alphabet?


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## Jana337

http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline/reference/pronunciation/contrasts.htm - this should help you.
http://www.bohemica.com/czechonline/reference/nouns/softening.htm - something about softening the endings in declensions.
http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souhláska#P.C5.99ehled_souhl.C3.A1sek - this is potentially intimidating. 

For help with declensions, go here and click on this next to Noun (can't provide a direct link, sorry).


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## PocketWatch

Oh ok thanks. As for the "*Ambiguous:* b, f, l, m, p, s, v," which category do they fall under for hard or soft? For example the word 'pes' ends with an ambiguous.


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## Jana337

The first link says:


> For       the characters below the distinction (_between hard and soft_) is not important.
> _
> neutral                          _​                                   b                          - f - l  - m - p - s - v - (_it is common to include "z"; don't know why it is missing_)
> 
> As you will learn,       the distinction between soft and hard consonants is very important for       Czech. One of the less important implications is the spelling of _i       _and _y _which are pronounced the same. The _i _only follows soft consonants, and _y_ hard.



The disctinction matters with respect to i/y that correspond to one sound (not where I live ). Except for loanwords, we write -i after soft consonants, -y after hard ones. 

The neutral ones can take both -i and -y. -i is considered the default choice and lists of -y words are learned by heart at elementary school (for me a major nuisance; excruciatingly boring and utterly useless  ). As a foreigner, you will learn those naturally, as you go.


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