Learn how to use the present active participle with imperfective verbs to talk about the weather
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 6 - You Can Always Talk About the Weather in Czech! Becky here. |
| Martin: Ahoj! I'm Martin. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the present active participle with imperfective verbs to talk to a friend about severe weather. The conversation takes place at home. |
| Martin: It's between Jitka and Matěj. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends, so they’ll use informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jitka: Slyšel jsi předpověď počasí? Pořád neustalý a vydatný déšť. |
| Matěj: Jo, slyšel. Jen liják a silný vítr. |
| Jitka: Hladiny řek se zvedají. Hrozí povodně. |
| Matěj: Vím, je to špatný. |
| Jitka: V některých městech už probíhá evakuace lidí. |
| Matěj: No nazdar. Tak to u nás asi zaplaví centrum města. |
| Jitka: Musíme být v pohotovosti, kdyby se to zhoršilo. |
| Matěj: Jo. Hlavně ať se nikdo neutopí! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jitka: Slyšel jsi předpověď počasí? Pořád neustalý a vydatný déšť. |
| Matěj: Jo, slyšel. Jen liják a silný vítr. |
| Jitka: Hladiny řek se zvedají. Hrozí povodně. |
| Matěj: Vím, je to špatný. |
| Jitka: V některých městech už probíhá evakuace lidí. |
| Matěj: No nazdar. Tak to u nás asi zaplaví centrum města. |
| Jitka: Musíme být v pohotovosti, kdyby se to zhoršilo. |
| Matěj: Jo. Hlavně ať se nikdo neutopí! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Jitka: Have you heard the weather forecast? Still heavy non-stop rain. |
| Matěj: Yeah, I did. Just a downpour and strong wind. |
| Jitka: The water level of rivers is rising. There is a threat of floods. |
| Matěj: I know. It's bad. |
| Jitka: In some cities people are already being evacuated. |
| Matěj: Blimey. So we might get flooded in the city center. |
| Jitka: We have to be on alert, in case it gets worse. |
| Matěj: Right. I hope nobody drowns! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Martin, is the rain really that heavy in the Czech Republic? |
| Martin: Yes, “torrential rainfalls,” or prudké dešťové srážky, sometimes happen during summer. For example, in 2002 the entire Prague Metro system flooded. |
| Becky: Oh, I remember seeing that on the news. What about the climate in general? |
| Martin: In general, the Czech Republic has a mild climate. |
| Becky: What are the average temperatures? |
| Martin: In winter the temperature is between -1 to -5 degrees celsius, but in the mountains it’s much lower. Summers are quite warm, especially in the cities, where it can reach 30 degrees. |
| 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: předpověď [natural native speed] |
| Becky: forecast |
| Martin: předpověď[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: předpověď [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: liják [natural native speed] |
| Becky: downpour |
| Martin: liják[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: liják [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: hladina [natural native speed] |
| Becky: water level |
| Martin: hladina[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hladina [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: hrozit [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to threaten |
| Martin: hrozit[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: hrozit [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: povodeň [natural native speed] |
| Becky: water flood |
| Martin: povodeň[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: povodeň [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: evakuace [natural native speed] |
| Becky: evacuation |
| Martin: evakuace[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: evakuace [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: řeka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: river |
| Martin: řeka[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: řeka [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: zaplavit [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to flood, to swamp |
| Martin: zaplavit[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: zaplavit [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: pohotovost [natural native speed] |
| Becky: alert, readiness |
| Martin: pohotovost[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: pohotovost [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Martin: utopit se [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to drown oneself |
| Martin: utopit se[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: utopit se [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: zvedat se |
| Becky: meaning "to be rising up,” or “to increase." |
| Martin: zvedat is an imperfective verb. |
| Becky: You can use this phrase for talking about a rising level or when indicating that someone is getting up. |
| Martin: Right, for example you can say zvedat se ze židle. |
| Becky: which means “to stand up from a chair.” Can you give us another example that refers to a rising level? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Zvedá se vítr. |
| Becky: ..which means "The wind is rising." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: probíhat |
| Becky: meaning "to take place." Also, this verb has many different meanings. Let’s give some examples. |
| Martin: For example, you can say Na letišti probíhá stávka |
| Becky: which means “There’s a strike going on at the airport” |
| Martin: Na kolejích probíhají opravy |
| Becky: “Railway repairs are underway” |
| Martin: You can also use it to indicate motion, for example, Běžec probíhá finálním úsekem. |
| Becky: “The runner is passing the final part” |
| Martin: Another example is Soutěž probíhá hladce. |
| Becky: .. which means "The competition is going smoothly." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Martin: být v pohotovosti |
| Becky: meaning "to be on alert." |
| Martin: být, means ''to be,'' the preposition v means “in,” and the noun pohotovost “alert.” |
| Becky: This noun can also mean “emergency,” “ambulance,” or “casualty.” So the phrase can be used in terms of an army or soldiers to mean “be on alert,” in terms of an emergency as “be on standby duty/ be on call,” and in terms of a strike as “be on strike alert.” Martin, can you give us an example? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. V pohotovosti je mnoho vojáků. |
| Becky: .. which means "Many soldiers are on alert." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the present active participle with imperfective verbs to talk to a friend about severe weather. The Present Active Participle in Czech is similar to the English “-ing” form for expressing continuity or something happening right now. How do we create it? |
| Martin: The English “-ing” corresponds to the Czech endings -oucí, -ící, and -jící |
| Becky: And you can add one of these endings to an imperfective verb in third person singular or plural form. Can you give us some examples? |
| Martin: For example, padající strom |
| Becky: meaning “falling tree” |
| Martin: stoupající vody |
| Becky: “rising waters”. So how do we add the ending in Czech? |
| Martin: You just have to add the endings to the root of an imperfective verb. |
| Becky: So let’s consider “rising waters.” |
| Martin: In this case, the verb is stoupat. You take its root, stoupa, and add jící |
| Becky: Listeners, even if the Czech present particle corresponds to the English “-ing”, remember that the English present continuous tense using “-ing" corresponds to the Czech simple present tense imperfective verbs. In the dialogue, we have some examples of imperfective verbs in the present tense. |
| Martin: For example, the sentence hrozí povodně |
| Becky: meaning “there is a threat of floods.” |
| Martin: hrozí is present tense in the third person singular, and comes from the verb hrozit. |
| Becky:... meaning “to threaten.” Ok, now let’s move on to the next grammar focus. |
| Martin: It’s the particle at. |
| Becky: In Czech, there are many words referred to as particles. They usually come at the beginning of a sentence and indicate what type of sentence it is. Particles don’t connect sentences like conjunctions and must therefore be dealt with as a separate group. |
| Martin: Here’s an example, Ať se nikdo neutopí! |
| Becky: which literally means “May nobody drown!” |
| Martin: As in this example, the particle ať can express a wish. It can also express a warning or instructions. For example, Ať sem nikdo nechodí! |
| Becky: meaning “Make sure nobody comes here!” or “Nobody may come here!” |
| Martin: Here is another example - Ať si dá pozor! |
| Becky: “He should be careful!” Ok let’s wrap up this lesson with some sample sentences that describe the weather and demonstrate the topics we just studied. |
| Martin: Silný vítr poráží stromy u silnice. |
| Becky: "Strong winds caused trees by the road to collapse. " |
| Martin: Do města se žene tajfun. |
| Becky: "A typhoon is approaching our city. " |
| Martin: Prudké deště způsobují sesuv půdy. |
| Becky: "Torrential rains are causing landslides." |
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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