Learn how to ask and answer the question, "What time is it?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 19 - What Time is it in the Czech Republic? Michael here. |
| Martin: Ahoj. I'm Martin. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about the time. This conversation takes place in Tom's car. They are on the way to meet Martin. |
| Martin: It's between Tom and Irena. |
| Michael: The speakers are husband and wife, so they’ll be using informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Irena: Tome, v kolik hodin přesně se máme sejít s Martinem? |
| Tomáš: V 10:30. |
| Irena: A kolik je teď hodin? |
| Tomáš: Teď je 10:25. Tak rychle, nebo tam přijdem pozdě. |
| Irena: Hele, támhle je! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Irena: Tome, v kolik hodin přesně se máme sejít s Martinem? |
| Tomáš: V 10:30. |
| Irena: A kolik je teď hodin? |
| Tomáš: Teď je 10:25. Tak rychle, nebo tam přijdem pozdě. |
| Irena: Hele, támhle je! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Irena: Tom, what time exactly was the meeting with Martin? |
| Tomáš: It's at 10.30. |
| Irena: And what's the time now? |
| Tomáš: It's 10.25 now. Hurry up so that we won't be late. |
| Irena: Oh, there he is! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Martin, are Czech people punctual? |
| Martin: Generally speaking, Czech people like to be on time. If they set up a meeting with somebody, they won't fail to get there as promised. |
| Michael: How much of a delay will people tolerate? |
| Martin: About ten or fifteen minutes at most. People generally won’t be an hour late.. that would be perceived as very rude. |
| Michael: So, like in many other countries in the world, if you need to be late for some reason, or if you can't make an appointment for a valid reason, you better get in touch and explain. Is there a useful sentence we should learn here? |
| Martin: You can say Budu mít spoždění deset minut. |
| Michael: meaning "I will be ten minutes late. " Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: kolik [natural native speed] |
| Michael: how much, how many, what time |
| Martin: kolik[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: kolik [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: hodina [natural native speed] |
| Michael: hour |
| Martin: hodina[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hodina [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: přesně [natural native speed] |
| Michael: exactly, precisely, accurately, spot on, punctually |
| Martin: přesně[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: přesně [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: sejít se [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to meet up, to get together, to coincide |
| Martin: sejít se[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: sejít se [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: teď [natural native speed] |
| Michael: now |
| Martin: teď[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: teď [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: tak [natural native speed] |
| Michael: so, well, well then, about, some |
| Martin: tak [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: tak [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: rychle [natural native speed] |
| Michael: fast, quickly, rapidly, swiftly, promptly, hastily |
| Martin: rychle[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: rychle [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: přijít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to come |
| Martin: přijít[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: přijít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: pozdě [natural native speed] |
| Michael: late, tardily |
| Martin: pozdě[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: pozdě [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: rychle |
| Michael: meaning "fast,” “quickly,” “swiftly,” or “promptly." You use this adverb to talk about rate of speed or motion, or even when you’re talking about someone’s reaction to something. Martin, can you give us a couple of examples using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say..rychle odpověďět |
| Michael: Meaning “Reply promptly.” |
| Martin: or Snadno a rychle. |
| Michael: ..which means “Quickly and easily.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: přijít |
| Michael: meaning "to come, to arrive, to get, to reach, to be delivered,” or “to figure out." |
| Martin: Přijít is a perfective verb. |
| Michael: It occurs in many different contexts and can have various translations in English. Let’s give a few examples. |
| Martin: přijít na návštěvu |
| Michael: “to come over for a visit” |
| Martin: přisly noviny |
| Michael: “The newspapers have been delivered.” |
| Martin: To use it in a totally different way, you can say Přišel jsem na to! |
| Michael: .. which means “I have figured it out!” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: pozdě |
| Michael: meaning "late, tardily" |
| Martin: It can be used both in terms of delay and in terms of a late time. |
| Michael: Please give us an example for both. |
| Martin: Sure. You can say Promiňte, že jdu pozdě, |
| Michael:“I'm sorry I'm late.” |
| Martin: Or you can say Je pozdě, půjdem |
| Michael: “It's late now, let's go.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson you'll learn how to talk about time in Czech. |
| Martin: Let’s start with the question [clearly pronounced] kolik je hodin? |
| Michael: This means “What time is it?” but literally translated is ''How many hours it is now?” |
| Martin: Kolik means ''how many'' or “how much.” We can also say Kolik je teď hodin?, |
| Michael: meaning ‘’what is the time now?’’ What might the answer be? |
| Martin: Teď je 10 hodin |
| Michael: “It is now ten o'clock.” |
| Martin: or Už je půlnoc! |
| Michael: “It's midnight already!” Let’s take a closer look at these expressions. |
| Martin: An important element in the question kolik je hodin? is the verb být, meaning "to be." |
| Michael: We’ve already seen it in other lessons, so let’s give the complete conjugation. Martin will say the Czech version and I will give the translation. |
| Martin: já jsem |
| Michael: “I am” |
| Martin: ty jsi or colloquially seš |
| Michael: “you are” |
| Martin: ten/ ta/ to je |
| Michael: “he, she, or it is” |
| Martin: my jsme |
| Michael: “we are” |
| Martin: vy jste |
| Michael: “you are” |
| Martin: oni jsou |
| Michael: “they are” |
| Martin: To recap, in the dialogue we had the question kolik je teď hodin? |
| Michael: Let’s break it down. |
| Martin: First comes kolik, which literally means "how much." Next is the verb je, meaning "it is" and which is the verb být conjugated in the third person singular. Next in line is ted, which simply means “now”, and lastly we have the noun hodin, |
| Michael: which literally means "hours" in English. Martin, is there a difference between the formal and informal way to ask this? |
| Martin: In an informal setting, you can also use [clearly pronounced] kolik je? On the other hand in a formal setting, it’s better to add promiňte at the beginning of the question, Promiňte, kolik je hodin?, |
| Michael: Which means "Excuse me, what time is it?" Now let’s talk about how to answer this question. In the Czech Republic, both the twelve hour and twenty-four hour clock systems are used. If you check the lesson notes, you’ll find a table with the twenty-four hour clock. |
| Martin: There are two ways of answering the question —you can state the time only, or start with je, meaning "it is," and then say the time, such as Je 12:20. |
| Michael: meaning "It's 12:20 p.m." |
| Martin: There is one thing you have to pay attention to. |
| Michael: Unlike English, when you say the time in Czech, the form of the hour is different depending on the singular or plural number, though in the case of minutes there's no change. So as long as you master numbers in their plain forms and the nouns referring to the hours, you’ll have no problem talking about time. Can you tell us the different forms of the nouns? |
| Martin: When referring to one, you can have hodina to mean “one hour” and minuta to mean“one minute.” |
| Michael: Then we have two, three, and four. |
| Martin: For these, we have to use hodiny or minuty. Lastly for five and above we use hodin and minut. |
| Michael: Let’s give a pair of examples, |
| Martin: čtyři hodiny |
| Michael: meaning "four a.m." |
| Martin: šestnáct hodin |
| Michael: which means "four p.m.," literally “sixteen hours.” Martin, is there more than one way to say 6:04 p.m.? |
| Martin: Yes, you can say either šest nula čtyři odpoledne, where odpoledne means “p.m.” or osmnáct čtyři |
| Michael: Is there a word for “a.m.” too? |
| Martin: Yes, it’s dopoledne. |
| Michael: Listeners, you'll find more examples and a complete table with numbers in the lesson notes. |
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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