Czech Birthday e-cards online

Discussion in 'General Language' started by shawn, Jan 21, 2004.

  1. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Ahoj:) Today is my friend's birthday, and I'd like to send her a Czech greeting card. Does anyone here know of any web addresses that have these?

    Shawn:)
     
  2. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Hi Shawn,

    Here's one site I know about:
    www.albi.cz

    It's all in Czech. For birthday cards, click at "K narozeninám" on the left and then choose a category. "Kreslená" means "cartoons/drawings", "květiny" is "flowers", "obrázky se zvířátky" - "animals", "děti" - "children".

    Hope it helps.
     
  3. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Dana - Výbornĕ! Děkuji velice moc :)

    My friend loves cats, so (along with some cat-type card) I want to say to her "I hope you have 9 lives too". Would that be "Doufám že, máš taky devět životy"...?

    I only have 20 minutes before I leave the computer for the day, so I'll just cross my fingers and hope it's at least intelligible to her...

    Have a wonderful evening, everybody:)
    Shawn
     
  4. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Hi Shawn,

    Sorry I missed you. Your sentence is almost correct and perfectly understandable. :) It should go like this:

    "Doufám, že budeš taky mít devět životů."

    A comma is always before the conjunction, not after. And "životů" is in the genitive, so "hradů", "lesů" - "životů".

    You could use the future or present tense here, depending on how you mean it. I put it in future tense - "I hope you will have..." (you'll end up having...).
     
  5. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    "Ů"...is the first letter in "ugh", samozřejmě:(

    I tried to build that sentence out of 2 others I know:

    Máš jen(om) jeden život

    a

    Doufám, že budeš mít hezký den...

    And because 'den' didn't seem to be doing anything strange to me, I figured the basic plural of 'life', 'lives' was going to fit the bill.

    I think that, what is in order, is for me to find someone in CR who would be willing to find me textbooks, starting with Grade 1, 2, 3...etc., i.e., taking it from the very beginning, because I'm getting overwhelmed with my approach, and am finding it nearly impossible to learn the cases (models etc.), aspect, and the requirements of gender by rote, with there being so much to learn. Being 34, I have the memory and retention skills of a 34 year old.

    Are there any standard texstbooks that your children might have used which I could have sent to Canada?

    Shawn:)
     
  6. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    In "máš jenom jeden život", "život" is in the accusative - you have what (máš co). In "budeš mít devět životů", "životů" is in the genitive - you have nine of what (máš devět čeho).

    When I was at school learning about cases, which was a long time ago :) , all textbooks were supplied to us by the school for free and were returned at the end of each school year. I don't know how it's done nowadays and if kids actually buy their own books, which would mean that such books would be available in bookstores. Maybe someone who's in the Czech Rep. or even has kids there can answer that.

    Like I said in one of my previous posts, Czech children already have an inherent understanding of the cases and don't have to learn when to apply which case, so I'm not sure if you'd find the help you're looking for in a children's textbook. But it's certainly an idea to explore.
     
  7. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Thanks Dana, I've spent all morning trying to figure out a really concise way to ask this, to no avail, so...:

    Can you give me some more examples of the types of questions (such as above) that one might ask, armed with declension tables, etc., in order to at least in writing put things down properly, if not storing it all in memory?

    I'm bringing the first part of your post home to my friends, and hopefully they too can tell me more...

    I'll crack it, eventually. :)

    Shawn
     
  8. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Hi Shawn,

    What types of questions do you have in mind? Like "you have what", "you have nine of what", for all the cases?

    Dana
     
  9. Tony P

    Tony P Member

    Hi Shawn,
    I was interested to read your post about learning cases rote and, unfortunately, I have to say that I have come across no other way.
    I have been learning Czech for three and a half years and can say that cases must simply be memorized.
    However, when I started learning I only memorized the simpler cases, for example pán, žena, město etc. As I studied and learnt more of the language, I increased the number of cases, e.g. kost, stavení, růže. Then when I had those down pat, I attempted the most difficult, muzeum, téma, píseň etc.
    I still make mistakes in speaking (especially with Dative plural!) but if I do a grammar exercise and have time to think I get them right.
    I think the point I want to make is that, yes, there is a lot of learning involved with Czech, but also do it in moderation. The biggest complaint I hear about studying Czech is that "there is too much to learn." Break it up, memorize something and when you are confident, move on.
    Tony
     
  10. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Thanks Dana, Tony.

    Já vím, ze něco je tady: http://www.myczechrepublic.com/boards/v ... .php?t=534

    (Ďekuji...)

    ...Ale myslim si, že budu potřebovat mnohem víc.

    I'm sorry if my Czech was horrible here, but I'm trying to really get my fet wet and learn.

    As for learning by rote, what have you found to be the most useful models to learn, Tony?

    Thanks as always,
    Shawn
     
  11. Tony P

    Tony P Member

    Well, I have found that learning the same models as Czechs learn is the best way. By that I mean: pán, muž, předseda, soudce, stroj, hrad for masculine, žena, růže, píseň, kost for feminine and město, moře, kuře, stavení for neuter.
    The reason why these are the best for me is that I can ask Czechs how a certain noun declines; for example 'židle is like růže' or 'postel like píseň but kostel like hrad.' In some textbooks for English learners I have seen different models and this sometimes confuses Czech. For example according to 'Communicative Czech' the main hard masculine noun is 'sešit'. So to ask a Czech 'Je to les jako sešit?' would get the answer ' ne, je to les jako hrad.' This could confuse a student.
    I think this is useful for me only because I have learnt my Czech here.

    Tony
     
  12. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Thanks Tony, very sound reasoning. Assuming I take it, as you say, a bit at a time, I think I'll make more headway. And as luck would have it, we're lucky enough to have them all sitting right here:

    http://www.locallingo.com/czech/grammar ... nsion.html

    I'll start memorizing all of these by rote. See you in 6 months:)

    Shawn
     
  13. Tony P

    Tony P Member

    Shawn,
    Another good tip, and something that I did is to test yourself with cards. On 14 cards write each of the modal nouns. Then on seven cards write the cases and on two cards write 'singular' and 'plural'. Draw a card from each of the three piles and say the correctly declined noun to yourself. For example 'Kost' 'Dative' 'Plural' would mean 'kostem'. Repeat and repeat and repeat until you have the nouns learnt. I found this exercise in Michael Heim's excellent book 'Colloquial Czech'.
    Tony
     
  14. shawn

    shawn Well-Known Member

    Thanks Tony, I'll buy some cards on the weekend and get cracking.

    To reply as well to what Dana asked, I've been working on this (plugging in info as I receive it from Czech speakers), though it still has many holes:

    nominative -1
    Kdo? Co?Who? What? Nominative: is the subject. Who or what does something.

    genitive -2
    Koho?Čeho? Of whom? Of what? Genitive: this is the case of belonging. It is equivalent to the English of. In "budeš mít devět životů", "životů" is in the genitive - you have nine of what (máš devět čeho).

    dative -3
    Komu?Čemu? To whom? To what? Dative: Indirect object. I give the apple to you.

    accusative -4
    Koho?Co? Whom? What? (I see whom/what?) Accusative: the object. Every subject does something over something. That's it. I kick you. I take a book.In "máš jenom jeden život", "život" is in the accusative - you have what (máš co).

    vocative -5
    Kdo!Co! Who! What! Vocative: this is the case you use to call someone. So for example if you see Petra you dont have to say "Petra jak se mas?" but "Petro..."

    locative -6
    Kom?Čem? (About) Whom? (About) What? Locative: you can only find/use this case with a preposition (time, state, ...). Czech doesn't have articles but has MANY prepositions.

    instrumental -7
    Kým?Čím? (With ) Whom? (With) What? Instrumental: This explains what the subject uses to act over the object. I go there by car (with the car). I write a letter with a pen.

    I realize that much of the system is based on the use of prepositions, so a major question for me is, when considering any given preposition, how does it relate to the words relating it in the sentence?

    I go there by car: I wouldn't ask the question "I go with what?" intuitively...I would say I go "by what?", not thinking to replace by/using/etc. with the word 'with'. So it's going to be important for me to realize that it is the act over an object that makes, for example, instrumental what it is, in the system.

    Anyways, just more curiosities to keep me occupied...I'm loving it all.

    Shawn:)
     

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