Here is another question. There is a terrible song in English that has the memorable line: Never misunderstand me. This is an imperative. The question is how to translate this effectively to Czech. Unfortunately, in Czech, "misunderstand" is usually the same as "not understand." And we can't attach a double negative prefix to a verb. WRONG: Nikdy mi nenerozumej. Another solution is to use subjunctive. At mi nikdy nerozumis. Or even, At neni mezi nama nedorozumeni. Which is okay, but lacks the direct imperative impact of the original. Any suggestions?
Halef: yes, but that is again subjunctive, and lacks the force of the imperative. We could say: Vzdy mi rozumej. But this is not the same as "Never misunderstand me." In English, I think "misunderstand" is different from "not understand," but I am perhaps not able to explain this difference well.
Hi, My translation would go something like this: Ne abys me spatne pochopil/pochopila Ne abys me spatne vyrozumel/vyrozumela misunderstand vs not understand is certaintly beyond the normal. Similalry, this is not true vs this is untrue. Well, if a native speaker fails to give an explanation, then who else should help? Karel
I don`t even think that there is a one-word equivalent of misunderstand in Czech that could be used in the imperative given. People either understand or not - Lide bud rozumeji nebo ne. People understand or misunderstand - Lide bud rozumeji nebo rozumeni spatne. mis- wrongly -- misapply :arrow: badly--mismanage :arrow: unsuitably -- misuse