CZ-EN: octl

The first sentence of Milan Kundera's "Žert" is:

Tak jsem se po mnoha letech octl zase najednou doma.

"octl" looks like a past participle to me, but of which verb? What was he doing after many years, all of a sudden, again, at home? I have looked in all my books and lists and have not found "octl" anywhere.

Any help greatly appreciated.

cheers,
Sonja

 

the verb (reflexive) i believe is "octnout se" - to find oneself


Tak jsem se po mnoha letech octl zase najednou doma.

Thus, after many years, I suddenly found myself at home once again.

 

What a useful verb. I will try to remember that one. Thanks.

 

after i posted, i looked at the two online dictionaries i use the most - not sure about the english versions of some of the expressions (some are dead on though), but they do give a rather good list of situations where the verb is used in czech:


http://web.volny.cz/najdito/slovnik/?se ... mit=Hledat

http://slovnik.seznam.cz/?q=octnout&lang=cz_en

 

Ah! Thanks a lot for the quick help

cheers,
Sonja

 

The verb “octnout se” has a doublet form “ocitnout se”, the latter is possibly more common (and less formal).

 

Also, is it correct that verbs ending in -nout very often have the past participle ending just in -l?

What confused me was that "octl" is so short that I was sure it must be some irregular verb and then searched in the wrong places.

(I know this is more a grammar than a vocabulary question now, feel free to move it elsewhere.)

Again, děkuju mockrát to all of you. (Ja se řekne česky "to all of you"? )

cheers,
Sonja

 

I knew it couldn't be that simple!

 

The verbs ending in “-nout” are either of the model “tisknout” or “minout” (see Wikipedia for the models). The participle of the first model ends in “-l” in literal Czech or in “-nul” in colloquial Czech (often accepted as literal) and the participle of the latter model ends always in “-nul”.

to all of you = (vám) všem, každému, všem z vás, každému z vás

 

octnout se - (past) octl se
ocitnout se - (past) ocitl se

The second one is much more common, and easier to pronounce. I wonder how would you native english pronounce "octl". Off topic, but it probably must be quite difficult to say world like "plst", "smrk", "srst", "smrt", isn't is?

 

For me it is impossible to say without sputtering such words like sixth, cloths, baths etc.

 

No. (I'm a native german though, not sure if that makes a difference.)

As long as the 'l' or 'r' are syllabic (and I assume it is in octl), it is quite manageable. Compare english "fiddlesticks", where the e is not pronounced and you actually have the cluster "dlst" with a syllabic l.

I love how my czech colleagues pronounce "XML" (two syllables) and "HTML" (three) without wasting precious vowels.

 

No problem: Ks-M-L, H-T-M-L the same way like Germans voice it. The same for PC. :wink:

from www.cj.cz
o ocitnout se i octnout se, 1. j. ocitnu se i octnu se; příč. ocitl se, ocitnul se i octl se, octnul se

ocitnout se - can be pronounced much easier

 

Běžel jsem před nepřátelí a rychle jsem se snažil skrýt se v uličce. Vůbec jsem ale nevěděl, že tam mě čekali jejích přátelé.
Ocitl jsem se tehdy v ještě horší situaci. Z zbláta do louže.

There are many words I am sure I pronounce incorrectly.
like.....vlhkost...that seems to me really hard

srdce was really hard at first, but I think I got it now.

I figured out I was pronouncing it like sýr-dce

fiddlesticks....true the 'e' is not at all pronounced, but you have to leave a space for the syllable break.
Three distinct sounds fi-dl-sticks..
Not sure where the expression comes from.
Of course, literal translation could be 'the bow for a violin',
but it's not used that way, it's an old expression meaning something like 'Aw shux', 'shoot', 'daggone it'

 

Srdce:

Sr like Sr in Sri Lanka
dce (= ce, d is silent) like ce in Ceylon (or cent)