Chapter questions continued. I have to insert the correct demonstrative pronoun. TEN 1 TY rozdíly nejsou zvlášt' velké. THE differences are not particulary big. 2 Potřebujeme několik TĚCH sešitů. We need a few of THOSE books. 3 Viděli jsme TY ženy už včera večer. We saw THE women already yesterday evening. Would TYHLE ženy mean "those women over there" ? 4 Co znamená TO slovo? What does THAT word mean? or What does THIS word mean? 5 Nemusím TO opakovat. I don't need to say IT again. or I don't have to say IT again. 6 TU písen jsem slyšel jen v Praze. I heard THAT song only in Prague. 7 TAHLE je TA slečna, o které jsi tolik mluvil! THIS is THE young woman you were talking about. 8 Kolika TOMU Čechům voláte? How much do you phone the Czech Republic/czech person? I am having trouble with this one. 9 kolik TEN Čechů voláte? What is the difference in kolikA and kolik. Same trouble understanding this sentence as with 8. Does ČHECH refer to a czech male or the country? 10 Pracuju v TÉ knihovné, ale studuju v TÉ. I work in the library, But I study in it. Or is it though I study in it. If I am way off please here let me know. I'm trying to understand. Any corrections with clarification are greatlyn appreciated. Thanks, Calvario
pretty well done... I as a Slovak cannot tell you everything but: tyhle ženy = these women 6. píseň = song 7. TOHLE je ta slečna,... 8. Kolik(a) TĚM Čechům voláte? čechům = (to) Czech people the tenth one doesnt give much sense to me, but I m sure its wrong Id say "studuji v ní" I don't know how many potential mistakes I left out... but the rest seems okay to me... :wink:
Hi. I guess that what they want for number 10 is something like this: Pracuju v téhle knihovně, ale studuju v tamté. I work in this library, but I study in that one. For number 8 and 9: You use kolik in accusative and nominative case only. For all other cases, use kolika. (This is true as well for variants of this word, such as několik, tolik, etc.) So if you want to say "How many Czechs do you call (telephone)?" it will be: Kolika (těm) Čechům voláte? To mean "telephone someone," volat takes dative case. However, the verb "volat" has a second meaning: to call with your voice, to shout at someone, for example to call your dog. In that sense, it takes accusative case, sometimes with the preposition "na." It doesn't make much, but you could say: Na kolik (těch) Čechů voláte? Kolk (těch) Čechů voláte? You will use this sentence if there is a group of Czechs on the street, and you say to them "Hey, Czechs! Come here!" and someone asks you how many Czechs you are calling. It is a bit unnatural.
7. Tohle je ta slečna... = This is the young woman (the miss)... Tahle je ta slečna... = This one is the young woman... This tohle is in neuter because it is a general subject. In this case it's Čech as a Czech male (or persone of unclear gender). But you're right - sometimes, it could be also genitive of Čechy (=Bohemia).
What would the difference be if we excluded ta from #7 Tohle je (ta) slečna, o které jsi tolik mluvil! If we put in "ta" does "ta" represent "the woman" or is it "that woman". Since there is no definite article or indefinite article using the word "the" in czech is confusing at times. Here is an example: Mám TY hlavní romány,ale povídek mám jen velmi málo. Povídky jsou také důležité. I have THE main novels, but only very few short strories. THE short stories are important too. Why is it not TY povídky jsou..... How would the meaning change? Would it sound strange? If we removed the Ty from mám hlavní romány,... how would it affect the sentence? A few simple examples to clarify would be liberating., with of course English translation as I am stll getting my understanding together. Does TEN in fact mean "this" "that" as well as "the" Thanks, Calvario
There are no articles in Czech, and there is no direct equivalent of "the." There is also no direct equivalent of "a/an." Ten, ta, to, (etc) are demonstrative adjectives and their use is not as strictly prescribed as "the" and "a/an" in English. They are used when the definiteness of a substantive cannot be determined from context alone. So, the sentence Viděl jsem psa. could be translated into English as "I saw the dog," or "I saw a dog," because English in a similar sentence requires an article (the or a). The article serves the purpose of marking the substantive definite or indefinite. In Czech the definiteness is often not explicitely marked. If you need to mark definiteness you can do so with demonstrative adjectives. Viděl jsem nějakého psa. I saw a dog. / I saw some dog. Viděl jsem toho psa. I saw the dog. / I saw that dog. In practice, Czechs use the demonstrative adjectives before substantives to add emphasis or definiteness. In the first sentence, the demonstrative adjective before "hlavní romány" could be removed, and it wouldn't change the sentence much, since it's reasonably clear from context that the speaker is referring to some group of novels already known or mentioned. Likewise, a demonstrative adjective could be inserted before "Povídky" in the second sentence, and it wouldn't change much. What it would do is make "short stories" definite, so the translation would be "Those short stories..." instead of "Short stories (in general)..." But this distinction is not always made, and is frequently derived from context. In answer to your final question, a different set of demonstrative adjectives is used to mean "this (here)" and "that (there)." This is tenhle/tento (for things close to the speaker), and tamten (for things far from the speaker). Similar to demonstrative adjectives are demonstrative pronouns, which have the same form, but are not connected to a substantive. For translating an English sentence such as "This is a..." or "It is a..." the form "To je..." is usually used, regardless of the gender of the substantive in the second part. Likewise, for translating "These are..." or "They are..." the form "To jsou..." is used. That is, the verb agrees with the subject, which comes after the verb. The declined forms of the demonstrative pronoun (ten, ta, ti, ty, to) can be translated as "This one, that one, those ones."
