How do you correctly use 'the' in Czech sentences? For instance, how would you say something simple, like : The man is Czech and the woman is American. And does Czech really use 'a', or is it okay to drop it?
My understanding is that in speaking Czech, this and that is used but not the. In your example one might say Pán je Čech a žena je Američanka. But if you wanted to say a This man is czech and that woman is american then you would use Tento pán je Čech a tamta žena je Američanka.
A taky myslím , že můžeš používat to, kdyby předmět byl středni rod. For neutral= Tohle(toto) auto si včera koupil stryč. Tohle(toto)==now that I think about it, I am not sure how to say that there in neutral. Tamto?
Scrimshaw, I don't understand what you are saying. Are you saying that you also think that you have to use the when speaking czech?
No, no. Dzurisovak. I am agreeing with you, that generally ten and ta refer to this and that as opposed to the, but for neutral words how wouyld thius and that be said. I am thinking maybe toto and tamto.
Oh, I guess I don't get the rest of your sentence because I believe: means "I also think that you must use it" Please translate the rest of the sentence so I get it.
ok..I will write in english. I do not think my czech is good enough to try to comment about grammar. Ten, ta, and to I agree with you mainly mean THIS and THAT instead of THE. ten for masculime=mužsky rod=tento and tamten ta for feminine=ženský rod=tato a tamta to for neuter=středni rod= toto and tamto
I wrote předmět(subject), but what I meant was the noun that THIS or THAt refers to. Seems that I make things unnecessarily complicated. Zdá se, že dělám věci zbytečně složité. asi ......., že dělám zbytečně, aby tyhle věci byli složité. but I do not think that is right because I think the adverb zbytečně defines složitý, not the verb. asi ......, že dělám, aby tyhle věci byli zbytečně složité. I am just proving my point, right? Prostě prokázám svou položku, že ano?
Typically, we use no articles. We use demonstrative pronouns to stress definiteness and adjective nějaký (= some) to stress indefiniteness. (muž = man, žena = woman, pan/pán = mister/master, paní = madam, lady) More or less, it is so. But in this case I prefer "ten muž je Čech a ta žena je Američanka" as translation for "the man is Czech and the woman is American". Yes, that's tamto. No, můžeš means you can, you must is musíš. Yes, this is natural. Or maybe even "..., že vše dělám zbytečně složité". Yes, it means "... that I unnecessarily make so that these things are complicated" and it's overcomplicated. The first translation is much better. And this means "... that I make so that these things are unnecessarily complicated". It's better than preceding, but it's also overcomplicated. Prokázat is very formal verb meaning to show evidence. Položka means item. Scrimshaw, don't overuse question tags (..., right? ..., are you? ). They are infrequent in Czech.
No wonder. The verb vědět (= to know) was derived from the perfect stem of the verb vidět (= to see) in Proto-Slavic. Vím (= I know) essentially means viděl jsem (= I have seen).
