Learn how to say what belongs to you or someone else
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 10 - Who Does this Czech Item Belong To? Michael here. |
| Martin: Ahoj. I'm Martin. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say that something belongs to someone with possessive personal pronouns. This conversation takes place at Tom and Irina's house. |
| Martin: It's between Tom, Irina, and Martin. |
| Michael: The speakers know each other, so they’ll be using informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Martin: To je tvůj dům, Tome? |
| Tomáš: Ano, pojď dál. |
| Martin: Děkuju. |
| (Haf! Haf!) |
| Martin: Jé, tohle je tvůj pes, Ireno? |
| Irena: Jo, ten je můj. |
| (Haf! Haf!) |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Martin: To je tvůj dům, Tome? |
| Tomáš: Ano, pojď dál. |
| Martin: Děkuju. |
| (Haf! Haf!) |
| Martin: Jé, tohle je tvůj pes, Ireno? |
| Irena: Jo, ten je můj. |
| (Haf! Haf!) |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Martin: Is this your house, Tomáš? |
| Tomáš: Yes, come on in. |
| Martin: Thank you. |
| (Woof! Woof!) |
| Martin: Oh, and this is your dog, Irina? |
| Irina: Yes, this is my dog. |
| (Woof! Woof!) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Martin, do Czech people like to have pets? |
| Martin: Yes, it seems so. According to research conducted in 2014, every second household in the Czech Republic has a pet. |
| Michael: That’s a lot of pets! |
| Martin: Yeah, the Czech Republic actually has the highest number of dogs and cats in Europe. |
| Michael: Are there stray dogs and cats too? |
| Martin: Yes, and they’re usually taken care of. If a stray animal is found, it’s taken in to an animal shelter and checked by a vet. |
| Michael: Do these pets get adopted easily? |
| Martin: Well, great efforts are made to find the original owners first. If the owner isn't found, the animal is taken care of until a new owner can be found. The new owner has to sign an agreement stating that he or she bears full responsibility for taking care of that animal. Also, an animal cannot be taken from the shelter as a present for someone else; the owner themselves need to be present to sign the agreement. |
| Michael: Is this process the same for cats too? |
| Martin: Well, there are also cats living in the wild, so if no previous owner is found and it is clear that the cat comes from the wild, it receives veterinary care to ensure it’s in good health and then is released back to its territory. |
| Michael: That makes sense! Can you tell us a useful expression related to pets? |
| Martin: Sure! Pozor na psa. |
| Michael: Which means "Beware of the dog." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: tvůj [natural native speed] |
| Michael: your, yours |
| Martin: tvůj[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: tvůj [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: ano [natural native speed] |
| Michael: yes |
| Martin: ano[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: ano [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: jít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to go, to enter |
| Martin: jít [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: jít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: dál [natural native speed] |
| Michael: on, onward, further |
| Martin: dál[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: dál [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: haf, haf [natural native speed] |
| Michael: woof |
| Martin: haf, haf[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: haf, haf [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: pes [natural native speed] |
| Michael: dog |
| Martin: pes[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: pes [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: jo [natural native speed] |
| Michael: yeah, yup |
| Martin: jo[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: jo [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: ten [natural native speed] |
| Michael: the, that, this |
| Martin: ten[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: ten [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Martin: Jít dál |
| Michael: meaning "To go further, to go in, to continue going or walking" |
| Martin: Literally Jít means “to go” or “to walk” and dál means “further, in, on, or onward.” When used together Jít dál is a fixed phrase that indicates the action of entering a house. You’ll also hear Pojď dál, which means “Come in!” |
| Michael: So you use this verb when inviting someone at your door to come into your home, and when encouraging someone to keep going or walking somewhere. |
| Martin: Yes, and the invitation also has an alternative version, Jít dovnitř, meaning "to go inside." You may also hear Pojď dovnitř, which is “Come inside!” |
| Michael: Can you give us an example with this phrase literally meaning ''to continue walking?” |
| Martin: Sure! Můžem jít dál |
| Michael: Which means “We can go on, we can continue walking.” Can you give us an example of what we can say to invite someone in? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Nepůjdete dál? |
| Michael: ..which means "Won't you come in?" Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: dům |
| Michael: meaning "building, house, residence, or centre." This word has several meanings because it covers different types of buildings |
| Martin: Some examples are rodinný dům for “family house”, nájemní dům for “rental house”, and kulturní dům for “culture and community centre.” You can also say Bílý dům to refer to the American “White House.” |
| Michael: Listeners, you’ll find many more uses in the lesson notes as well, so check those out. This word is very common and is used on a daily basis--especially when you're talking about somebody's house or a public place--so it’s useful to know. |
| Martin: Right. However, often in spoken language, some of the buildings that have dům in their official title are shortened to one word. For example, Kulturní dům, “culture center,” becomes kulturák, while obchodní dům, meaning “department store,” becomes obchoďák, and so on. |
| Michael: Can you give us a sample sentence using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Oni bydlí v nájemním domě. |
| Michael: .. which means "They live in a rental house." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson you'll learn how to ask whether something is someone’s possession. You'll learn how to express ownership with possessive pronouns, which in Czech are subject to singular and plural declension cases. |
| Martin: Possessives in a sentence can serve the same function as an adjective would, either by replacing it or adding it to an existent adjective. For example, můj dům means “my house.” Possessives can also act as a noun in sentences where they are at the end, for example, ten mobil je můj, |
| Michael: “That mobile phone is mine.” So the English “my” or “mine” has only one form in Czech? |
| Martin: Yes, that is můj |
| Michael: However, this word, as well as other Czech possessive pronouns, is subject to seven cases of declension and the form of these possessives changes according to each case and also gender. |
| Martin: Right, Czech has three different genders - masculine, feminine and neuter. |
| Michael: Please keep in mind that in Czech, the gender depends on the owned things’ noun’s gender, not on the owner’s gender. Now let’s list these possessive pronouns. |
| Martin: Ok let’s start with “I,” which is já in Czech. “My” or “mine” can be můj for the masculine nouns and moje both for feminine and neuter nouns. |
| Michael: Then comes the second person singular “you.” |
| Martin: This is ty, and “your, yours” corresponds to tvůj for the masculine nouns tvoje for both feminine and neuter nouns. |
| Michael: “You” also has a formal and polite version, right? |
| Martin: Yes, it’s Vy. It corresponds to the plural version, but when written, it needs a capital letter at the beginning. In this case “your,” or “yours” is Váš for the masculine nouns and Vaše for both feminine and neuter nouns. |
| Michael: Next we have “he, she, it.” |
| Martin: This is on, ona, ono. For both on and ono the possessive is always jeho. For the feminine ona, the possessive is always její. |
| Michael: Ok, now let’s see the plural. |
| Martin: “We” is my and “our, ours” is náš and naše for both feminine and neuter nouns. |
| Michael: So “you” plural is like the polite form for “you.” |
| Martin: Right! “They” translates with oni and “their, theirs” is always jejich. |
| Michael: Is there a possessive to use when referring to “one’s own”? |
| Martin: Yes, the possessive related to “oneself,” when the possessor of the thing in question is the subject of the sentence, is svůj |
| Michael: Also in this case it has to be conjugated to match with the noun, right? |
| Martin: Yes. Here is an example. Já nemám svůj kabát. |
| Michael: This means “I don’t have my coat.” |
| Martin: Here’s a different one. Ona nemá své naušnice. Note that svůj has changed into své |
| Michael: This means “She doesn’t have her earrings.” Listeners, check out the lesson notes for more examples. Now, let’s see how to make the question ‘’whose is the...’’ |
| Martin: For this, you need to use the interrogative pronoun čí. |
| Michael: An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun used in order to ask a question. |
| Martin: There are five basic interrogative pronouns in the Czech language- kdo |
| Michael: meaning "who” |
| Martin: co |
| Michael: “what” |
| Martin: který |
| Michael: “which” |
| Martin: jaký |
| Michael: “what kind of” |
| Martin: čí |
| Michael: “whose.” Let’s see some examples. |
| Martin: This is simple, because it doesn’t change. For example, Čí je to pes? |
| Michael: “Whose dog is this?” |
| Martin: Similarly, with the plural, we can say Čí jsou to psi? |
| Michael: “Whose dogs are these?” The interrogative remains the same for all three genders. |
| Martin: This is usually the case with pronouns, such as the demonstrative ones. They are ten for masculine nouns, ta for feminine nouns, or to for neuter nouns, |
| Michael: All three correspond to the English “that” or “those.” Let’s see some practical examples. |
| Martin: Here’s an example similar to the one we saw before. Čí je ten pes? |
| Michael:“Whose dog is that?” |
| Martin: It also changes if the noun is plural. Čí jsou ti psi? |
| Michael: “Whose dogs are these?” |
| Martin: In colloquial language ti, the plural masculine and ta, the plural neuter, are both replaced by ty. |
| Michael: So the same sentence, “Whose dogs are these?”, would sound like, |
| Martin:Čí jsou ty psi? |
| Michael: Let’s wrap up this lesson with some sample sentences. |
| Martin: Sure! Tohle je jeho deštník. |
| Michael: "This is his umbrella." |
| Martin: Ta taška je její. |
| Michael:"This bag is hers. " |
| Martin:Tamhle je jejich dítě. |
| Michael:"Over there is their child. " |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Martin: Děkuji. |
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