Ok, that's helpful. But supposing I want to say "My friend Susan..." and I'm still talking about the same person ie we've been close friends for 50years and I want that to come out in the conversation....
In this case "kamarádka" is probably the best to avoid confusion... but if you have been friends for 50 years (so I assume you are 60 or something), you can say "přítelkyně" as well, I think, and no one will suspect.
I had a couple of problems with kamarád and přítel when I first visited Prague - I would introduce my male traveling companion by saying "To je můj přítel" since přítel was the only word I had learned for friend. A new Czech acquaintance informed me with a grin and a raised eyebrow that it might be better to use "kamarád". The phrase did come in handy on Wenceslas Square when we were being pestered by a couple of "working" girls - it made them role their eyes and walk away with a frown. :wink:
Glenn, that's funny! I had the opposite experience in Germany. I was with a female friend (not a girl friend) but every time I introduced her as my Freundin (female friend) people grinned and thought that she and I had a "relationship"
How about the word "pet". I am not sure if we have a short name for this one except for "domaci mazlicek".
How about the word "jerk". I use it often and when our Czech friends asked what it meant, my husband says there isn't a word for it because all relating words in Czech are too harsh/rude.
A lot of English words that start with over- are not possible to translate with one-word Czech terms. I don't mean words like overstep (překročit), overturn (převrátit), overlook (přehlédnout), overcome (přemoci) and others, which are OK, but how about overuse (nadměrně používat), overbook (rezervovat více jízdenek, pokojů..., než je k dispozici), overstaff (zbytečně zatížit velkým množstvím pracovníků), overqualified (mající vyšší kvalifikaci, než je požadovaná)? P.S. The above Czech translations are taken from Velký anglicko-český slovník.
I just thought today about Czech words starting pro- for which there aren't one word equivalents: Like: prozvonit proskočit proběhnout proletět projít propadnout
I was looking to see if their was a one word meaning in czech for 'conundrum', there is--hádanka, hlavolam, but interestingly etymology said the roots of this word were unknown. You don't see that very often.
That is not surprising to me. I am bilingual (English/Spanish). The word "jerk" doesn't have an equivalent word in Spanish. I can describe a "jerk" using some very rude Spanish words, but not using a single word. :lol:
http://slovnik.seznam.cz/?q=jerk&lang=en_cz 4 pages of equivalents.. LOL btw: How would you describe jerk as person? its kinda hard to find translation without knowing actual meaning..
LOL... Too many verbs... you can ignore all the verbs Hm, a jerk is someone who is: stupid, obnoxious, rude, etc. Can you find a good equivalent in the slovnik.seznam.cz list?