A Word for Monday – 19 August, 2013

As we gear up for the start of a new school year (we begin Sept. 2), it seems like a good time to look at the Slovak word for “school:”

English	Slovak
school	škola
	[SHKO-lah]

The Slovaks have, like us, many words for the different types of schools.  The word for preschool, for instance, is a modification of this word – škôlka (pronounced SHKWOL-kah) literally means, “little school.”  It’s quite common in Slovak to add “-ka” or “-ko” to the end of the word to create a little version of something, or to make a nickname.