Hard and soft ending

Discussion in 'Grammar & Pronunciation' started by Kikko, Aug 11, 2002.

  1. Kikko

    Kikko Well-Known Member

    Hiya all [​IMG]

    I'm new into Czech, so I have LOTSA questions... hope someone got both will and patience to answer to me *lol*

    I've seen both nouns and adj are divided into groups, i guess that's according to the ending (and sure, gender), isnt it?

    1) Which letters belong to hard ending gruop? and to soft?

    2) I had a look round the net and I've found out czech has 4 masculine guide-nouns: two ending in vowel, two in consonant.
    Do i also need to know if the word ends with a hard or soft letter, dont i?

    I mean... soft vowel eding, hard vowel ending, soft consonant ending, hard consonant ending

    is it right?

    else plz tell me the right way [​IMG]

    3) I've also read bout masculine nouns to be divided into animated and inanimated gruops?
    ex. pan belongs to animated, hrad to inanimated. mmm is it true or not?


    Thx you all ( ^____^ )
     
  2. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    As you correctly said, Czech nouns and adjectives are divided into groups by gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and ending (hard vs. soft, consonant vs. vowel).

    1) These are Czech hard consonants: h, ch, k, r, d, t, n
    These are Czech soft consonants: c, j, and all consonants with a "hacek"
    These consonants are "in between": b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z
    Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y (there are no soft or hard vowels)

    2) Czech has 6 masculine guide nouns:
    Ending with a hard consonant: "pán", "hrad"
    Ending with a soft consonant: "muž", "stroj"
    Ending with a vowel: "predseda", "soudce"

    4 feminine guide nouns: "žena" (woman), "ruže" (rose), "písen" (song), "kost" (bone)

    4 neuter guide nouns: "mesto" (city), "more" (sea), "kure" (chicken - used for "díte" - child, and animals' young, e.g. "kote" - kitten, "stene" - puppy, etc.), "stavení" (building as in "homestead", "manor")

    Masculine nouns ending with a consonant are further divided into an animate group (they are "alive") - "pán" (Sir/Mr.) and "muž" (man), and inanimate group (they are "not alive") - "hrad" (castle) and "stroj" (machine). The animate / inanimate distinction does not apply to feminine and neuter nouns.

    In order to give a noun the correct ending (i.e. to decline a noun), you first need to memorize the endings of the guide nouns. Then decide if your noun ends with a hard consonant, soft consonant, or vowel (and which vowel) and, in case of a masculine noun ending with a consonant, whether it is animate ("alive") or inanimate ("not alive"). Then you’ll know which endings apply to it.

    Examples:
    "chlapec" (boy) – masculine, ends with a soft consonant and is animate - use the endings of "muž"
    "vlak" (train) – masculine, ends with a hard consonant and is inanimate - use the endings of "hrad"
    "dívka" (girl) – feminine, ends with an "-a" - use the endings of "žena"
    "auto" (car) – neuter, ends with an "-o" (and is not a young animal) - use the endings of "mesto"

    Note: Some of the Czech diacritical marks (hacky) are missing in this message - use your dictionary to look up the correct spelling.

    Good luck in your studies!

    [This message has been edited by Dana (edited August 21, 2002).]
     
  3. Kikko

    Kikko Well-Known Member

    Thanx for your help Dana [​IMG]

    p.s. guess i'll be askin again for your help soon [​IMG]
     

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