Read Your First Slovak Story Today

Quick facts about Slovak

Speakers

About 5 million people speak Slovak as a first language and about 2.1 million as a second language (Ethnologue figures, 2012–2021).¹

Did you know?

Slovak has a "rhythmic law": two long vowels may not follow each other in one word, so the second one is shortened, as in vínach rather than *vínách, and biely (white) rather than *bielý.¹

The main challenge

Six noun cases, plus vowel length that changes meaning: short and long vowels sound alike in quality and differ only in length.¹

Sources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language

About the Slovak language

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_orthography
3. https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/languages_en

Slovak reading proficiency benchmarks (CEFR & SAS)

Stichos levels are modelled on the CEFR. Studia Academica Slovaca at Comenius University publishes Slovak course standards for A1 to C1 and takes part in preparing standardized tests for A2 to C1; there is no separate Slovak scale to convert to. They are a guide to reading difficulty, not an official CEFR rating.

Reference corpora

Frequency research on Slovak rests on the Slovak National Corpus (Slovenský národný korpus).¹

• Slovak National Corpus: Run by the Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Its main written corpus, prim-11.0 (released April 2025), holds more than 1.85 billion tokens, and the institute publishes frequency lists of lemmas and word forms.¹
• Standard language: Stichos writes Slovak readers in standard Slovak (spisovná slovenčina) at every level, avoiding regionalisms, colloquialisms and archaic expressions.
• Forms of address: Adult strangers are addressed formally (vykanie), and friends, family and children informally (tykanie).

1. https://korpus.sk/en/corpora-and-databases/snc-corpora/

Readability design principles

Slovak has its own readability measure, which adds a word-repetition index to sentence and word length.¹

• Mistrík’s formula: Jozef Mistrík (1968, Slovenská reč) scores readability as R = 50 − (V × S) / I, where V is average sentence length in words, S average word length in syllables and I a word-repetition index. The more a text repeats its words, the easier it scores.¹
• Online library: Pappová and Valko (TSD 2024) present an online library that computes Mistrík’s metric for Slovak text.¹
• Stichos: Stichos sets difficulty with level-by-level grammar rules and sentence-length limits rather than a single readability score.

1. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-70563-2_23

Script & grammar scaffolding

• Tenses and moods: A0 uses only the present tense. A1 adds the past tense (minulý čas, built on the l-participle) and the compound future with bude plus the infinitive. The present conditional (robil by som) waits until B1 and the past conditional until C1.
• Imperatives: At A0 commands appear only inside fixed formulas such as Nech sa páči. A1 allows five informal ones (pozri, poď, vezmi si, počkaj, sadni si), and A2 allows the basic imperative in the second person singular and plural.
• Linking clauses: A0 sentences are single clauses with no conjunctions. Connectors then arrive in a fixed order, from a, ale and alebo through keď and lebo to hoci and takže.
• The rhythmic law: Slovak does not allow two long syllables in a row within a word, so the second is shortened: the locative plural of víno is vínach, not vínách.

Related academic & framework resources

• Studia Academica Slovaca: Standards for Slovak as a Foreign Language: The Témy a ciele jazykového kurzu series (A1 to C1), which sets course content for Slovak as a foreign language by CEFR level.
• SAS standardized testing, A2 to C1: Sample tests from Comenius University’s centre for Slovak as a foreign language, an associate member of ALTE.
• Slovak National Corpus: The corpora of the Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics, with links to its frequency lists.
• Mistrík’s Readability Metric – an Online Library: Mária Pappová and Matúš Valko, Text, Speech, and Dialogue (TSD 2024), Part I, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 291–302.

Frequently asked questions

What writing system does Slovak use?

Latin script. The Slovak alphabet has 46 letters, counting the digraphs dz, dž and ch, and marks softness with the mäkčeň (č, š, ž, ď, ť, ň, ľ) and length with the dĺžeň (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, ĺ, ŕ).

Is Stichos suitable for complete beginners with zero prior knowledge (A0)?

Yes. A0 is a primary focus, designed for readers with no prior knowledge. A1 then adds basic everyday vocabulary and simple connected clauses as your foundation grows.

Are Stichos levels the same as CEFR levels?

Not exactly. Stichos levels use the familiar CEFR names, from A0 to B2, and are modelled on the CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference), so a Stichos B1 is meant to feel close to a B1 in your course book. They aren't an official CEFR rating, and different books and exams draw the lines in slightly different places. A0 is Stichos's own addition, just below the framework's first level.

Are the stories written by AI, and how accurate are they?

Yes. Stories are generated by AI and then checked by further automated steps against the grammar and vocabulary rules for your level. That catches most problems, but it isn't a human editor, so an occasional unnatural phrase or slip can get through. Treat Stichos as practice material, and check anything you're unsure of with a teacher or a reference.

Can I read stories with explanations in my native language?

Yes. Stichos allows you to pair any target language with any native support language. You can read a Croatian story with French glosses, or a German story with Spanish explanations.

How does word lookup work while reading?

Tap or click any word for its meaning in that sentence, explained in your own language. In the full version, you can save any word to your Vocab Bank for later review.

Is the preview free, and what happens to my email?

Yes. The preview is free and needs no account. If you join the Reading List, we use your email to send your 3 free sample stories (PDF, after you confirm your address) and to let you know when we fully open. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.

Do stories include audio or narration?

Story narration isn't part of the preview. At launch, the Premium Audio add-on reads every story aloud in a natural-sounding AI voice, in 39 of our 40 languages (Esperanto doesn't have audio support yet).