Czec ents ‘Spbols. Abbreviations and various marks used. Instructions ‘Frequently asked questions about Czech Be Grammatical terms asic pronunciation rules Bbpendix to lesson 1 Wordlist for lesson 1 ‘Appendix to lesson 2 ‘Wordlist for lesson 2 ‘Appendix to lesson 3 Wordlist for lesson 3 Appendix to lesson 4 Wordlist for lesson 4 Appendix to lesson 5 Wordlist for lesson 5 Appendix to lesson 6 Wordlist for lesson 6 Appendix to lesson 7 Wordlist for lesson 7 Audio tapescripts Key Glossary Summary tables of cases (standard and colloquial Czech) h Express 1 10 4 16 18 20 24 26 29 30 34 36 39 43 45 50 58Symbols By coe csa ne language under the magnifying glass (a close look at language) Pe 08 D5: oe Abbreviations and various marks used —folse, Ma, Mi ‘masculine animate, masculine inanimate gender F feminine gender N neuter gender impf. impertective verb (expressing an activity asa process) pf. perfective verb (expressing the result of an activity) 0¢ colloquial Czech neg. negative 59 singular pl. plural the mobile-e- (eg. den day, dny days) informal form. formal N nominative 6 genitive D dative A accusative v vocative L locative 1 instrumental verbs with stem changes inthe present tense conjugation (-E conjugation), eg. ist*, étu to read, |read x versus Instructions doplite fillin POZOR BE CAREFUL Seeley Eee —pecitite — peciee piste, napiste write pielozte transiate ‘Sipovdee answer a opakujte repeat feknéte sy enate ark note ee PAMATUJTE SI REMEMBER spojte ma Be con a Poslouchejte listen zméfte cageFAQs about Czech 1. Is Czech related to English? Ys itis, Both of them are members of the Indo-European family of languages (compare: mother - matka, brother - bratr, sister - sestra, thre 1), However, they are different types of languages: English is an analytical language and Czech i a synthetic language. Compare: | do not understand /4 units) ~ nerozumim (7 unit), by car (2 units)~ autem (7 unit. 2. Doall Czech words consist of horrifying clusters of consonants? Well, some of them do. Fortunately, they aren't the vitally important ones. Actually, how often do you ask people stré prst skrz krk (stick your fin ‘through your throat) or vzevenkls (did you flick up)? 3. How to pronounce “i”? The articulation for # derives from the palatal (not the French one). When you want to pronounce é place your top and bottom teeth slightly togett purse your lips and whisper the following words: tri, tri, tri, tri... (without even trying to say ¥ — it will come out by itself). If this doesn't help, cons ‘your teacher or a speech therapist. But don't worry - Czechs know that this unique sound that they are very proud of is difficult and they will h ‘mercyon you! 4. Why are Czech words usually longer than English ones? Asa synthetic language, it uses prefixes suffixes and sometimes infxes 9. odpoposedavat sito sit alittle bit aside several times. 5. Why do two varieties of Czech exist - standard and colloquial? After the defeat of the Protestants at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, Czech almost disappeared as an official and literary language a was replaced in these functions by German. The spoken form of the language, however, continued to develop. During the National Revival at ‘beginning of the 19th century the standard form of Czech was gradually codified on the basis ofthe older form of Czech from the 16th century, wh lead to the current difference between standard (spisovnd éestina - S¢) and colloquial Czech (obecnd éestina - OC). In the Czech Express coursebook mainly standard Czech will be taught. if grammatical features or expressions appear here which are part of generally spoken language, they will be marked with the abbreviation OC (obecnd éestina, colloquial Czech). 6. Why doesn’t Czech have articles? The absence of articles is the result of the historical development of the language. Their absence is compensated for by the flexible word order Czech, Information that was already mentioned or is otherwise known is usually placed at the beginning of a sentence (English uses the defi article, the, here). New information is usually placed at the end (and its expressed by the indefinite article, a/an, in English). However, Czech certain words that express the same meanings as English articles. For example, néjaky, néjak,njaké (some) or jeden, jedna, jedno (one) are of used where you use the indefinite article in English. Ten ta, to (the, that) is often used where you use the definite article in English. 7.Why does Czech have cases? How are the cases used? Czech, as a synthetic language witha flexible word order, needs cases with their endings as a kind of ‘signal; which expresses the grammati relationship between words. Compare the basic meanings ofthe cases: 1. The nominative is the dictionary form of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and some numerals. It expresses the subject of a sentence. Forexample: Student je ve Skole. ~ A student is at school. 2. The genitive expresses possessive o parttive mening. Forexample: Knina studenta. ~The book of a student. Lahev vin A bottle of wine. 3 The dative expresses the indirect object in a sentence. For example: Dam darek studentovi. - Ill give a present to a student. 4, The accusative expresses the direct object in a sentence. Forexample: Vidim studenta. -| see a student. 5. The vocative is the addressing form. Ifyou want to address someone in Czech, use the vocative. For example: Adame! ~ Adam! Evo! ~ Eval 6. The locative expresses location. For example: Jsem ve 3kole. - 'm at school. 7. The instrumental expresses the means or instruments by or with which an action is carried out. Forexample: Jedu autem. -| go by car.However, in addition to these basic meanings, there are further uses ofthe cases. Allverbs and prepositions in Czech are connected with a certain or cases. Students have to master this part of the language through language exercises and drills (just as students of English learn phrasal verbs example). Fora better understanding you can imagine that verbs and prepositions have a hook or hooks, on which you can hang one or more ca In the following table you can see an overview of the cases that follow several verbs and prepositions. Verbs Prepositions’ Cases byt (to be), jmenovat se (to be called) = nominative Dat se (to be afraid of), Gastnit se (to take part in) 2 (from), do (to/into), od from), bez (without), | genitive (at), vedle (next to) rozumét (to understand), pomahat (to help), telefonovat (to | k (to), kvill (because of), diky (thanks to), | dative telephone), gratulovat (to congratulate) proti (against) mit (to have), vid&t (to see), dat si (to take), znat (to know), | pro for, za (behind/aften), na (to), ‘accusative hledat (to look for), kupovat (to buy), potfebovat (to need) = = vocative ‘0 (to réad about), mluvito (to speak about), povidat sio (to | v (in) na (on), 0 (about) Tocative talk about), slySet o (to hear about) ‘Zabyvat se (fo be occupied with), stat se (to become), bjt | s (with), pfed (in front of/before), mezi | instrumental spokojenys (to be content with) (between) "For the prepositions we present ante most common meanings. n rely, every preposition may have other equivalents depending on the conte What do the colours used in the textbook mean? The colourcoding diferentiates the three grammatical genders ofnouns: masculine (we distinguish animate, orlive people and animals of masc. gender, e.g student student, and inanimate, eg. barn banana), feminine (eg, kava coffee) and neuter (e.g. auto car. Its important to know the gender of a noun because the gender determines how each noun is declined (how to make its case endings). Luc however, you don't have to learn the gender of every new noun you meet by heart! Words which in the nominative sg. (= the form that you fir the dictionary) end with a consonant (student, banan) are often masculine, words that end in -a (kava), are often feminine, and words that er -0 (auto), are often neuter. Gender diferences don't only affect nouns, but also some other words. Compare: Ten student by! dobry. That student was good. Ten banan byl dobry. That banana was good. Ta kéva byla dobré. That coffee was good. To auto bylo dobré. That car was good. 9. Why do English verbs often have two Czech equivalents in the dictionary, e.g. to cook - varit, uvarit? ‘Most Czech verbs lve “in pairs: These verbs have what are called imperfective and perfective aspects. Put simply, the aspect expresses the actic ‘event either as a process or as the result ofa process. In this way we distinguish imperfective and perfective verbs. Imperfective verbs, e.g, vaiit (to cook), express the action as a process, as ift was being “filmed”: These verbs express unlimited, unfinishe repeated actions. They have past, present and future tenses. Perfective verbs, e.g. uvatit (to cook), express the result of an action or an action ata particular moment, as fit was being “photographed verbs do not have a present form, they only have past and future tenses. Notice that for this reason in the glossary we translate forms of conjug. verbs marked with the abbreviation pf. into the future tense: e.g. uvatim (Il cook). Czech aspects can't be automatically matched with English tenses. Although there does exist a certain similarity, English tenses are frequently differently from the Czech perfective and imperfective verbs.. Are there any priorities in Czech grammar & beginner should concentrate on when learning Czech? “Opinions can die, but the authors ofthis textbook believe that helps beginnesifthey concentrate onthe llowing prions inthis order: oo to remember the gender ofthe nouns that youfear and noice the function of gender in the sentence. Verbs. Verbs form the core of Czech sentences! Prepositions Pay careful atention to prepositions pecausejus ike vers they wil ep you a ltin expressing yourselt coves and their endings. You cant avoid endings in Czech, although you shouldnt let them put you offor scare you! 1. 1s Czech really as difficult as I've heard? and ne. Yes, mainly becauseithas so many different endings. No» because ithas.logical grammatical system similarto Latin, no more than three soa tensesandjusta handful of regular verbs. However, doyou know any language that is easy to learn?Basic grammatical terms Just as a craftsman needs tools for his work, you need some basic grammatical terms for study of @ language. You can find an overview of the the following table. You will certainly know some of them from studying your first language at school, others will be new to you. However, knov them can help you with your studies to.a certain extent, Latin/Czech term English term Example or explanation in English adjektivum/ pridavné jméno ¥ adjektiva (tvrdé pridavnd jména) adjective “J adjectives (hard adjectives) ‘An adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a nour pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's refer dobry (good), blizky (close). adjektiva (mékké pridavnd jména) | ~i adjectives (soft adjectives) _| kvalitné (high-quality), modernf (modern adverbium/piislovce adverb ‘An adverb is a word that modifies any part of language other tk @ noun. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, clauses, sentences ¢ other adverbs. dobre (well, bizko (closely), kvalitn (to a high-quality), moderné a modern way). aspekt/vid aspect The verbal category that is absent in English. There are two aspect perfektivni/nedokonavy perfective Czech: imperfective it expresses the activity as a repeated or unlimi Imperfektivni/dokonavy imperfective process) and perfective (it expresses the result of an activity or vi the activity at a particular moment), eg. délat/udélat (to do/make Iimpertectve/perfective. eas tense futurum/budouct as future tense Budu doma. (Ill be at home) prézens/piitomnyéas resent tense Jsem doma. ('m at home) préteritum/minuly éas ast tense Byl jsem doma. (| was at home) deklinace/sklonovani, declension, to decline ‘Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals are declined in Cze deklinovat/sklofiovat Itmeans that endings (koncovky) are used to create cases Note:to a student - studentovir without a car- bez auta infiitiv the infinitive The infinitive is the “to-form” ofthe verb in English and the *-t form” in Czech, e.g. to do-délat interjekce/citoslovee interjection ach (oh), au (ow), brr (br)... konjugace/éasovéni, conjugation, toconjugate _| Verbs are conjugated in Czech. It means that endings are used to cre konjugovat/éasovat persons. Note: do - délém, , you do - déla8, he/she/it does - dela... konjunkce/spojka conjunction a (and), nebo (on) ale (but), kdyé (if/when)... konzonant/souhléska consonant hich kB. him, p23, F.. numerdlie/éislovka numeral zdkladni cardinal eden (onel, dva (two), tH (three). fadové ordinal prvni (first), druby (second), teti (third) objekt/predmet: object: piimy direct ‘Maminka posilé dopis studentovi. (Mom sendsalletter to the tude! Maminka posilé dopis studentovi. (Mom sends a letter to t neptimy indirect student) pad case Czech needs cases with their various endings as .signals* express grammatical relations between words. For more about cases, page 3, point 7. plurél/mnozné éisto plural studenti (students), bandny (bananas), kévy (coffees), restaur (restaurants), auta (cars) 6CZECH EXPR prepozice/predlozka reposition bez (without), na (on/to,v (in), do (tofinto),z (rom), pro (for.. pronomen/zdjmeno pronoun persondini/osobné personal 8 (0,ty (you), on (he)... posesivni/pfivlastiovact possessive ‘mij (my), tv6j (your, jeho (his)... interogativn/ tézact interrogative do (who), co (what), &f (whose)... indefinitni/neuréité indefinite inékdo (someone], néco (something), néjaky (some).. negativni/zdporné negative nikdo (no one), nic (nothing), Z4dny (no)... rod gender ‘Nouns, adjectives, the majority of pronouns and some numerals he ‘Mo maskulinim animaturn/mudsky | \a masculine animate genders. There are three grammatical genders in Czech: mascul 10d divotny IMimasculine inanimate __| (animate and inanimate), feminine and neuter, 2: ‘Mi maskulinum inanimatum/muésky | F feminine ‘Masculine animate (Via):student (student) rod nesivotny Nneuter ‘Masculine inanimate (Mi) banén (banana) F femininum/Zensky rod Feminine (F): Kava (coffee) Nneutrum/stfednt rod Neuter (N}:auto (car) samohléska vowel 3,011,940, Ud 6 fone singulér/jednotné éisto singular student (student), bandn (banana), kava (coffee), auto (car)... ‘subjekt/podmet subject ‘Maminka posilé dopis studentovi. (Mom sends allettertothe stude substantivum/podstatnéjméno | noun student (student), bandn (banana), kava (coffee), auto (car). verbum/sloveso verb [A verb is a part of speech that conveys action or a state of being, é transitivn/prechodné transitive videt (to see), mit (to have), byt (to be), spat (to sleep). intransitivni/nepfechodné intransitive A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or m objects (eg. vidét, mit...). An intransitive verb does not take an obj (eg. byt, spat...) REMEMBER: Nouns, adjectives and verbs have different forms in Czech! Compare: English work work work Czech préce pracovat pracovni pracovnéBasic pronunciation rules 1. Letters you know: fae fe fa le [f fo [hi fi [k ft [mn Jo Jp fa [r Js fe Ju Jv [w |x 2. Czech letters: consonants ele ch i [s 3. Czech letters: vowels. a ee i 6 aa i The diacritc symbols used in Czech are called: ~héek - hook * &hrka — length mark *krouéek - circle. 1. We divide vowels into short ones: a, @, i, y, 0, w and long ones: &, &; fy Ys 6 alt. Long vowels are about 1.75 times longer than thes ‘equivalents. There ae also three diphthongs in Czech: ou, a, eu. 2. The vowelsi and y (or and ¥) are pronounced the same way. 3. The vowels & and tare pronounced the same way. Their spelling only reflects differences that existed in the past. Note thatthe vowel ds always writen ath beginning ofa word or ter a prefix eg. hel, Ztastnit sl while the vowel dis writen inthe stem anda the end of word domi 4. Insome Czech words there are the following pairs of vowelsia, ie, i, io, iu. We read them asfollo io liyo] - rédio, iu (iyu] - vrédiu. yal -fialka, ie liye] - tale, ii fii) —v 5. We divide consonants into hard (h, ch, k, f, 9, dt, n), soft (2,8 &,f, dt, cj) and ambiguous (b, f,|,m, p, 5, v2) This vision issignifeant in one way for declination and in another way forspelng. Yu notice that when far fellow consonants theres an after sft consonants an ‘har consonants Czechs lam words wth ambiguous consonants which are followed bya by hear, as So-aled listed words. Foreign words are exceptions fo therule. 6. The consonants that are absent from the English alphabet are:é, ch, ¥, 8,2, dt, Note especially ch which counts as a single letter and a special position in the Czech alphabet (after h). 7. p.t, kare unaspirated sounds. This means that when they are pronounced they are not accompanied by a stream of ar. 8. How should d; t # be pronounced? To pronounce d, and a, imitate the sounds that your teacher produces by putting the tip ofyour tongue against the back of your upper gum ‘above your front teeth. You end up pronouncing sounds similar to d, tn, but softer 9. Where should dt, be pronounced? Ifthere is dt, hin atext, as in bel, tukat, Pizei Ifthereis d, t,n-+ & asin d&kuju, t&2ky, n&kdo. Ifthereisd, t,n+ili, asin divadlo, dite, tisk tise, nikdo, nizky: “exceptions: ‘international words eg. tens temys ditt [yt tp (tyP) 10,How should the syllables be, pé, vé, mé be pronounced? Bé, pé, ve, mé should be read as [b’ye, p’ye, v'ye, mn’ ye}, as in: bézet, na Kampé, clovék, mésto. 11.Assimilation rules: To understand the assimilation rules, you should know the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants. Compare the following voiced - unvoiced consonants:b -p,v-f,d-td-tz-s,2-3,g-k,h—ch, ‘Assimilation type 1: At the end of a word, voiced consonants are pronounced lke theit voiceless counterparts. Eg: Vaclav (Vaclaf], Cheb [Chepl. ‘Assimilation type 2: ftwo consonants occur after each other in a word, the second consonant changes whether the firsts voiced or not, as follows’: vklad {fklat], tudka [tuskal, kdo (gdo), sbirat [2birat}‘Assimilation also affects some prepositions, eg. z Francie [sfranciel, k domu (gdomul]. fa voiced preposition is followed by a word beginnir with a vowel, this consonant is pronounced as if unvoiced, eg. Italie [sitalie}. ‘There are regional diferences to tis rule 9, the parting salutation nashedanou is pronounced n Bohemia nasehledancul andin Moravic nazhledanou). 12.The vast majority of Czech words have the stress on the first syllable eg, ndmést,situace, analiza. The exceptions consist of a mere hand ‘of unstressed words which take the second logical position in the sentence. ‘Note: When connecting a preposition wth another wor, thestress is placedon the preposition, eg.veskole.Appendix to lesson 1 Il 1.1 The preposition z/ze + the genitive {In the bubbles you can see the names of countries: Vietnam (Vietnam), Kanada (Canada), Italie (Italy) @ Némecko (Germany). These names a the form which iscalled the nominative singular we say that they are in the nominative singular. The nominative singularis the basic form ofan which you find in the dictionary and which you should remember. However, if we use the name of the country or another noun after a preposi a different case will follow it, whose ending is diferent from the nominative. To understand this better you can imagine that each preposition a hook or hooks'on which we ‘hang’ different cases with their endings. For example, after the preposition rom), which we usein the phrase } 2.. fm from...) there follows the genitive singular with its endings. Compare: Vietnam (the nominative) - 2 Vienarn (the genitive) Kanada (the nominative) ~ z Kanadf (the genitive) Italie (the nominative) ~z tlie the genitive) Némecko (the nominative) - z Némeck§ (the genitive). The overview ofthe genitive singular ison page 66. I 1.2 Vy xty. Formal vs. informal address [Note the difference between formal and informal expressions and forms: Dobry den! x Ahoj! Cau! Hello! Hil ‘Odkud jste? x Odkud jsi? Where are you from? Codaléte? x Co d&la8? What do you do? Avy? x Aty? And you? Na shledanou! x Aho}! Cau! Goodbye! Bye! ‘Adult trangers are addressed in the formal way. Relatives friends, children (to about 15) and young people (ifyou arein the same age) are addre ininformal way.Itis usualy the older person or a woman who suggests: Mazeme si tykat? Can we use the informal form? il 1.3 Personal pronouns: ja, ty, on... 1 you | he she [it we you _| they ia ty on ona |onojto'| my | vy oni? "Note:The demonstrative pronoun ta corresponds to English this, that. We use ono veryrarey eg. inthe exresion To je anol (Thats it) 2 Invrting you wl ee the forms on,0=/anylona in the plural which are distinguished by gender. However inthis table for simply, we use only the form oni WH 1.4 Verb byt ‘AllCzech verbs are conjugated. Conjugation means that verbs change thelr endings to express persons. The verb byt (to be) is conjugated irregu in the present tense. You have to learn the forms by heart. byt (to be) positive forms negative forms 6 sem’ nejsem ty jst" (colloquially: ses") ngjsi (colloquially: nejse3) on,ona,to |je neni my sme’ nejsme y iste! nejste oni sou nejsou "Not the pronunciation jem (sem) sls [s/s], me sme, st [ste jsou sou) The personalpronounsjé,ty,on..., which you learned in paragraph 1.3, arenot usually used in Czech with the verbs, unlike in many other langu because the information about the person is expressed by the ending of the verb. For example: rozumifit - | understand, rozumig - you unders rozumi - he/she/it understands etc. We only use personal pronouns with verbs when we want to emphasise them (eg. 4a sem doktor, ale am a doctor, not you), orin everyday speech. BUT: In the expression To je.../To neni... (Wts../Itist...) on the other hand, we don't leave out the demonstrative pronoun to,‘Negation: When you want to form the negative, you should add the prefix ne- before the verb, which we write joined together with the verb. For example: Ja jsem Paolo, ja Riejsem Kurt. | am Paolo, | am not Kurt, Ty js Mai, ty fijsi Lori. You are Mat you are not Lor The only exception is the third person singular: To je vino? To @ii vino. Is it wine? Itis not wine. I 1.5 Model of conjugation: -A verbs AllCzech verbs conjugate. Conjugation means that the verb changes its ending in order to show the person. Compare: dala —| do, dla ald - he/sherit does etc n the present tense there are four types of present conjugation. (Note: Czech doesn't have the continuous tense: dé! | do/l am doing) In this lesson you will learn the first ofthese, the so-called -A model conjugation, represented by the verb delat (to do or tom We conjugate verbs whose infinitives end -at (except for the ending -ovat, see p. 27 paragraph 4.6) and also the verb mit, mam (to have, | ha the same way as this verb. -Averbs dlat to do, to make positive forms negative forms ié da nedalam ty alas ned&las on,ona,to | d ned&la my ime nedélame w di nedélate oni dala nedélajf" " Incolloqual Cech the shortened form is also used (oni dl, ned. You can find the other types of conjugation on pages 17, 22.and 27. Il 1.6 Verb tenses Czech has three verb tenses: present, future and past. You'll notice that in the conjugation tables in the present, you will also find for each ve ‘example of the Ist person in the past and future tense (known as the jd-form). For example under the conjugation of the verb byt you'll see: Past tense: byl/byla jsem | was (masculine and feminine respectively) Future tense: budu | will be ‘You will learn the past tense in lesson 6. The future tense is not presented until Czech Express 2, but for the time being you can very simply present tense to express the future. This is perfectly correct grammatically, even ifit is more typical for everyday spoken language. Observe: Zitrajsem doma. I'l be at home tomorrow) Co zitra délas? (What are you doing tomorrow?) Inthis way you can use the expressions zitra (tomorrow), 0 vikendu (at/on the weekend), piisti tyden (next week), piisti 'mésic (next month), rok (next year). 17 Question {f you want toask a question just change the intonation ofthe sentence. Note two types of question intonation: 1. Questions that can be answered yes or no: To je Vaclav Havel? Is it Vaclav Havel? Vy jste student? Are you a student? 2. Questions that cannot be answered yes or no: ‘Odkud jsi? Where are you from? Co dal4é? What do you do? Il 1.8 Gender of nouns ‘The words student, studentka (student) or politik, politika (politician) ete. reflect the natural gender stucient and politik ore men, stud a politika are women. This natural gender is logical, for example, with people and animals. However, in Czech nouns have a grammatical 9 which has no logical basis, for instance banan is masculine, kava is feminine and auto is neuter). For more about how to identity the gramn gender of a noun, see page 20, paragraph 3.1.Il 1.9 Addressing people To address people and animals, Czech uses names in the vocative case. The vocative singular ‘Masculine names Femininenames The majority of names: Martin = Marting* The majority of names: Dana - Danél ‘Names ending inh ch, k, g: Marek ~ Mark ‘Names ending in-¢ or a consonant: Lucie = Lucie! Carre ‘Names ending ina consonant with a hook, c, j-tel and sometimes also -l,-5,-20r-«: Ales ~ Alesft Names with -a ending: Honza ~ Honzt "NaPe Pee 2 Theso-caled mobile’ isunderied.tclsoppears when the noun i decined. For formal address, use the ttle pan Sir, Mr, pani madam, Mis, Ms.or sletna Miss and a surname/last name in the vocative case. Eg: Pane Malétel, coll Pane Malat! Mr. Malét! Pani Novakova! Mrs. Novakova! Sleéno Zajigkoval Miss Zajitkoval 1.10 Czech habits, traditions and conventions 1. Greetings The most common greetings are: Dobré réno! - Good morning! Dobry dent - Hello! Dobry veéer! - Good evening! Dobrou noc! - Good night! Na shledanou! - Goodbye! Ahojt Cau -Hil/Bye! (On leaving we can also wish somebody: Méjte se hezky! (formal) Have a good day! /Maj se hezky! (informal) Have a good day! Note: Jak se ms8?/ak se mite? How ae you? fs not just conventional phrase ora greeting asin English Younever say t when you meet peopl forthe fst time. Compan nother diference that you nay often heara detailed or negative answer 2. Pronunciation of your name and surname ‘Ask your teacher about how to pronounce/spell your name in case of misunderstanding. f someone doesn't understand your name, do not spellit. You simply repeat it again as itis written, sylable by syllable (e.g. Jan Malat > Jan Ma - lat). However, sometimes you precise information, e.g. you want to say that there s an a with a length mark a long a) in the word Malat. In this situation you can highl the help ofthese names for letters (see the table): Jan Malat, dlouhé &. ‘Gzech Alphabet ana -eshétkem I-el w- dvojité ve ‘4-dlouhéa foef m-em x-iks b-be g-ge n-en ¥~ypsilon, tvrd cnce hha fief ¥-dlouhé turd t-te ch-cha 0-0 z-zet d-de {= kréthé mékké 6-dlouhé o i-det dds {= dlouhé mékké i p-pe e-e J-Je a-kve é-dlouhée k-ka rer Be careful: Foreign women’s surnames can be used with the ending -ov8, eg. pani Verdi = pani Verdiové, pani Blair = pani Blairova etc. 3. Apologies When you apologise you say: Promif. (informal) or Promifte. (formal) Sorry. or Pardon, Pardon me. The reaction is: To nic. “It It's OK When you want to go through a crowd of people you say: Pardon. Pardon me. or S dovolenim. Let me through, please. 12(esse oaa 4. Expressing regret and sympathy ‘Note: When you regret someone or something, you say To je 3koda. It's a shame/pity. When you are told sad news you say To je mi li lam sorry (or you). 5. Auniversal Czech word: prosim The Czech word prosim can be used in many situations. Note: 1. The most common use: Dékuju/D&kujl.— Prosim. Thank you. - You're welcome. 2. Inarrestaurant: Prosim, pivo. Beer, please. 3. Your telephone rings. You pick up the receiver and say: Prosim? Yes? 4. You are addressed by a shop assistant: Prosim? Can | help you? 5. You misunderstand your partner. You ask him or her: Prosim? Pardon? 6. You meet someone by a door and want to let him or her pass fist: Prosim. Please.ROU Caren Wordlist for lesson 1 +Page4 Ano. Coznamené..2 Dékuju. coll Diky. Dobie. Jakse fekne..? Jak se to pie? Je8t8 jednou, prosim Ne. Nerozumim. Prosi, Rozumite? Spatné. «Page 6 auto byt, sem co eesky den dobry hrad Je kdo. ‘rise noc pivo prazsky rano to veter Cojeto? Dobré réno! Dobrou noc! aha ahoj au lat, délam ‘ekonom, ekonomka Italie ia Jit, jdu Kanada kancelai, v kanceléti me muset, musim, 14 Yes What does .. mean? ‘Thank you. Thanks. Good. Well. Fine, How do you say..2 How do you write it? Once again, please! No. | don't understand, Please. | beg your pardon. Do you understand? Bad_/Not well. car tobe, lam what Czech ad) day 00d, delicious castle is who crystal night , beer Prague ad). morning it that the evening What ist? Good morning! Good night! Hello! Good evening! Whois it? Hil Hello! todo, 1 do/ to make, | make ‘economist Italy ' t0.g0, | go (on foot) Canada office, in an office ime (the accusative form of the pronoun ja) ‘must, | must / have to, | have to Nemecko odkud rominout*, prominu pf promis, promifte! restaurace, vrestauraci situace student, studentka tak y titel uéitelka uz (extended form: ve) +L Vietnam y (extended form: 22) +6 Co dalas/dalate? Na shledanou, Odkud jsi/jste? Promifite, musim jft. Tesi mal +Pages manazer, manazerka my on ‘ona oni ono pan pani sleéna +Page9 Ceska republika (Cesko) Francie herec heretka Irsko ie nic politik, politika Polsko profesor, profesorka Rusko sportovec, sportovkyné Ukrajina USA [react ties 8] _zpévik zpévacka Germany from where to excuse, Ill excuse the imperativ restaurant, ina restaurant situation student you (informal singular) teacher already, stil in Vietnam you (plural and formal singular) from (aplace) What do you do? What are you doi Goodbye. ‘Where ate you from? Excuse me, | have to go. Nice to meet you. manager we he she they Sir, Mister Mrs, Madam, Ms. Miss the Czech Republic France actor Ireland oh! gee! nothing politician Poland professor Russia sportsman, sportswoman; athlete Ukraine the USA singer Sorry! Don't worry about it. Iti... Thatis...*Page 10 ale éislo e-mail jak jaky minus mit, mam plus prog se tady telefon telefonni vas «read: tetka} @ lread: zavinaa] cz {read cé zet} Jak se mas/mate? Jaky ma8/mate telefon? Prosim vas... Ujde to/ide to. +Page 11 ‘ach jo autobus au nowy problém piedstavovat se, iedstavuju se slon ten Dale! Sdovolenim! but number e-mail how what kind, what sort of, what...Jike minus tohave, Ihave plus why oneself here telephone telephone adj Yyou (the accusative form ofthe pronoun vy) dot at (inan e-mail address) @ How are you? What is your telephone number? Excuse me... Soso. oh well bus ‘Ow'/Ouch! new problem to introduce oneself, lintroduce myself elephant that, the ‘Come in! (literally:*Further!") Let me through, please!patete)i Pa Appendix to lesson 2 I 2.1 The prepositions vedle + the genitive In the bubble, you can see the nominative sg. of nouns, eg, clvchod (shop), banka (bank), restaurace (restaurant) and kino (cinema). already know from the first lesson, the nominative sg. is the dictionary form of the noun that you should remember. However, if you use a: after a preposition, you don't use the nominative. in this particular case, the preposition vedlle (next to) is followed by the genitive singular: endings. Compare: ‘obchod (the nominative) - vedle obchoulll (the genitive) banka (the nominative) - vedle bank (the genitive) restaurace (the nominative) ~ vedle restaurace (the genitive) kino (the nominative) - vedle kin (the genitive) See oko page 10, paragraph 1.1. Foran overview ofthe genitive singular see page 6. I 2.2 Adverbs expressing direction or motion x adverbs expressing location In Czech, motion or drection to somewhere and location are expressed differently. Direction or motion Location Question: Kam? Where to? ‘Question: Kde? Where? Dynamic verbs: Static (= stationary) verbs: Jit to goon foot, byttobe, Jet to go by vehicle, pracovat to work, letat to fly... studovat to study, bydlet to reside, iitto live, Rekat to wait... semhere tady here tam there ‘tam there nahoru up, upwards nahoie up, above dol down, downwards dole down, below doprava to the right pravo/napravo on the right doleva tothe left vlevo/nalevo on the left doprostied to the middle uprostied in the middle Compare; Jdéte nahoru .“Go to up” Go up. x To je nahoi I'S up above. Jdéte dold. “Go to down’ Go down. x To je dole. I's down below. Jdéte doprava, Go to the right. Go right. x To je vpravo. It's on the right Jdate doleva, Go to the left. Go left. x To je vlevo. t's on the left. Jdéte doprostied. Go to the middle. x To je uprostied. It's in the middle. I 2.3 Metro x metrem The forms autobusem by bus, viakem by train tramvaj{ by tram, metrem by metro, autem by car are in the instrumental sg. At this stage, are recommended to learn these expressions by heart as phrases. Gender Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative sg,_[autobus,viak ramvaj auto, metro instrumentalsg, | autobusil viaKl_[tramvall au men However, the word pé8ky(on foot) isan adverb, Adverbs don't take endings, and therefore it doesn't change its form. Observe: Musite jet tramvaji isto jedna, = Musite jet jednigkou. Musite jet autobusem gislo dva, = Musite jet dvojkou. 16CZECH E Hh 2.4 Verbs jit and jet (Czech distinguishes the verbs jit (to go on foot) and jet (to go by vehicle). When you ask for directions, you can often hear the expressions: ‘Musite jt... "You have to go on foot ...You need to go... ‘Musite jet... "You have to go by vehicle..."You need too... ‘Sometimes you may also hear the imperative forms ofthe verbs jt andjet, eg. Jdéte [dete] rovné! Go straight ahead! Jedte doleva! Turn left! Formore about the vert tt goon fot andjet to go by vehicle) se page 32 paragraph 6 Il 2.5 Model of conjugation: -i verbs From the first lesson you already know the irregular verb byt and also the verb délat, representing the -A model of conjugation. Here you can see the -[model of conjugation represented by the verb rozumét (to understand). All the verbs ending in -et, -ét, “it and also the verbs jist, jist (to eat, | eat), ‘spat, spim (to sleep, | sleep) and stat, stoji (meaning 1: to stand, it stands, meaning 2: to cost, it costs) are ‘conjugated according to this model. -Averbs rozumat (to understand) ia rozut ty rozut fon, ona,to | rozur my rozumime y rozui oni rozumi/rozuméji’ "This forms only sedi formalr written Czech. In colloquial Czech the shortened form oni rozumé}s used. Il 2.6 Information about travelling 1. Maps: wwew.mapy.cz 2. How to look up transport connections on the internet Transport in the Czech Republic: wwwridos.cz Transport in Prague: www.dpp.cz Goto Vyhledavani spojeni. Important words: ‘odkud where from, kam where to, pfes via, datum date, éas time, prestup transfer, change, vyhledat search 1 2.7 Czech habits, traditions and conventions 1. If youte asking about a price, you use the question: Kolik stoji does it cost? Remember: The question Koike...” cant be usedto translate How much fs..? This question sony used for calculations eg. Kolkje 1+ 1? How muchis 1 +1? 2 How much does ... cost? or Kolik to stoji? How much 2. How to address a stranger Ifyou want to address a stranger (someone in the treet, a policeman, waiter, shop-assistantetc.) say Prosim vas, ... Excuse me (formal). Children can be addressed with Prosim t .. Excuse me (informal). Another option is Promitite,... formal) or Promitt,.. (informal). 3. Negative questions ‘negative question is more polite than a positive one in this context. Note: Nevite, kolik stojilistek? ‘Don't you know how much a ticket is?” Do you know how much a ti 4, Foreigners living in the Czech Republic sometimes complain that Czechs speak English to them and therefore they have litle opportunity to practice their Czech in real life. It's partly because Czechs are eager to practice their English, German, French, Spanish etc, partly because they know Czech is not an easy language and they want to help foreigners or speed up the conversation. this happens to you, simply say: Promifite, ale mitzeme mluvit Zesky? Sorry, but can we speak Czech? You could explain: Jsem cizinec/eizinka. | am a (male) foreigner/(female) foreigner. Uzim se éesky. 'm learning Czech. Above all, however, keep speaking Czech and let the people around you get used to it. = Phisrevnovh seasters Wordlist for lesson 2 Page 14 banka bank blicko neat, nearby daleko far divadlo ‘theatre. dole down below kavarna, café kino cinema kostel church (only a building) masto city town most bridge nadrazi (railway or bus) station namésti town square nahote up above nemocnice hospital obchod shop orientace ctientation eka river socha statue stanice station stop $kola school uprostied +6 inthe middle vedle +G next to. vesnice village vlevo/nalevo on the left vpravo/napravo on the right zastavka stop Jeto blizko nebo daleko? Kdeje...? Page 15 cko, atkem_ auto, autem autobus, autobusemn bécko, bétkem bily ‘cétko, céekem esky doleva doprava dam hledat, ledsm jedtel jet”, jedu liste isthy ‘metro, metrem minuta rmluvit, mluvim moc Isis near or far? Whereis... Aline, by the A line (on the Prague underground) car, by car bus, by bus Bline, by the B line (on the Prague underground) white Cline, by the C line (on the Prague underground) inCzech tothe left to the right house +0 look for, 'm looking for 0! (by vehicle) t0 90,1 go (by vehicle) ticket, tickets underground, by underground minute to speak, | speak much, many, a lot pesky rovné rozumat, rozumim stat, stoji tam ‘urista, turistka vvédet, vim vidat, vidim viak, vlakem Jdéte doprava/doleva, Nevite, kde je...? +Page 16 druhy hhned rvni supermarket tet ulice zase Jdéte prvni/druhou/teti ulici doleva +Page 17 adresa es diky (OC) dlouhé dlouhy informace internet mapa Podivat se, podivim se pf. Podivej se na.. Rozumite anglicky, némecky, rusky? +Page 18 bydlet, bydlim éislodomu kino, v king kolik koruna a+b nadrazi,na nédraai rnormalni obec PSC [read: pé es ée] on foot straight to understand, | understand 1.to stand, it stands 2. to cost, it there tourist to know, | know to see, | (can) see train, by train Goto the right/to the left. Do you know where is...? the second immediately, right the first supermarket the third street again Take the first/second/third ‘turning to the left. address time thanks long a, a with a length mark long information internet map to look, I'l look Lookat.... Do you understand English, German, Russian? tolive, live house number cinema, in the cinema how much, how many crown on railway station, at the railway station normal ‘universal term fora city, town or village postal code taxiCZECH EXPRESS zemé country zpateeni return ad). Kolikje1 +1? How much is 1412 (when you count) Kolik stoji...? How much s...? (when you ask about aprice) Kolik to stoj? How much is it? (when you ask about aprice) Kde bydlis/bydlite? Where do you live? Jakou mas/mate adresu? Whats your address? +Page 19 dovolend adj. holidays, vacation GPS (read: dai pies) GPs halé hello Hava Hawail let flight letisté airport mosny possible potast weather pro+A for snad perhaps Spatny bad t8sit sea, t&sim sena+a__ tolook forward to, look forward to zrusen cancelled Let na Havaj zrusen ‘The flight to Hawaii was cancelled pro Spatné potast. due to bad weather. Tosnad neni mone! That's not possible! Honem! Hurry up! Mimo provoz. Out of order.PARK Appendix to lesson 3 i 3.1 Grammatical gender. The nominative singular Inthe following table of he nominative singular (whichis the form that you willfind in the dictionary) the so-called declension patterns arepresen These patterns represent various types of declension. (You will encounter them in the overall overview of cases on pages 66 and 67.) [Nominative singular! Gender pronounten |-§a-1adjective noun ‘Masculine animate ten dobry kvalitni student, muz, kolega ‘Masculine inanimate ten dobry kvalitn’ bandn, éaj Feminine ta obra kvalitni kava, restaurace, kanceléi, mistnost Neuter to dobré?kvalitni auto, mofe, kufe, nédrazi The typical endings forthe nominative plural (nthe majority of ase] ari ory (eg. knelt, brambory,paaéinky.) You can ind an overview of nominative plurlsin the tab age 67 +n colloquial Cech you can ako hear these nominatvesg. adjective forms dobre) stuen! bans, dobry aut, In this table you can see that we have used three colours to mark grammatical genders visually in this coursebook: blue, red and green. Each n hhas a grammatical gender which determines the forms of several other types of word, e.g. adjectives, several pronouns and verbs in the past (see page 36, paragraph 6.1). ‘Nouns ‘Nouns have three grammatical genders: masculine (we make a distinction between masculine animate~ people and animals eg. stucient, pes, ‘masculine inanimate, eg. banan), feminine (eg. kava) and neuter (eg. auto). Its important to know the gender of each noun. There isa practical aid to determine the gender ofa noun. Remember: (66% of nouns have these majority ending in the nominative singular: ‘Masculine ends ina consonant (eg, stucient, banén, profesor, muz man, ucitel, supermarket, éaj tea.) Feminineends na (eg. kava, studentka, profesorka, utitelka, banka, skola...) Neuterends in-0 (eg, auto, kino, divadlo, m&sto, pivo, metro...) You can easily recognise the gender of most nouns by these endings. 34% of nouns have different, minority endings in the nominitive singular: The ending -el-8 very often occurs in the feminine (restaurace, stanice, r72e, sportovkyné, kolegyné ...), but also in the neuter (kue, more see The ending -4 very often occurs in the neuter (eg. nadrazi, namésti). The ending -a can also occur'in the masculine (xo\e92 colleague, cn/eba bread), while a consonant can occur also in the feminine (kancelsiof mistnost room). You need to remember the gender of nouns with minority endings. However, in time you will get practice in determining gender by the ending 0 nominative singular and be able to distinguish almost all nouns. Adjectives We can divide adjectives into two types according to the ending of the nominative singular: 4) Adjectives, which end in J (9 adjectives). InCzech grammar these are called hard adjectives because ys calleda ‘hard y/y’in Czech. These adjectives are affected by the gender of the ri that they go with in the nominative singular. For example: dobry ban, dobré kava, dobré auito. In Czech grammar these are called soft adjectives because is called a soft in Czech. These adjectives are not affected by the gender ofther that they go with in the nominative singular. For example: kvalitn’ ann, kvalitné kava, kvalitn’ auto. Pronouns The demonstrative pronoun ten (this/that) has masculine, feminine and neuter forms. E.g. ten banan, ta kava, to auto, Wl 3.2 Cox jaky, jaka, jaké ‘Co means what. Jaky means what... itis ike. Compare: Co je to? What sit? -To je bandn. It's a banana. x Jaky je? What sit lke? - Je dobry. It's delicious. ‘Be careful ok acct and sot takes masculine fernine ond neve frms ak een band? Jake ta kia? Jakéje to auto?Ii 3.3 The accusative singular In this lesson you will learn the case which is called accusative. In order to understand how we use this case better, compare the two following sentences: Kava je dobré. (The coffee is good.) x Pju kau. (I drink coffee.) Notice the word kéva (coffee) in both sentences. In the first sentence the word kéva isthe subject (the subject is the person or thing which car an action or isthe carrier ofthe state or characteristic). In the second sentence the word kava isthe direct object (the direct object is the pe thing to which the action is done or which is affected). In Czech the direct object indicated by the accusative with its endings. Inthe following table you can see an overview of the accusative singular. Notice that the nouns are divided into the 3 declension groups, should help you find your way better inthe system of case endings and gradually master them. In his phase of your studies you will mainly p the endings for group | ‘Accusative singular Gender_| Pronounten | oradecine Noun Group! Groupil Groupil (nouns ending in 1ouns ending 2, -5, -,-I | (=nouns with a special a consonant, -a,-0) --t-fi-e>} often tel -e/-8) | declension) a |_| dob vane | student mull kolegllt i __| ten dobry'kvalitni | banan aj = i di dobroll kvalitni avid restauradl, kancela? mistnost nN [to dobré'kvalitni | auto mote ute, nédrazi Incollquia Czech you may alo her these accusative sngulr forms: dobryho swdents, dobre) bans dob) auto. in this eszon you wont learn the accusative forms ofthe masculine animate. Youll meet them onlin lesson 4 wen youl say, fr example, Mam baa asst. (have and sister) Mém ps0 akoéku. (have a dog ané cat) How co we know when to use the accusative? You should learn the verbs (and later prepositions too) after which the accusative is used, e.g. lat (to do}, mit (to have), hledat (to look f si (to take}, mit rid (to like, jist (to eat), pit (to drink). We call these verbs transitive. N.B. After some verbs (we call them intransitive) we use a direct object in the accusative. They are, for example: byt (to be), pracovat (to work), spat (to sleep). To help you understand the df between transitive and intransitive verbs you should notice that, lke in English, you cannot say, for example, “| sleep something’ (the verb t isintransitive), but you can say " drink something" (the verb to drink is transitive). I 3.4 The verb dat si The verb dat si literally means "to give to oneself”, but in a restaurant we translate it with the expression “to have/take.’ This verb is reflexive, means that it always goes together with the reflexive pronoun si’ (dam si, daé si, da si...). The reflexive pronoun si can't go at the begin a sentence but takes the second logical position in the sentence (see page 37 paragraph 6.4 for more.) Compare: co a date? “What yourself do you give?” What'll you have?_ Dim (il pomeranéovy dius "1 give myself orange juice” have an orange juice. "in Czech there are two reflexive pronouns: s(t oneself) and se (oneself seepage 26 paragraph 4.1. I 3.5 Counting Counting in Czech is quite complex.’ When you order food in a restaurant or buy things in a shop’, you can avoid unknown case endings by us expressions jednou once, dvakrat twice, tfikrat three times... the accusative singular or plural. For example: Dam sijednou kévu. Il have one coffee. Dame si dvakrat /e'll have two coffees. Dame si ttikrét hranolky. We'll have three portions of fries. "When we count weuse 1 jeder jednajedno) + the nominative singular, 2 (dvs, dv, dv), 3, 4+ the nominative plural and 56,7... the genitive paral Moreover, wel ‘ase endingfornumbers, Dim si jednu kav. have one coffe) Vdim jednioho student (can see one student) 2 Note: in shops they use the weight dekagram (oll deko), whch s 10 grams. So ifyou want to buy eg. 104 cheese, you should say: 10 deka. Another useful unit of weight it klogram (ol kilo