What does "daly se" means in the sentence below? Taliban začíná prchat z údolí Svát: Na útěk se daly i statisíce lidí z údolí. The Taliban begins to flee from the Svat valley: In the flight/escape [se daly] also hundreds of thousands of people from the valley. Díky předem, René
“Dát se” means literally “to give oneself” and it has a lot of semi-idiomatic usages: dát se na útěk = to start/decide to flee, to bolt (lit. to give oneself on flight) dát se na cestu = set out for journey (lit. to give oneself on journey) dát se doprava = to turn right (lit. to give oneself to the right) dát se do pláče = to burst into tears (lit. to give oneself into weeping) dát se na ústup = to retreat (lit. to give oneself on retreat) dalo se do deště = it started to rain (lit. it gave itself into rain) nedat se = not to give up, to stay firm on one’s position, to fight one’s corner (lit. not to give oneself) dát se na něco = take up something, to start career in something, to start the studies of something, to bury oneself into something (lit. to give oneself on something) dát se na druhou stranu = to defect to the other side (lit. to give oneself on the other side) ------------------------------------------------- dá se = it is possible nedá se nic dělat = no matter
silly question most likely - but why is it "dalY" - to me that would imply either all females or male inanimate - if it is a mixed group - which this would seem to be? - shouldn't the proper form be "dalI"
Czech syntax is more formal than the English one. A noun-quantifier is the subject in Czech, perhaps because we anticipate the subject in the nominative form. lidé se dali statisíce lidí se daly skupina lidí se dala zástup lidí se dal That’s why all Czechs, including me , tend to make mistakes like “a lot of people is”.
wer, thanks for all the examples. I must say that I fully understand the meaning of dát se now. Thanks! -René
my mother is most likely turning over in her grave because i asked this question thank you for reminding me of that rule... i am grateful to my mother for even teaching me czech at all (my father as well, but it was my mother who home-schooled me in the actual grammar of it) - i do wish though that i had paid more attention sometimes
