Learn how to use the past tenses of the verb "to be" and other imperfective verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 16 - How Was Your Czech Vacation? Becky Here. |
| Martin: Ahoj! I'm Martin. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to master the past tense of “to be” and the past tense of imperfective verbs. The conversation takes place at home. |
| Martin: It's between Jitka and Matěj. |
| Becky: The speakers are family members, therefore, they will speak informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Matěj: Tak jak se vám líbilo minulý týden na dovolené u moře? |
| Jitka: Jo, dobrý to bylo. |
| Jitka: Byl tam krásný písek a moře bylo dost čistý. |
| Jitka: Malej Filip sbíral škeble na pláži a běhal do vody. Ani nechtěl domů. |
| Matěj: Byl poprvé u moře? |
| Jitka: Ne, už jsme byli loni, když jsme jeli do Německa. |
| Matěj: Včera jsem četl o hudebním festivalu co tam byl. Nešli jste se podívat? |
| Jitka: Nemohli jsme, neměli jsme lístky. |
| Jitka: Ale Filipovi se na pláži libilo a hudbu bylo slyšet i tam. |
| Matěj: Tak jste měli prima dovolenou. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Matěj: Tak jak se vám líbilo minulý týden na dovolené u moře? |
| Jitka: Jo, dobrý to bylo. |
| Jitka: Byl tam krásný písek a moře bylo dost čistý. |
| Jitka: Malej Filip sbíral škeble na pláži a běhal do vody. Ani nechtěl domů. |
| Matěj: Byl poprvé u moře? |
| Jitka: Ne, už jsme byli loni, když jsme jeli do Německa. |
| Matěj: Včera jsem četl o hudebním festivalu co tam byl. Nešli jste se podívat? |
| Jitka: Nemohli jsme, neměli jsme lístky. |
| Jitka: Ale Filipovi se na pláži libilo a hudbu bylo slyšet i tam. |
| Matěj: Tak jste měli prima dovolenou. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Matěj: So how did you like the holiday at the seaside last week? |
| Jitka: Yeah, it was good. |
| Jitka: There was nice sand and the sea was pretty clean. |
| Jitka: Little Filip was picking pebbles on the beach and running into the water. He didn't even want to go home. |
| Matěj: It was his first time by the sea? |
| Jitka: No, we went last year when we went to Germany. |
| Matěj: Yesterday I read about a music festival. Did you go see it? |
| Jitka: We couldn't. We had no tickets. But Filip liked it on the beach and we heard the music from even there. |
| Matěj: So you had a fine holiday. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It sounds like they had a nice family vacation. |
| Martin: Yes, there are many places in the Czech Republic that are good for family vacations. |
| Becky: Where do you recommend? |
| Martin: South and central Czech Republic are popular. You can rent a cottage and surround yourself with nature. |
| Becky: Sounds relaxing! Are there any places in particular? |
| Martin: There is Šumava, a mountain area with a National Park, and Vltava. Vltava has an amusement park, beaches, and long cycling paths. |
| Becky: When do families go on vacation? When are the busy seasons? |
| Martin: The busy seasons are school vacations. School starts on September 1st and ends on the last day of June. |
| Becky: So that makes the July and August period prime vacation time for families. |
| Martin: Yes, especially the first three weeks in July. |
| Becky: What other school vacations are there? |
| Martin: There are 3 days in autumn, 10 days in winter, 7 days in the spring, and then summer vacation. |
| Becky: Wow, lucky kids! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Martin: minulý [natural native speed] |
| Becky: last |
| Martin: minulý[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: minulý [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: týden [natural native speed] |
| Becky: week |
| Martin: týden[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: týden [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: líbit se [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to like, to enjoy |
| Martin: líbit se[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: líbit se [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: moře [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sea |
| Martin: moře[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: moře [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: sbírat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to collect, to pick |
| Martin: sbírat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: sbírat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: běhat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to run |
| Martin: běhat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: běhat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: poprvé [natural native speed] |
| Becky: for the first time |
| Martin: poprvé[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: poprvé [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Martin: loni [natural native speed] |
| Becky: last year |
| Martin: loni[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: loni [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: včera [natural native speed] |
| Becky: yesterday |
| Martin: včera[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: včera [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Martin: dovolená [natural native speed] |
| Becky: holidays |
| Martin: dovolená[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: dovolená [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Martin: minulý týden |
| Becky: meaning "last week." What can you tell us about this word? |
| Martin: Minulý means "past” or “last,” and týden means "week." |
| Becky: Can we change the second word to mean other things that are “past” or “last?” |
| Martin: Yes, you can. For example, you can say minulý čas. |
| Becky: Which means “past tense.” |
| Martin: You can use it with other time words, such as “month” and “year.” |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this pattern? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say, Obrázek z minulého století. |
| Becky: ...which means "A picture from the last century." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: loni |
| Becky: meaning "last year." What can you tell us about this word? |
| Martin: Loni is a shorter version of minulý rok, which means "last year." |
| Becky: What class of word is it? |
| Martin: It’s an adverb, but it can also be used as a noun. |
| Becky: Does it always stand alone, as a single word? |
| Martin: You can attach it to other nouns, and make phrases, like “last year in summer.” |
| Becky: Can you give us another example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say, Loni napadlo hodně sněhu. |
| Becky: .. .which means, "Last winter there was much snow." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: včera |
| Becky: meaning "yesterday." |
| Martin: Včera is an adverb. |
| Becky: Is it only used to refer to “yesterday?” |
| Martin: Yes, but sometimes it’s easier to translate it as “last.” |
| Becky: What do you mean? |
| Martin: Včera v noci means “yesterday at night.” |
| Becky: Ah, so we’d usually just say “last night.” Can you give us another example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say, Včera jsem usnul už v devět hodin. |
| Becky: ...which means "Last night, I fell asleep already at nine." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to master the past tense of “to be” and the past tense of imperfective verbs. Let’s start with the past tense of “to be.” |
| Martin: Making the past tense in Czech is relatively easy as all verbs follow the same pattern. Like the present tense, how the verb is conjugated shows the gender of the subject. |
| Becky: Okay. So let’s go through a couple of examples using “to be.” |
| Martin: The infinite form is být. To make the masculine form, take away the -t and add -l. Byl. |
| Becky: For comparison, what is the feminine form? |
| Martin: Take away the -t and add -la. Byla. If you’re making a sentence in first or second person, you also need to add the auxiliary verb být in its conjugated form. |
| Becky: Let’s hear an example sentence or two. How about “I was on the beach,” first in masculine, and then in feminine. |
| Martin: Já jsem byl na pláži. Já jsem byla na pláži. |
| Becky: There are more examples in the lesson notes. Next, let’s look at the past tense of imperfective verbs. In Czech, the past tense is used for all three of the different past tenses that exist in English. To show the difference between simple past and past continuous, Czech uses perfective and imperfective verbs. |
| Martin: The conjugations are the same as before. Dělat means “to do.” The masculine form is on dělal, and ona dělala is the feminine. |
| Becky: So “I was doing” would be… |
| Martin: já jsem dělal or já jsem dělala. Be careful, because with some verbs, the vowel sounds shorten when they are in the past tense. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example of that? Let’s look at the verb “to lie” and it’s past tense “lied.” |
| Martin: They would be lhát and lhal, respectively. |
| Becky: Again, there are more examples of how the vowel sounds shorten in the lesson notes. |
| Martin: Finally, let’s look at the locative case. This is always used after a preposition. |
| Becky: We use prepositions to talk about the location of someone or something. They are words such as “in,” “on,” et cetera. |
| Martin: When using a noun in locative case, the ending will change according to the last consonant. There is a table in the lesson notes, although there are exceptions. |
| Becky: Can you give us some examples of nouns in locative case and their commonly used prepositions? |
| Martin: Sure. The nominative form of “bank” is banka. We can say, v bance. |
| Becky: This means “in the bank.” The preposition is first, and then the locative version of bank. How about “at the train station.” |
| Martin: Na stanici. Stanice is the nominative for “station.” |
| Becky: Maybe it’d be better to remember some of these as set phrases, rather than learn all of the conjugation rules. |
| Martin: For some people it will be, but I think some people like to know the rules. |
| Becky: Whichever you choose, you’ll find answers in the lesson notes! |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Martin: Čau. |
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