"Ony žízeň nemají."

Translation: They are not thirsty.

[chris95041]

I'm not an expert in this by any means as I am just learning Czech myself, but I studied Russian in college, and from what I can hear, 'ň' and other 'soft consonants' are pronounced in Czech very similarly to how they are pronounced in Russian (and possibly other Slavic languages). It's very difficult to describe unless you've had a native speaker explain it to you many times and demonstrate. The best way I can describe it is this: imagine you were about to add the sound 'yee' to the consonant (this goes for ň, d', and t') but stop just short of saying the consonantal 'y' sound. However, forming the consonantal 'y' sound in your palette will create the correct pronunciation of the consonant so that the resonance is closer to your soft palette than your hard.

I would appreciate any corrections and clarifications from native Czech speakers or the Duolingo team.

[AlexanderG377234]

Very interesting that many Czech words sound exactly like in Russian
but mean something different ( False friends ) .
e.g. žízeň (thirst) means life in Russian .

[J.C.M.H.]

According to Wiktionary, both words have the same origin.

[Russ870203]

This is another case where it would be helpful to have similar words pronounced together to help distinguish between them - in this case for me oni and ony.

[VladaFu]

That can only be done where these are both in a single sentence together. Otherwise just search for their recordings (forvo.com or similar).

[Randonneur3]

I thought they were the same.

[VladaFu]

Nope, I suggest to review the rules for I end Ě after hard consonants described in the Tips and notes of the very first skills. And listen to the recordings.

[Patrick.-]

How is the"ň" pronounced? , is it like the letter "ń" or the letter "ñ"? Cause I'm struggling in pronounciating that single letter.

[kacenka9]

more like the latter. Go to Forvo.com for pronounciation.

[SeanMeaneyPL]

I think I am hearing the n sound at the end of sing or bang

[VladaFu]

No, that is not correct. The sound you are describing is used in Czech words banka or maminka.

Ň, on the other hand, is a palatal nasal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal and it is not present in English at all. See the table in the link for examples from other languages.

[Anidahtram]

Why is "oni" not acceptable in this case?

[BoneheadBass]

"Oni žízeň nemají" is accepted. But we have no current report for a translation that uses oni, so we can't tell you why your answer was rejected. Please use the Report button when you believe your answer was improperly rejected, checking first for typos and other small errors. Full Disclosure: The reporting system has gotten buggy lately...