Intonation — the rise and fall of the voice across a whole sentence — does more grammatical work in Czech than English speakers expect. Because Czech stress is fixed on the first syllable and never moves, the melody can't be used to highlight individual words the way English uses stress. Instead, the contour of the whole sentence carries the meaning. Most importantly, Czech turns a statement into a yes/no question with melody alone — no extra word, no change in word order. Get the melody wrong and a genuine question lands as a flat assertion, or a statement comes out sounding like you're checking whether it's true.
Statements fall
A neutral statement starts at a middle pitch and drops toward the end. Czech grammarians call this terminal fall the klesavá kadence (falling cadence). The last stressed stretch of the sentence glides down to a low note, signalling "I'm done, this is a fact."
Mám hlad.
I'm hungry. (voice falls to a low note on hlad)
Zítra přijdu kolem osmé.
I'll come around eight tomorrow. (calm fall toward the end)
Tak ty jsi ten nový soused.
So you're the new neighbour. (a statement, falling — not a question)
The fall is gentle and even; there is no vowel reduction or "throwaway" ending the way unstressed English syllables get swallowed (see rhythm and the absence of vowel reduction). Every syllable keeps its full vowel right up to the final drop.
Yes/no questions rise — and that's the only signal
This is the headline rule. A Czech yes/no question uses the same words in the same order as the matching statement. There is no auxiliary ("do you…?"), no inversion (verb-before-subject), nothing added at all. The voice simply rises toward the end — the stoupavá antikadence (rising terminal). Statement and question can be spelled identically and differ only in the melody of the speaker's voice.
Máš hlad?
Are you hungry? (voice rises at the end)
Přijdeš zítra?
Are you coming tomorrow? (rising)
Přijdeš zítra.
You're coming tomorrow. (same words — but falling, so it's a statement/order)
To je tvoje auto?
Is that your car? (rising; word order identical to 'To je tvoje auto.' = 'That's your car.')
Dáš si ještě kávu?
Will you have another coffee? (rising — a friendly offer)
Wh-questions usually fall, like statements
Questions that begin with a question word — kdo (who), co (what), kde (where), kdy (when), jak (how), proč (why) — behave differently. The question word already marks the sentence as a question, so the melody does not need to rise. The default, neutral contour is falling, just like a statement.
Kde bydlíš?
Where do you live? (falling — the 'kde' already makes it a question)
Kdo to byl?
Who was that? (falling)
Co tady děláš?
What are you doing here? (falling)
You can put a rise on a wh-question — it makes it sound softer, more sympathetic, or signals that you're repeating yourself ("Where do you live, sorry?"). But the unmarked, everyday version falls. Compare this with English, where a wh-question also typically falls, so the contour will feel familiar; the trap is only the yes/no type.
When melody is the whole message
Because the rise/fall is sometimes the only difference, intonation in Czech is genuinely functional, not decorative. The same string of words can be a statement, a question, or a surprised echo depending purely on the tune:
Vážně jsi to nevěděl?
You really didn't know? (sharp rise — surprise/echo question)
Bydlíš tady dlouho?
Have you lived here long? (rising — genuine yes/no question)
Bydlíš tady dlouho.
You've lived here a long time. (falling — a statement, almost an observation)
If you flatten everything out — keeping the pitch level and never letting it fall or rise — a Czech listener will most likely hear a statement, because the absence of a final rise reads as "not a question." That is why a flat-intoned Máš hlad sounds like you're informing someone they're hungry rather than asking.
Common mistakes
❌ Děláš co? (trying to invert like English 'What are you doing?')
Incorrect word-juggling — Czech keeps the question word first: Co děláš?
✅ Co děláš?
What are you doing? (wh-word first, falling melody)
❌ Děláš ty mít hlad? (inventing a 'do'-style auxiliary)
Incorrect — Czech has no 'do'-support. The yes/no question is just Máš hlad? with a rise.
✅ Máš hlad?
Are you hungry? (no auxiliary — only the rising melody)
❌ Saying 'Máš hlad?' with a flat or falling voice.
Incorrect — without the final rise it sounds like a statement: 'You're hungry.'
✅ Máš hlad? (voice clearly rising at the end)
Are you hungry? (the rise is what makes it a question)
❌ Forcing a big rise onto 'Kde bydlíš?'
Slightly off — wh-questions normally fall; a rise sounds like a soft repeat or extra-polite check.
✅ Kde bydlíš? (neutral falling melody)
Where do you live? (falling, like a statement, because 'kde' already asks)
Key takeaways
- Statements fall at the end (klesavá kadence): Mám hlad.↓
- Yes/no questions rise at the end (stoupavá antikadence) and are otherwise identical to the statement: Máš hlad?↑ versus Máš hlad.↓
- Czech has no do-support and no obligatory inversion — don't add words or flip the order to make a yes/no question. Just lift the voice.
- Wh-questions (kdo, co, kde, kdy, jak, proč) normally fall, because the question word already marks the question.
- Intonation is functional: flat or falling melody reads as a statement, so the final rise is the load-bearing part of a yes/no question.
Now practice Czech
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Yes/No Questions: Intonation OnlyA1 — A yes/no question in Czech keeps the exact word order of the statement and is marked by rising intonation alone — no inversion, no auxiliary, no added word.
- Word Stress Is Always on the First SyllableA1 — The fixed first-syllable stress rule and the preposition stress unit.
- Question Words and Their CasesA1 — The full set of Czech question words — and the crucial fact that kdo and co decline, so the question word must take the case the verb or preposition demands.
- Rhythm and the Absence of Vowel ReductionB1 — Every vowel keeps its full quality — Czech has no schwa.
- Word Order in QuestionsA1 — Czech forms questions without reordering words or adding an auxiliary — yes/no questions keep statement order plus rising intonation, and wh-questions front the question word with clitics still in second position.