People Adjectives

As we saw with colours, adjectives come in three flavours, for male, female and neutral and take the gender of the subject.

Here then are some (mostly) people related adjectives to play with...

  • Happy - Veselý / Veselá / Veselé 
  • Sad - Smutný / Smutná / Smutné
  • Short - Malý / Malá / Malé 
  • Tall - Vysoký / Vysoká / Vysoké 
  • Thin - Hubený / Hubená / Hubené 
  • Fat - Tlustý / Tlustá / Tlusté
  • Young - Mladý / Mladá / Mladé 
  • Old - Starý / Stará / Staré
  • Beautiful - Krásný / Krásná / Krásné (for girls, cars, etc.)
  • Nice - hezký / hezká / hezké (boys, girls, days, etc.)

Examples

  • (Ja) jsem tlustý / I am fat (and male)
  • Ona je hubená / She is skinny
  • To auto je krásné / That car is beautiful

Want to have a try at describing yourself? or your partner? The comments are open...

 

Want Must Can

A modal verb, if like me you either weren't taught or don't remember this stuff, is an auxiliary verb that indicates likelihood, ability, permission or obligation (thanks wikipedia)

If you're starting to use your Czech you're either already using a couple of these in phrases or you are crying out for them, because they are everywhere.

So, present tense only, here are your starter three modal verbs so you can describe what you want and can or must do... Like all verbs, the ending changes based on who is the subject, me, you him, etc....

 

want

can

must

inf.

chtit

moct

muset

I / Já

chci

můžu

musím

You / Ty

chceš

můžeš

musíš

He, She / On, Ona

chce

může

musí

We / My

chceme

můžeme

musíme

You / Vy

chcete

můžete

musíte

They / Oni

chtějí

můžou

musí

Some examples then...

  • (já) chci pivo / I want beer
  • chces (ty)  pomoc? / you want help?
  • můžu (ja) zaplatit kartou? / can I pay by c ard? 
  • (ona) musí studovat / She must study
  • (já) musím jít / I must go
  • (vy) musíte zaplatit / you must pay

Negation is once again pleasantly simple just add ‘ne’ to the begining of the modal verb...

  • (já) nechci pivo / I don’t want beer
  • (ty) nechceš pomoc? / you don’t want help?
  • (já) nemuzu zaplatit kartou? / I cannot pay by card?
  • (ona) nemusí studovat / She must not study
  • (já)  nemusím jít / I must not go
  • (vy) nemusíte zaplatit / you must not pay

What do you most want for in the Czech Rep.? What must someone do while they are here? Let us know in the comments and, as always, corrections welcome.

 

That’s rád!

If you want to express a liking for something, in the pre-facebook sense of the word, then you’re probably looking for rád.

Ah, if only life were that simple, but it of course it’s not. First of all, and for reasons I don’t understand, you have a liking for nouns but you simply like verbs.

  • Ja rád piju pivo. I like to drink beer.
  • Ja mám rád chleb. I like bread.

Added to that you have the obvious complexity of gender (rád takes the gender of the subject) so...

  • male / female / neutral / plural
  • rád / ráda / rádo / rádi

So mám, máš, má, máme, máte, mají is inserted before rád, ráda, rádo, rádi for nouns based on who is the subject.

I am male so...

  • Ja mám rád pivo.

but you are female...

  • Ty máš ráda pivo.

So putting it all together with examples you get...

For Verbs

You need the correct gender form of rád based on who is the subject and then the verb in the appropriate form for the subject studuju, studuješ, etc...

  • Ja rád vařim.
  • Ona ráda běhá
  • To rádo spí.
  • Oni rádi cestujou

For Nouns

You need the correct gender form of rád, the correct form of the verb to have based on who is the subject and the noun.

  • Ja mám rád pivo.
  • Ty máš ráda pivo. (in this case you are female)
  • Vy máte rádi pivo. (you all like beer)

Mercifully once you know how to like things, not liking them is easy.

  • nerád / nerada / nerado /neradi

and this, of course is all just in the present tense!

What do you all like and not like? Let us know in the comments and, as always corrections welcome!

 

All the Colours of the Rainbow

The colours of the rainbox or barvy duhy...

Rainbow Colours

  • red - červený / červená / červené
  • orange - oranžový / oranžová / oranžové
  • yellow - žlutý / žlutá / žluté
  • green - zelený / zelená / zelené
  • blue - modrý / modrá - modré
  • indigo - indigový / indigová / indigové
  • violet - fialový / fialová / fialové

I’ve included here the list, as I was taught it in school, which I think is Newton’s list and starts with red and ends with indigo and then violet. But I’m given to understand that there might be alternative lists here in Czech, I think you might hear..

Pink

  • pink - růžový / růžová / růžové

Other useful colours (barvy)...

Other Colours

  • black - černý / černá / černé
  • white - bílý / bílá / bílé
  • grey - šedý / šedá / šedé
  • brown - hnědý / hnědá / hnědé

Did we miss your favourite colour? Let us know in the comments...

To Be or Not To Be (revisited)

An earlier post To Be Or Not To Be covered these but I wanted them in the table format that we've been using for other things, I think this has become the default layout in my head.

jsem My jsme
Ty jsi Vy jste
On / Ona je Oni jsou

 

nejsem My nejsme
Ty nejsi Vy nejste
On / Ona neni * Oni nejsou

 

* Note difference

Comments / questions? Let us know in the comments... and corrections always welcome.

Friday Caption Competition

It's back, it's Friday caption compeition time.

Steve Nelson

Photo used under a creative commons licence from flickr user marcoarment.

Create a caption for the photo in Czech. It could be a suggested title, what he's thinking, what he's saying, what someone is saying to him, etc. You get the idea.

  • Already a Czech speaker? Great, this gives you a chance to show off your wit and wisdom and give us some good (funny?) sentances to learn from.
  • Czech beginner? Great, here's a chance to start building sentences.

I'm going to start the bidding low with...

"Já nevím..."

Let's have yours in the comments...

 

Position

Quick and easy one for you today. Your five essential words for describing the position of an object in two dimensional space...

Position

  • Up / Nahoře
  • Left / Vlevo
  • In the Middle / Uprostřed
  • Right - Vpravo
  • Down - Dole
Know your levo from your pravo? Let us know in the comments... and corrections always welcome.

 

Family Members

Inspired by one of these I saw and used many years ago for Mandarin (check out how many more words there are to learn) here is a little diagram that shows all the major family members...

Czech Family Members

Click the image to see the full size version on Flickr. For easy cutting and pasting, see the full list below.

Pradědeček Great-Grandfather
Prababička Great-Grandmother
Dědeček Grandfather
Babička Grandmother
Tatínek Father
Maminka Mother
Teta Aunt
Strýc Uncle
Manžel Husband
Manželka Wife
Me
Bratr Brother
Sestra Sister
Švagr Brother-in-law
Švagrova Sister-in-law
Bratranec Cousin (m)
Sestřenice Cousin (f)
Dcera Daughter
Syn Son
Neteř Niece
Synovec Nephew
Vnučka Granddaughter
Vnuk Grandson

Anybody important in your family missing? Tvůj pes? Let us know in the comments... and corrections always welcome.