German-Slovak dictionary

Learn Slovak with Langenscheidt

Slovak is spoken by over 6 million people, mainly in Slovakia, of course, but also in the USA, Canada, Servia, Hungary, Australia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. It is the official language in Slovakia, Vijvodina (Serbia) and the European Union. It is also one of the recognised minority languages in Austria. Slovak is a West-Slavic language and, like German, belongs to the Indo-European branch of languages.

Similarities to Czech

Because of Slovakia’s long state connection with the Czech Republic – Czechoslovakia – the Czech Republic and Slovakia have a very good relationship. Official documents in Czech are automatically recognised in Slovakia and vice versa. Even television programmes from both countries are often transmitted in the other respective country without translation or subtitles.

Development of the Slovak language Shortly before the union with the Kingdom of Hungary in the 10th century, Slovak emerged from various dialects of ‘slověne’. As Latin was the main language for official matters and literature in the Kingdom, it was only in 1787 that a standardised form of written Slovak emerged.

Langenscheidt – an innovative look at languages

Even over a century ago, Langenscheidt was already up-to-date with technology in the area of foreign languages. It all began with the gramophone at the beginning of 1900, which was then replaced by cassettes in the middle of the 20th century, and later by CDs – right through to complete digitisation. Listening skills and listening to pronunciation is an important part of learning any language. It is just as important to hear the sound of a foreign language as it is to look up the meaning of words in a dictionary. With the help of modern language technology, Langenscheidt is now adding sounds to every term in its online dictionary.

Searching in the German-Slovak dictionary with the help of letters

If you are unsure about a word that you would like to translate, simply click on a letter underneath to be shown the entire list of German words in the German-Slovak dictionary. This is a good option if you don’t know the correct spelling of a word. By selecting a word in the list, you will find many different Slovak translations and relevant German synonyms.