How to learn Czech declension of nouns?

Discussion in 'Grammar & Pronunciation' started by jonesnewton, Feb 6, 2010.

  1. jonesnewton

    jonesnewton Active Member

    Hi
    We have been trying to learn these nouns and now we are on to adjectives in our class, but we are struggling and worried we will get behind. Our teacher just says we have to learn them, but not really understanding how they work seems to be a problem? We are trying, honest..
    So if we could find a way to memorise them, then maybe we could move on.

    Is there somewhere we can download them so we can listen to them on our headsets while we are out and about, etc

    Or any other suggestions relating to this.

    Thanks
    Neil
     
  2. jrjaks

    jrjaks Member

    I've been struggling with the same problem, but have found that memorizing a few examples of the most commonly required declensions helps. For example:

    "Mate kavu?" illustrates the 4th case of the fem. template noun zena, "a" changes to "u". Once you get the particular "sound" of a few of these in your head, you start to recall them more easily.

    Beyond that, I'm open to more suggestions!
     
  3. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    I think I've got all the majority singular endings down, or at least I used to for awhile.. but you forget fast if you don't study every day

    Anyway what I did was to assign a colour to each case
    These are the colours I used but you can use your own

    Nominative - white
    Genitive - Green
    Accusative - Yellow
    Dative - Orange
    Locative - Blue
    Instrumental - Red
    (sorry i can never remember the numbers of anything... I've been teaching in the same school for a year and a half, it only has 4 classes, numbered 1 to 4, and i can't remember what number goes with which)

    Vocative is easy once you've been living here a while, just read it once through and then listen to people being called and you'll pick it up.


    Anyway I wrote down sentences in all the different cases and all the different genders and put them around the house in relevant places.
    For example "Kinha pro Rebeku" was written on my book shelf in yellow, so there I learn that "pro" goes with accusative and the accusative for "a" is "u"
    When I felt i knew it i turned the paper around so that it was a blank sheet of yellow, and every time i saw the blank sheet of paper I repeated the sentence to myself.

    I also painted the new verbs i found in the colour of the case they went with, and often painted over stories in the Czech things I was reading in the right colour.
    That way whenever I thought about that verb it would be the appropriate colour in my head and i would remember what case it as and HOPEFULLY the ending that meant it went with.

    I'm using past tense because recently i've been so laaaaaaaazy! But it really did work!

    Maybe it sounds silly, especially having blank strips of coloured paper around your house, but it worked, even if you think it won't work try it, the brain works in mysterious ways.
     
  4. meluzina

    meluzina Well-Known Member

    ran across this link somewhere else - haven'treally looked at it,but maybe it might have some useful info?

    the title is : A GRAMMAR OF CZECH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

    it can be downloaded at: http://www.factumcz.cz/K.Tahal-Grammar.pdf

    i've not really looked at it, but from what it states* it seems like it might present some ideas:


    *excerpt from the front:

    "systematic description of present day Czech
    seen from the viewpoint of a foreigner


    non-traditional arrangement and
    unconventional way of explaining some topics



    suitable for those who want to gain
    a global insight into the language system


    companion for those who are learning Czech
    in any kind of step-by-step classes
    and want to get a compact overview of the language rules"
     
  5. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member

    Added to my page of free links!
     

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