I was sitting out in the hall waiting for my Czech class to begin and trying to ignore a sore throat when an instructor in German came along. She noticed my Czech grammar book and asked me if Czech was a difficult language to learn. It struck me then and there; everything is relative. On the sliding, sore throat scale, German is definitely harder to speak than Czech, even with its letter ‚ch‘. I suppose the nasally French language may be the most soothing of all but I never took that language so I’ll have to make the typical ‚gallic‘ shrug on that one.
A ‚simple‘ formula for constructing a sentence in Czech:
- pick a verb, any verb. Sip it, hold it in your mouth a moment; savor it. Does it have good ‚legs‘; does it decline well. You don’t want one of those hybrid verbs, half conjugation type 1 and half type 3 (probably should call these renegade verbs). And definitely stay away from the ‚landmine‘ verbs whose declined stem does not even look like the infinitive.
- Decline the verb to fit the subject. Pretty easy so far, isn’t it. …. [but do I put an emphatic pronoun in front there?]. Hmmm. How emphatic do I feel today? I could start an emotional roller coaster here. If I‘m selfish I‘m likely talking about me so I must remember if I am writing about me [-ujui] or speaking about me [-uju]. All very properly important when ‚I‘ am the subject.
- Pick a tense. Uh oh, wait a minute. Back up! Am I feeling perfective or imperfective today? Oh no, this could be a headache. Am I going to have a headache once or many times or, conversely, did I have one once or many times (or a very long one, not over quickly enough to rate being perfect). Oh my. At least I know that I cannot be having a headache right now and be anything but imperfect (ive). Maybe just delay that tense decision because we have a new problem. Is this going to be a verb of motion or not? OK, skip the verb for now.
- Pick a noun and one or more brilliant, descriptive adjectives to brighten the noun‘s day. Think of words like . . . . wait, I don’t know any of those in Czech. Better keep these adjectives simple. Match whatever poor unimaginative adjectives you know to the gender of the noun (does a worm have a gender? Sorry, just wondering). Match the case of the noun applying endings like –ach, -ech, -ich, -ych or, tiring of those, make some up like –uch.
- Now that you have done all of that, you notice that the earth has made a complete circuit of the sun, the person you were talking to in the first place has had their first child and you have a very long beard.
- So, go back to basics, continue in school to learn this language and use simple sentences like, Jsem!
CR: Sedel jsem ve skole na chodbe pred nasi tridou ,cekal jsem, az mi zacne hodina cestiny a snazil jsem se co nejvice ignorovat mou bolest v krku, kdyz me najednou oslovil ucitel nemciny. Zrejme uvidel mou ucebnici cestiny a zeptal se me, zda-li je to tezky jazyk. A neco me koplo do palice: vsechno je relativni. Jelikoz me boli v krku, nemcina se ted zda definitvne tezsi. Francouzstina je pravdepodobne nejprijemnejsi jazyk co se tyce poslechu, ale ja jsem se ji nikdy neucil, tak nad ni muzu pouze lajcky pokrcit rameny.
Jednoducha rovnice, jak sestavit vetu v cestine je:
1. Vyberte si jakekoliv sloveso. Usrkavejte ho, proplachnete si ho v puse, proste si ho chvilku vychutnavejte: je stabilni? Casuje se dobre? Urcite si nevyberte jedno z tech “hybridu”, ktere maji dvoji casovaci zpusob. Take obejdete obloukem ta slovesa, tzv. “nacasovane bomby”, u kterych koren slova ani trosicku nepripomina jejich infinitiv.
2. Vycasujte si toto vybrane sloveso, aby se spravne hodilo k vasemu podmetu. Zatim to neni tak tezke, ze? Ale mel bych tam asi hodit nejake to zduraznujici zajmeno. Hmmm….Jak “durazne” se dneska citim? Mohl bych se vam tu opravdu “pustit od retezu”: jestilze jsem sobec, tak pravdepodobne budu mluvit o sobe, tak si tedy muism pamatovat ze koncovka asi bude -uji. To je vsechno hrozne dulezite, kdyz mluvim o sobe!
3. Vyberte si cas. Ne, pockejte! To si musime poradne rozmyslet! Citim se dnes “perfektne” nebo “neperfektne”? Pane na nebi, z toho by me mohla zacit bolet hlava. Bude me bolet hlava jen jednou, nebo vickrat, nebo naopak, uz me hlava bolela, nebo bolivala (a byla to bolest velmi dlouha, ktera neskoncila dostatecne brzy, abych ten cas mohl nazyvat “perfektnim”?). No to je teda bordel. Alespon ze vim, ze nemohu mit bolesti hlavy v pritomnosti a tedy byti “neperfektnim” (casem). Mozna, ze casovani necham na pozdeji protoze tu mame jiny problem. Bude to sloveso pohybove? Tak to sloveso radsi pro zatim vynechame.
4. Vyberte si podstatne jmeno a take jedno nebo vice zajimavych jmen pridavnych, aby bylo tomu podstatnemu jmenu veseleji. Premyslejte o slovech jako….pockejte, vzdyt ja je v cestine vubec neznam! Radsi nechame tyto pridavna jmena co nejjednodussi. Proste dejte dohromady jakkakoliv pridavna jmena co v cestine znate, ale aby se hodily k rodu vaseho podstatneho jmena (ma slovo “cerv” vubec nejaky rod? Jen bych to tak ze zajimavosti vedel…).
5. Ted kdyz jste konecne vsechno dokoncil, zjistite, ze se jiz Zeme parkrat otocila kolem slunce, osoba s kterou jste se dal do reci pokrtila sve prvorozene dite a vam narostly dlouhatanske vousy.
6. Tak se vratte k zakladum cestiny, nadale se ucte a pouzivejte jednoduche vety jako “Jsem”!
Loading ...