Learn how to ask about someone's age
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 17 - Asking About Ages in Czech. Michael here. |
| Martin: Ahoj. I'm Martin. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn about using numbers in context and telling someone your age. This conversation takes place at Tom and Irina's house. |
| Martin: It's between 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: Hele, Ireno, kde máš malou Sáru? |
| Irena: Ta je tady. |
| Martin: (tichým hlasem) Jé, ta je roztomilá! Taková malinká, že? Kolik jí je? |
| Irena: Zatim jen jeden rok. (Sara začne plakat) |
| Martin: Ježiš, promiň! Jsme moc hlučný? To mě mrzí! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Martin: Hele, Ireno, kde máš malou Sáru? |
| Irena: Ta je tady. |
| Martin: (tichým hlasem) Jé, ta je roztomilá! Taková malinká, že? Kolik jí je? |
| Irena: Zatim jen jeden rok. (Sara začne plakat) |
| Martin: Ježiš, promiň! Jsme moc hlučný? To mě mrzí! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Martin: Hey, Irina, where's your little baby Sarah? |
| Irena: She's over here. |
| Martin: (in a soft voice) Ah, how cute! She's so small, isn't she. How old is she? |
| Irena: She's one year old. (Sarah starts to cry) |
| Martin: Oh, I'm sorry, so sorry! Are we loud? I'm sorry! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Martin, do Czech families have many children? |
| Martin: In the Czech Republic the typical family has only two children. |
| Michael: Nowadays in many countries having two children would mean having a large family... |
| Martin: And it’s actually the same in the Czech Republic. According to statistics on families in the Czech Republic, the number of children per family has dropped to 1.5 on average. |
| Michael: One reason is the increasing age of first-time mothers and the tendency among young people to postpone having a family. |
| Martin: That’s right! The probability of giving birth to a third or even fourth child in the Czech Republic seems to be extremely low. |
| Michael: Are there any useful words or expressions we should learn here? |
| Martin: If a friend of yours has a child, you may want to say Blahopřejeme k narození dítěte. |
| Michael: Meaning "Congratulations to the newborn baby." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: hele [natural native speed] |
| Michael: hey, look |
| Martin: hele[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hele [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: kde [natural native speed] |
| Michael: where |
| Martin: kde[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: kde [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: mít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to have |
| Martin: mít[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: mít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: malinkej [natural native speed] |
| Michael: tiny, very small |
| Martin: malinkej[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: malinkej [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: kolik [natural native speed] |
| Michael: how many, what time |
| Martin: kolik[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: kolik [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: zatim [natural native speed] |
| Michael: while, meantime, so far, for the time being, till now |
| Martin: zatim[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: zatim [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: začít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to start, to begin, to commence, to embark |
| Martin: začít[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: začít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: plakat [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to cry, to weep |
| Martin: plakat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: plakat [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: hlučný [natural native speed] |
| Michael: noisy, loud |
| Martin: hlučný[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hlučný [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 word is.. |
| Martin: zatím |
| Michael: meaning "in the mean time,” “meanwhile,” “while,” “for the time being,” “so far,” “till now,” or “as yet." |
| Martin: Zatím is an adverb and can be used in many different situations. For example, when leaving someone in a casual way you can say tak zatím... |
| Michael: which means “bye for now,” or “see you.” |
| Martin: Or when you’re expressing that something has not yet been finished or done, you can say Zatím ne |
| Michael: meaning “Not yet.” Can you give us a sample sentence using this word in a sentence? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Zatím si tu odložím. |
| Michael: ..which means "Meanwhile I'll take off my coat. " Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: hlučný |
| Michael: meaning "noisy,” or “loud." |
| Martin: The related noun, “noisiness,” is hlučnost and you need to use it when you’re referring to the noise level. For example, nadměrná hlučnost, |
| Michael: which means “noise pollution.” Can you give us an example using this adjective? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. To je strašně hlučná motorka. |
| Michael: .. which means "That's a terribly noisy motorbike." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: plakat |
| Michael: meaning "to cry, to weep,” or “to sob." |
| Martin: Plakat is an imperfective verb. |
| Michael: It’s imperfective in the sense that the verb doesn’t refer to the completion of crying. |
| Martin: Plakat refers to an action in progress and appears also in some idioms, such as plakat nad rozlitým mlékem |
| Michael: Which is the same as the English, “crying over spilt milk.” Martin, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tak už neplač! |
| Michael: .. which means "C'mon, stop crying!" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson you'll learn how to ask about somebody's age and how to tell someone yours in Czech. So Martin, what’s the question that almost nobody over thirty likes to hear? |
| Martin: (laughs) There are two ways to ask about age in spoken Czech language, and they are [clearly pronounced] Kolik ti je let? and Kolik ti je roku? |
| Michael: Both of them mean “How old are you?” or literally, "How many years are there to you?" |
| Martin: The question consists of kolik, |
| Michael: which means both "how many" and "how much," |
| Martin: Right, then comes ti je, which is the dative case of the second-person singular and the conjugated verb být “to be,” and at the end the noun roků or let. |
| Michael: Both of which mean “years.” What should you say when you are asking about a third party? |
| Martin: As in the dialogue, we could say Kolik je jí let? |
| Michael: which means "How old is she?" in reference to Irena’s daughter. |
| Martin: In the question Kolik je jí let? the only thing that changes is the pronoun, jí, which is the dative case of ona, “she.” |
| Michael: Does the question change in a formal context? |
| Martin: To make our question formal, the best way is to use the polite form Vám, meaning “to you,” and we can add formal forms of address such as pán, meaning “sir,” or paní meaning “madam.” [clearly pronounced] So it’s Pane, kolik je Vám let? |
| Michael: meaning "How old are you, sir?" Next, let’s talk about how to give your age in Czech. |
| Martin: To give your age, you use the expression mě je, literally meaning “to me it is,” and then your age. For example [clearly pronounced] Mě je dvacet osm roků, |
| Michael: Literally “to me it is twenty eight years.” |
| Martin: The structure is always the same, for example, mě je sedm roků |
| Michael: “I’m seven years old” |
| Martin: mě je dvanáct roků |
| Michael: “I’m twelve years old,” and so on. With Czech numbers, however, the use of the word “years” differs according to the number of years. |
| Martin: When you say your age in Czech, you can either use the form rok or roků or the form let. |
| Michael: Is there a rule as to which one to use? |
| Martin: Yes, for one we have to say, rok or jeden rok, |
| Michael: meaning “one year.” |
| Martin: “Two, three,” or “four years” always translates to dva, tři, or čtyři roky respectively while for five or more years we can use roků or let, |
| Michael: which also mean “years.” |
| Martin: Actually, adding rok, roků, or let at the end is optional. |
| Michael: Even without these words, the sentence still sounds complete and understandable. |
| Martin: Right, for example in the dialogue we had Kolik jí je? |
| Michael: meaning “How old is she?” but literally translated is ''how many is to her?'' Ok, wrapping up, let’s give some sample sentences. |
| Martin: Sure thing, here is one Kolik let je tvému synovi? |
| Michael: "How old is your son?" |
| Martin: And Mamince je sedmdesát sedm let. |
| Michael: "My mom is seventy-seven." |
| Martin:Finally, Nedávno mi bylo osmnáct let. |
| Michael: "I was eighteen just recently." Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples and information. |
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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