Czech Conversation

Discussion in 'General Language' started by Ctyri koruny, Aug 27, 2008.

  1. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member


    (Numbers refer to the person I was addressing)

    1 - *I felt it required a future tense because I would have to say "I want to be a ______ in the Czech Republic, I want to go to the Czech republic. " Etc.
    And yes, that's what I meant "Why do you want to learn Czech?"
    2 - * I meant Grandmother [or] grandfather, not necessarily grandparents. How would I say this? nebo?


    Thanks for taking the time to make these corrections!
     
  2. laylah

    laylah Well-Known Member

    Ahoj
    jmenuji se Laylah a jsem angličanka. Bydlím ve vesnice blízko Manchestru. Ráda se učím česky a chtěla bych vic studovat, ale bohužel, často nemám dost čas.Každy tyden mluvím s učitelkou na Skypu potom musím domácí ukol dělat!Souhlasím, to je moc zajímavý a taký krásný jazyk. :D

    I live in a village near Manchester - I think this needs the genitive case?
    I like learning Czech but unfortunately, often I don't have enough time. Every week I speak with my teacher on Skype, then I have to do my homework! I agree, it is a very interesting and also beautiful language.
     
  3. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    No, you needn't the future tense here, it's just a modal verb followed by infinitive.

    It's "babička" and "dědeček" respectively.

    The "a také" (= and also) is not wrong but it is not very common. We tend to use either simple "a" (= and) or comparably simple "i" (= and also).
     
  4. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    laylah wrote:
    Ahoj,
    jmenuji se Laylah a jsem Angličanka. Bydlím na vesnici (<- location, hence locative) blízko Manchestru. Ráda se učím česky a chtěla bych studovat víc, ale bohužel[,] [často] nemám dost času (<- "dost" is followed by genitive, ie. we say "enough of something"). Každý týden mluvím s učitelkou na Skypu, potom musím (u)dělat domácí úkol! Souhlasím, je to moc zajímavý a (také) krásný jazyk.

    The "a také" (= and also) is not wrong but it is not very common. We tend to use either simple "a" (= and) or comparably simple "i" (= and also).


    I found that exchange particularly helpful because that's the same opening gambit I use quite often myself. I even come from blízko Manchesteru - nebo Manchestru?! (Laylah: you're not from Leyland by any chance, are you?!)

    1. Jmenuju/jmenuji. Nowhere in "Czech Step by Step" does it say that although the former is spoken, everyone would write the latter, even in an informal note. It just implies informal/formal, in written Czech as well. Nor was I told that at my Czech classes. Do you think this is a 'Prague vs the rest of the country' thing? And it would be acceptable (although 'wrong') to write jmenuju se here in Prague? What about taký/také?

    2. I didn't know that vesnice was a 'na' word, and I thought I was quite good at 'na' words!

    3. Česky/čestina. "Ráda se učím česky" Here, I would have put: ráda se učím čestinu. Is that also possible?

    4. Musím (u)dělat domácí úkol. Laylah put 'domácí úkol' in between 'musím' and 'dělat', presumably because, like me, she thought that Czechs always split their verbs wherever possble!
     
  5. kibicz

    kibicz Well-Known Member



    btw: "i" is more like "and+even" than "and+also" meaning..

    edit: typos..
     
  6. wer

    wer Well-Known Member

    Better “Manchesteru”. That corresponds to the original name we prefer nowadays.

    “Manchestru” corresponds to the partially bohemized name “Manchestr” which is uncommon, albeit not incorrect. It is also the only correct Slovak genitive for “Manchester”.

    Formerly, about one hunder years ago, it was common to use the fully bohemized name “Manšestr” (event. Mančestr, Manžestr), but nowadays it is common only in the non-capitalized version as the name for corduroy.

    We formerly discussed the same issue for “děkuji/děkuju”, didn’t we?
    “Taký” is vernacular (or Slovak) variant of “takový” (= such).
    The colloquial variant of “také” is “taky”.

    The common variant is “na vesnici” wich means more or less “in the country”. The latter variant “ve vesnici” is used to emphasize you mean strictly in the area of the village.

    život na vesnici = village life / life in the country
    Ve vesnici musíš zpomalit na 50 km/h. = In the village you have to slow down to 50 km/h.

    Yes, it is, but the meaning is a little different. Your version could be used even for the Czechs who study the formal Czech grammar or Czech literature.

    No, we are not Germans. :lol:
    But we tend to put the new information to the end.

    “I” means “even” when preceding another conjuction (i když = even if).
    “I” alone is an emphasizing additive conjuction which could correspond to English:

    and also
    and even
    and as well
    and too
    (and) including
    both ... and ...
    all ... and ...

    Very often, English uses only “and” in the place of the Czech “i”.
     
  7. scrimshaw

    scrimshaw Well-Known Member

    What a busy thread :D

    Ahoj, Polednikovo, vitáme tě zpět. Chyběli nam tvůj myšlenky.

    Jsem také Ir, když irské krev proudí svými žilami.
    Rodina, z matčiny strany, žila v County Cork.

    I too am Irish, since Irish blood flows through my veins.
    Family, on mother's side, lived in County Cork.
     
  8. scrimshaw

    scrimshaw Well-Known Member

    Já také jsem Ir.
     
  9. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member



    Ja Cork Bydlím, ja tady malý ale hezky. :)


    I hope I said: I live in Cork, it is small but nice :)

    Bydlím v Cork? - Better? Worse?
     
  10. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    Nenavidím sníh!!!! Chci být Arizona nebo někde teply cely rok. Mame moc Český lidi v muj město protože Chicago je moc blizko a můj město is known as mály Chicago. Hodně lidi z Chicaga ma druhy domy v můj město. Hrst čeho plna českého rodinné odstěhoval se z Chicaga do můj měšto. Když mame parties, hodně českeho lidí z Chicago přiji (they version of přijít - not sure if that's right). Září 13, naše kamarady bude mít party a o čem 50 lidí budou tam - všechní česky kromě mně a mozna 3 nebo 4 jiny lidí. Budu musít pít alespoň dvě skleníci víno tak mužim mluvít čestinu za party. :)


    I'm sure there are a ton of mistakes so here's what I wanted to say:

    I hate snow. I want to live in Arizona or somewhere warm all year. We have a lot of Czech people in my town because we are close to Chicago and my town is known as little Chicago. Many people from Chicago have 2nd homes in my town. A handful of Czech families moved from Chicago to my town. When we have parties, a lot of Czech people from Chicago come. (meaning Czechs who still live in Chicago come to our town for the party.) Sept. 13, our friends will have a party and about 50 people will be there - all Czech except me and maybe 3 or 4 other people. I will have to drink at least 2 glasses of wine before I will be able to (so I can) speak Czech at the party. :)
     
  11. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Yes, you do better after some wine, don't you dzurisova? :lol: I find I have to judge it just right: enough beer to get reduce the inhibitions but not too much that I forget whatever Czech I know. Unfortunately, I usually only have a few minutes in that particular state of grace!
     
  12. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Sorry, everyone, but I can't get the hang of editing so that I get the quotes I want to refer to in my reply...

    Wer: when we talked about děkuju/dějuji, I thought we were just referring to spoken Czech; I didn't realise that you wouldn't write děkuju, even in an informal note. And when I wrote taký, it was a typo, I meant taky. Does that mean you would never write taky either and you should always write také?
     
  13. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    Oh, and I forgot. How fascinating that the Czech for corduroy (we often only say cord, or cords for a pair of corduroy trousers) is manšestr.

    Does everyone know why? It's presumably because Manchester was the capital of the British textile industry in the 19th century. You see the same thing in Australia, where the word manchester is the word they use for the haberdasher's department in a department store, where they sell cottons and thread!
     
  14. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    2 glasses of svařak serves me best in speaking česinu. The last Czech party, I had two glasses of Jager & diet and the only thing it did for me was make me tired. So I went home. -shruggs-
     
  15. scrimshaw

    scrimshaw Well-Known Member

    You two are funny...trying to catch that wistful but shortlived moment between feeling good and being sauced.
     
  16. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    its a fine line. :)
     
  17. Polednikova

    Polednikova Well-Known Member

    I find a good environment is at an ice hockey or football match. I've learned some interesting words there, not wholly related to sport! Boyfriend, Tony, who's not actually studying Czech, already knew them from the lads he teaches chemistry to!

    (NB for Czech native speakers, that sentence should have read: from the lads to whom he teaches chemistry - a good example of spoken vs good grammatical English!)
     
  18. Ctyri koruny

    Ctyri koruny Well-Known Member


    Wow! Nenavidíte sníh!? Mám sníh rada!* Neradím žár. My máme sníh tak zřídka, je krásna.
    Mám problém: Ne ale pět nebo šest tisíc** Češi obytní v Irsko, a ne v Cork!





    Wow! You hate snow!? I love snow! I don't like (the) heat. We have snow so very seldom, is beautiful. (Snow is so rare it's beautiful here.)I have (a) problem: There are but 5000 Czechs living in Ireland and not in Cork!

    I want to say "I have great envy for the multi-cultural aspect of American society." But I'm not even going to try!


    *did I just say I really like snow.. or imply that I love snow as if it were a member of my own family.

    **
    5000.. I don't know how to put together numbers over 999.
    Are cardinal numbers still used when talking counting people?

    No but 5000 Czech people are living in Ireland, can you use this to say "only" in Czech? - Ne ale..
    What about Just "But 5000 Czech people are living in Ireland" - Ale 5000...

    *** It's ok to start sentences with "Ale" and "A" in written Czech?


    Can someone give us a list of Czech exclamations like:

    Wow!
    Really!?
    I see...
    Oh dear!
    I don't believe it!
    Oh well.

    Just things I can use when I have understood what someone has told me and I want to react, as in a normal conversation. Examples of the types of situation you would use each word in would be wonderful too. Thanks!
     
  19. dzurisova

    dzurisova Well-Known Member

    Well those are the only ones I'm familiar with.
     
  20. kibicz

    kibicz Well-Known Member

     

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