Learn how to use descriptive and superlative adjectives to talk about location
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 2 - Finding a Place to Call Home in the Czech Republic. Becky here. |
| Martin: Ahoj! I'm Martin. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about using descriptive and comparative adjectives to talk about place and location. The conversation takes place at lunch time. |
| Martin: It's between Matěj and Helena. |
| Becky: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Matěj: Konečně máme nový byt. Větší a světlejší. Jde sem hodně slunce. |
| Helena: To zní dobře. Kde přesně to je? |
| Matěj: Asi deset minut pěšky od stanice metra. Jsme jen o ulici dál než předtim. |
| Helena: Tam u tý velký křižovatky? |
| Matěj: Jo. Ale máme okna směrem do parku. Takže to není hlučný. Hned za rohem je velký supermarket. |
| Helena: To máte fajn. Ve kterým jste patře? |
| Matěj: Ve čtvrtém. |
| Helena: Někdy se přijdu podívat. |
| Matěj: Určitě přijď. Budu se těšit. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Matěj: Konečně máme nový byt. Větší a světlejší. Jde sem hodně slunce. |
| Helena: To zní dobře. Kde přesně to je? |
| Matěj: Asi deset minut pěšky od stanice metra. Jsme jen o ulici dál než předtim. |
| Helena: Tam u tý velký křižovatky? |
| Matěj: Jo. Ale máme okna směrem do parku. Takže to není hlučný. Hned za rohem je velký supermarket. |
| Helena: To máte fajn. Ve kterým jste patře? |
| Matěj: Ve čtvrtém. |
| Helena: Někdy se přijdu podívat. |
| Matěj: Určitě přijď. Budu se těšit. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Matěj: Finally, we have a new flat. Bigger and brighter. We get lots of sunshine. |
| Helena: That sounds good. Where is it exactly? |
| Matěj: About ten minutes on foot from the metro station. Just one street farther than before. |
| Helena: You mean by the big crossroad? |
| Matěj: Yes, but our windows face the park, so it's not noisy. There’s a large grocery store around the corner. |
| Helena: You’re lucky. Which floor are you on? |
| Matěj: On the fourth floor. |
| Helena: I’ll come visit at some point. |
| Matěj: Sure. I’ll look forward to it. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Martin, could you tell us something about housing in the Czech Republic? |
| Martin: The most common type of housing is flats, blocks of flats, and family houses. The most popular apartments are so-called Družstevní bydlení, or “co-operative housing.” |
| Becky: What are those exactly? |
| Martin: Each one is an entire house that has its own management, and each individual living in a flat has an equal share of the ownership of the building. |
| Becky: So that means that everyone living in the apartments pays money into a building fund and the house management takes care of house repairs, renovations, and maintenance. |
| Martin: Right. Most non co-operative housing properties are rental properties, although over the last few years there has been a trend of buying properties as an investment. |
| Becky: What about in the countryside? |
| Martin: You can mostly find family houses in the countryside. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: velký [natural native speed] |
| Becky: large, big |
| Martin: velký[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: velký [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: světlý [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bright, light |
| Martin: světlý[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: světlý [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: sem [natural native speed] |
| Becky: here, to here |
| Martin: sem[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: sem [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: kde [natural native speed] |
| Becky: where |
| Martin: kde[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: kde [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: ulice [natural native speed] |
| Becky: street |
| Martin: ulice[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: ulice [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: dál [natural native speed] |
| Becky: further, farther |
| Martin: dál[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: dál [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: tam [natural native speed] |
| Becky: there |
| Martin: tam[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: tam [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: směr [natural native speed] |
| Becky: direction |
| Martin: směr[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: směr [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: hlučný [natural native speed] |
| Becky: noisy |
| Martin: hlučný[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hlučný [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Martin: roh [natural native speed] |
| Becky: corner |
| Martin: roh[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: roh [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Martin: o ulici dál |
| Becky: meaning "farther by one street," or “one street farther.” |
| Martin: O is a preposition used in many ways. In this particular case, it’s used to express that something is farther from the current location. Ulice means "street" and dál means "further" or "farther." |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Zajít si o ulici dál. |
| Becky: ..which means "To stray further by one street. " |
| Becky: The last two words can change depending on the topic of the sentence. |
| Martin: Yes, for example you can say O centimetr míň which literally translates to “less by one centimeter.” |
| Becky: That actually means “one centimeter less,” or “one centimeter shorter.” |
| Martin: Another example is o rok starší, meaning “one year older.” |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Martin: směrem do.... |
| Becky: meaning "towards..." |
| Martin: Směr by itself means "direction" and do meaning "into, to, towards." Do is often part of another whole word referring to direction or motion, for example, dolů, which is “down,” or doleva which means “to the left.” |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using the whole phrase? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Hlavní vchod je směrem do postranní ulice. |
| Becky: .. which means "The main entry is toward the side street." |
| Martin: sometimes Do can be replaced by another preposition like k or na, which also means ''toward.” For example you can say jet směrem na Prahu. |
| Becky: ...which means “drive towards Prague.” Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Martin: hned za rohem |
| Becky: meaning "just around the corner." |
| Martin: Hned means ''immediately,'' za is a preposition meaning ''behind, around, after, beyond,'' and roh is a noun meaning ''corner.'' |
| Becky: What’s peculiar about this phrase is that it refers to a location, either literal or figurative. The literal use is when we speak about a particular place we know that is actually located around the corner from where we are. The figurative just implies that the place in question is not far away and can be reached easily. Martin, can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Počkej na mě hned za rohem. |
| Becky: .. which means "Wait for me just around the corner. " And could you also give us an example of the figurative meaning? |
| Martin: Sure, Nemusím jezdit daleko, škola je hned za rohem |
| Becky: Which means “I don't need to drive far, school is just around the corner.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about using comparative and superlative adjectives and to talk about place and location. Let’s first remember that the Czech language has two kinds of adjectives, |
| Martin: Yes, adjectives can be hard or soft, depending on the ending of the word. If they end in an accented y, ý, they’re hard adjectives, such as velký, “large,” or malý, “small.” If they end with an accented i, í, they’re soft adjectives, such as cizí “foreign,” and inteligentí, “intelligent.” |
| Becky: Adjectives also change their endings according to the gender, so masculine, feminine, or neuter, and the number of the nouns they refer to. |
| Martin: Here’s an example with the adjective “bright” in Czech, in the masculine version, světlý byt. |
| Becky: which means “bright flat.” |
| Martin: And in the feminine version, světlá kuchyň. |
| Becky: which means “bright kitchen.” |
| Martin: Please remember that the soft adjectives never change their form according to gender. |
| Becky: Ok, now let’s see how to create comparatives and superlatives. |
| Martin: It’s not difficult, since in most cases the process follows a certain rule. |
| Becky: What’s the rule for the comparatives? |
| Martin: Most adjectives have their ending changed to -ější or -ejší, and other certain very common ý-adjectives have a shorter ending, -ší. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example? |
| Martin: For example “new” is nový, and the comparative “newer” is novější. While “modern,” which is moderní, becomes modernější in its comparative form. |
| Becky: What about the exception you mentioned? |
| Martin: For example starý, which means “old,” becomes starší in its comparative form. |
| Becky: What about the superlative form? |
| Martin: The superlative is created by adding the prefix nej at the beginning of the comparative form. |
| Becky: so for example “the newest” and “the oldest” are... |
| Martin: nejnovější and nejstarší |
| Becky: Sometimes the consonants change when grading the adjectives into comparatives and superlatives. These changes are regular and you can learn them. Martin, could you give us some examples? |
| Martin: For example, ch changes into š, like for the adjective meaning “quite”, tichý. In the comparative and superlative, it changes into tišší and nejtišší. |
| Becky: Do these rules change for feminine and neuter adjectives? |
| Martin: You already know that feminine adjectives end with -a, and neuter adjectives end with -é. However, when they’re graded into comparative and superlative form, they change in exactly the same way as the masculine gender. |
| Becky: That’s good news! |
| Martin: For example, let’s consider the feminine phrase teplá barva which means “warm color.” “Warmer color” is teplejší barva and “the warmest color” is nejteplejší barva. |
| Becky: Ok. Are there any irregular comparatives and superlatives in Czech? |
| Martin: Yes, there are. For example dobrý, which means “good” becomes lepší in the comparative form and nejlepší in the superlative. |
| Becky: those respectively mean “better” and “the best.” |
| Martin:Also the adjective meaning “bad” is irregular, špatný becomes horší and nejhorší, |
| Becky: which respectively mean “worse” and “the worst.” Can we form comparatives and superlatives using words similar to the English “more” and “most?” |
| Martin: Yes, you can use více or víc to mean “more” and nejvíce or nejvíc to mean “most.” |
| Becky: All you have to do is add them before the adjective. |
| Martin: For example, víc teplý byt. |
| Becky: Which means “warmer flat.” Ok, now let’s see the second topic of this lesson, adverbs, and prepositions of location. |
| Martin: When talking about the location of buildings, there are a few prepositions and phrases that will come in handy. We already saw the phrase směrem do. |
| Becky: Which means “toward.” Can you give us some more examples? |
| Martin: Sure, for example vedle means “next to.” You can say, Bydlím hned vedle pošty. |
| Becky: meaning “I live right next to the post office.” |
| Martin: Před means “in front of” and you can say Před domem je malé parkoviště. |
| Becky: meaning “In front of the house, there is a small parking place.” Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes for a complete list of adverbs and prepositions of location. |
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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