Useful english words that are missing in the Czech language?

common sense - zdravý rozum

street smart - that is difficult... I participated, however, at some translation where we did solve this problem, I will try to look for it...

 

Maybe - "protřelý"?

 

procrastination?

 

Thank you Eleshar and Eso.

 

otálení?

 

Wer, I think that captures the word perfectly....otálení

procrastination..my definition....a reluctance to timely do something that needs to be done.
Put it off until later.
The procrastinator will wait until the night before the report is due at school to start it.

 

How about "treat"?

 

I’m not sure anymore. It definitely works for the reluctance to do one’s own action. Is it possible to procrastinate somebody else’s action?

What “treat”? Noun? Verb? What meaning?

I see no meaning without Czech translation. But of course, there is no universal translation for all the meanings.

 

No, procrastinate can not work like that. It can only refer to the subject.

I procrastinate. She procrastinates,
We are procrastinators.
Procrastination is our biggest problem.

Zacházet se s
dárek
sladkost

 

werb treat as in "...be treated as pest"

 

Kibiczi, your meaning is still a little vague.

Zacháze se mnou jako jsem otrava?
anebo, jako bych byl otrava.

But also, the exteminator can treat the house for roaches.
(Spray in the cabinets and in the corners)

also
Lekář může lečit někomu na vzteklinu. ....treat for rabies

 

Thanks Alexxi,

That verb 'to treat' can be used in a lot of different ways.

I guess it's like the english verb, 'take' which is included already in a lot of czech verbs.

Also the verb 'make' is hard to translate.
přinutit..to compel....is a good verb for a lot of english translations.

Přinutil jsem ho, aby vyčistit po tom, co klesnul na podlahu láhev.
I made him clean up......
Nedělej z sebe vůl.....Don't make a fool of yourself.
To má smysl...That makes sense.
To mě blazní....That makes me crazy??

 

treat - 1) léčit 2) jednat s někým, chovat se k někomu

I would rather say "nechat"

 

Eleshar
I think I have to add 'nechat' to that list of verbs with many meanings.
In the dictionary I don't see a definition that would give it that meaning.

Nech si toho!
Nechal jsem to v autobusu.
Nechávám moje potíže za mnou.

Podívej se do kříšt'alové kolo, nemá smysl odporovat.
Co vidíš je tvoje budoucnosti.

Podíval jsem se dolů na pěkný láhev piva, který mi jen spadl na podlahu.
Škoda.

 

"nechat" is also the verb with factitive meaning... not dissimilar to the English make, although not precisely equal to it (it is much more equivalent to English "to have something done"). Unfortunately, it does not have the distinction between the active factitivity
("nechal vyslechnout vězně" = "he had the prisoners interrogated"; "nechal mě pocítit bolest" = he made me feel the pain")
and passive factitivity
("nepomohl mu, nechal ho zemřít" = "he did not help him, he let him die")

*koule = ball (in the sense of a crystal ball) x kolo = wheel, round, turn, bicycle,...

**"láhev" is a feminine, declines according to the paradigm "píseň"

 

Eleshare, your knowledge of grammar is impressive.
I am not at all familiar with the concept of 'factivity'.
I will look that up.

But it is clear that 'nechat' can have very different meanings, I guess that the meaning is figured out by context.

Kouzelník mi řekl, že se bych měl podívat do křyšt'alové koule.
Řekl mi, že pokud to udělám, uvidím svoje budoucnosti.
Podíval jsem se do ni a po pár vetřin jsem viděl v kouli velikého okřidleného zvíře, které letal přimo k mne a bál jsem se moc.

 

Factitivity/causativity is just a foreign word for the concept that the action of the verb is carried out by someone other than the subject of the sentence. Some languages express that by

1) an additional clause, let's say:
"Peter caused that John ate the cake"
"Petr způsobil, že Honza snědl koláč

2) an auxilliary verb
"Peter made John eat the cake" / "Peter had his car repaired"
"Petr nechal Honzu sníst koláč" / "Petr si nechal opravit auto"

3) inflection (for example sanskrit)
"Arjuno'mríyata" (Arjuna died)
"Arjuno bráhmanam amárayat" (Arjuna caused the brahman to die = Arjuna killed the brahman)

"Arjunah kávyam aśráušít" (Arjuna heard the poem)
"Arjunah kávyam aśrávayat" (Arjuna caused the poem to be heard = Arjuna recounted the poem)

4) a completely different verb
"John died"
"Peter killed John" (= Peter caused John to die)

Well... in fact, the factitive meaning of "nechat" is only another instance of its ordinary meaning...

*po pár vteřin ( = for a few seconds) x po pár vteřinách ( = after a few seconds)


**létat ( = be able to fly, to fly often) x letět ( = fly, be flying)
Pták létá (it is a quality of birds to fly)
Pták letí (the bird is flying right now)

Člověk nelétá (it is his inherent quality not to fly)
Člověk letí (he is flying right now)

Although you can say of course "Petr létá do Paříže" (Peter flies sometimes to Paris) because you assume that he uses aerial transportation, in this case you have to use "letělo", otherwise it would mean that there had been some animal that regularly visited you be means of flying, which does not seem to be the case.

*** in this case it is better to indicate the change of subject be inserting the appropriate pronoun

 

Perhaps English and Czech examples could be better than Sanskrit. :wink:

As a regular phenomenon, the lexical formation of causatives is lost in modern European languages, but some of the verbal pairs are still preserved. Naturally, the original meaning could be a little distorted.

In English (basic form → its causative):

to sit → to set
to lie → to lay
to rise → to raise/rear
to bite → to bait
to suck → to suckle
to fall → to fell
to wind → to wend

In Czech:

vřít → vařit (to boil → to cook)
bdít → budit (to be awake → to wake)
mřít → mořit (to die → to torment, to eradicate, to kill off)
trpět → trápit (to suffer → to trouble/torment/torture)
sedět → -sadit (to sit → to set)
hynout → hubit (to die → to exterminate)
stát → stavit (to stay → to build)
být → bavit (to be → to amuse)
žít → hojit (to live → to heal)
pít → -pojit (to drink → to (feed with) water)
nýt → -navit (to moan/whine → to tire/exhaust)
viset → -věsit (to be hanging → to hang)
téci → točit (to flow → to turn/rotate, to draw/tap)
(o)týt(i) → zotavit (to fatten → to revive/recover)

 

Perhaps even:

schnout - sušit
stydět - (zo)studit
tát - tavit

But those are different lexical items today, some of them cannot even be identified as etymologically related by a common speaker (hynout/hubit, být/bavit, žít/hojit, téci/točit) and some are not generally known (nýt). In sanskrit however, every verb can undergo a causative derivation.