What does “hodný” mean in Czech?
Budoucnost světa, školství a nejdůležitější lidská dovednost
B2 Czech listening practice · Standard Czech · Curated for upper-intermediate learners
Asked which skill will matter most in the future, this speaker doesn’t say coding. He says hodný (kind): «aby lidi byli hodný» (“that people be kind”). It’s one of Czech’s most-used adjectives, covering “kind,” “nice,” and “well-behaved” at once, the word for a good child, a gentle dog, or a decent human being.
Parents praise a “hodné dítě” (good kid), and “Buď hodný!” (“Be good!”) is the universal goodbye to a child. Its opposite, zlobivý (“naughty”), runs through every Czech fairy tale. Hearing a grown adult name hodný as humanity’s key skill is exactly why the line sticks.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸Czech fairy tales (pohádky) on Česká televize, where hodný and zlý decide everyone’s fate.
- ▸From Czech parents at any playground: “Buď hodný!”
- ▸Czech TEDx talks and school-reform debates.
- ▸In dog parks, the highest praise: “hodný pejsek.”