# ř - sound



## yezoma

Few times I've heard that one of the most difficult sound of languages in the world is the sound rzhts (rzhsch, ржщ) in Czech language.
Please give some examples of words with this sound. 
http://whoyougle.ru/texts/linguistic-records/
Thanks in advance.


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## Enquiring Mind

Hi yezoma, this letter ř (rzh) (рж) is difficult for many people as it's a single sound. You can hear native speakers on the forvo.com site pronouncing the words *řezat* ("to cut") here, *pařez* ("tree stump") here, and *malinový keř *("raspberry bush") here.

Once you have mastered the sound, you will be able to say "Tři sta třicet tři stříbrných křepelek přeletělo přes tři sta třicet tři stříbrných střech", which will be a very useful phrase to know if you ever visit the Czech Republic. It means "Three hundred and thirty-three silver quails flew over three hundred and thirty-three silver roofs". It happens all the time here, in fact I can see them from my window now ...


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## antepkaz

I think that the version with stříkaček stříkalo (fire pumps were spouting) instead of křepelek přeletělo (quails flew over) is more "proverbial".


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## bibax

The Czech sound *ř* evolved from the palatalized r. In the related words it corresponds to the Russian *рь*.

řeka ~ река
řepa ~ репа
řezati ~ резать
hřeben ~ гребень
tři ~ три
římský ~ римский
ředkev ~ редька
tvář ~ тварь
и так далее


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## Ben Jamin

Being a Polish speaker with the sound of "rz" corresponding etymologically to "ř", and "ż" (corresponding to "ž") I can't hear any significant difference between Polish "rz/ż" and Czech "ř".
("rz" and "ż" sound identical in Polish).


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## Lorenc

[Quote wisely and trim to the relevant part]

It seems to me that Czech ř can be rather well approximated by the Polish sequence rż (as appearing, e.g., in the word 'marża' or 'burżuj') with the 'r' sound pronounced very quickly, almost merging with the ż sound. The same consideration should hold for Russian рж.


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