Learn how to understand noun genders and their usage
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 7 - What Will You Do During Your Winter Vacation in the Czech Republic? Becky here. |
| Martin: Ahoj! I'm Martin. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about noun genders and their usage. The conversation takes place at work. |
| Martin: It's between Matěj and Jitka. |
| Becky: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll use formal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Matěj: Co budete dělat na Nový rok? |
| Jitka: No, asi budeme doma, i když děti chtějí na lyže. |
| Matěj: Tak jeďte někam na horskou chatu. Vy budete odpočívat vevnitř a děti budou lyžovat. |
| Jitka: No jo, a co když nebude sníh? Ještě nepadá ani vločka. |
| Matěj: Na chatě se dá dělat spoustu jiných věcí. Budou tam lidi a další děti. |
| Jitka: No to je pravda. Děti se zabaví společně. |
| Matěj: Ještě jsou volná místa, ale musíte rychle rezervovat. |
| Jitka: Řeknu teda manželovi, musíme si pospíšit. A ještě přehodit zimní pneumatiky na autě! |
| Matěj: S tím vám můžu pomoct. |
| Jitka: To budu moc ráda. Děkuju. |
| Matěj: Tak si to užijte! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Matěj: Co budete dělat na Nový rok? |
| Jitka: No, asi budeme doma, i když děti chtějí na lyže. |
| Matěj: Tak jeďte někam na horskou chatu. Vy budete odpočívat vevnitř a děti budou lyžovat. |
| Jitka: No, jo, a co když nebude sníh? Ještě nepadá ani vločka. |
| Matěj: Na chatě se dá dělat spoustu jiných věcí. Budou tam lidi a další děti. |
| Jitka: No to je pravda. Děti se zabaví společně. |
| Matěj: Ještě jsou volná místa, ale musíte rychle rezervovat. |
| Jitka: Řeknu teda manželovi, musíme si pospíšit. A ještě přehodit zimní pneumatiky na autě! |
| Matěj: S tím vám můžu pomoct. |
| Jitka: To budu moc ráda. Děkuju. |
| Matěj: Tak si to užijte! |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Matěj: What will you be doing for New Year’s? |
| Jitka: Well, I guess we'll be at home, but the children want to go skiing. |
| Matěj: You can go to a mountain chalet. You can relax inside while the children are skiing. |
| Jitka: Well, I know, but what if there’s no snow? There’s not a snowflake falling even now. |
| Matěj: You can do many things in a chalet. There will be other people and children. |
| Jitka: That's true. The children will have fun together. |
| Matěj: There are still rooms available, but you need to book soon. |
| Jitka: Alright, I'll tell my husband. We have to hurry. And swap the winter tires on our car! |
| Matěj: I can help you with that. |
| Jitka: That would be great. Thank you. |
| Matěj: Enjoy your time! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Martin, how do Czech people usually spend New Year’s Eve? |
| Martin: In big cities and towns, it’s quite common to celebrate New Year's Eve in the streets. There are many events held and also fireworks at midnight. |
| Becky: So, for example, if I’m in Prague for New Year’s Eve, I’ll find some events in the main public areas. |
| Martin: Definitely! In Prague, you can usually find a stage in the city center with live music, stalls with food, and other products for sale. During the day, there’s also a big market surrounding the area. |
| Becky: What about New Year’s Eve at home? |
| Martin: People who spend the evening at home usually wait for midnight while watching television and eating homemade food. |
| Becky: What else do people do? |
| Martin: If you like mountains, you should know that night skiing is also popular at this time. |
| Becky: That sounds fun! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: dělat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to do |
| Martin: dělat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: dělat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: být [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be |
| Martin: být[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: být [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: jet [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to go (by means of transport |
| Martin: jet[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: jet [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: odpočívat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to rest |
| Martin: odpočívat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: odpočívat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: chata [natural native speed] |
| Becky: chalet, cottage |
| Martin: chata[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: chata [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: zabavit se [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to entertain (oneself) |
| Martin: zabavit se[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: zabavit se [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: rezervovat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to book, to reserve |
| Martin: rezervovat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: rezervovat [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Martin: pospíšit si [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to hurry up |
| Martin: pospíšit si[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: pospíšit si [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Martin: užít si [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to enjoy (something) |
| Martin: užít si[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: užít si [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: někam jet |
| Becky: meaning "to go somewhere." |
| Martin: The adverb někam means ''somewhere,” “someplace,” “anywhere,” or “anyplace'' and the imperfective verb jet means ''to go,” “to drive,” or “to ride.'' |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Někam jet lodí. |
| Becky: ..which means "To go somewhere by boat." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Martin: dá se dělat |
| Becky: meaning "It's possible to do." |
| Martin: Dá se, which includes the reflexive pronoun se meaning “self,” altogether means “it is possible” and the verb dělat is "to do" in its infinitive form. |
| Becky: You use this phrase when you want to express that something can be done, or when you’re questioning if something can be done. |
| Martin: In the negative form, dá becomes nedá |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using the negation? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Tohle se tu nedá dělat. |
| Becky: .. which means "This can't be done here. " |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Martin: užijte si to! |
| Becky: meaning "have a good time!" This is a phrase wishing somebody a good time. Let’s break it down. |
| Martin: Užijte si' is the plural imperative form of the imperfective verb užít si meaning ''to have fun.'' Si is the reflexive pronoun meaning ''oneself'' and to simply means ''it.” |
| Becky: The literal translation is ''enjoy yourselves it.” You can use this expression in different situations, for example when people are leaving to go somewhere for the holidays. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Užijte si to u babičky! |
| Becky: .. which means "Have a good time at grandma's!" Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about noun declensions and their usage. In Czech, nouns are divided into three genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. |
| Martin: This division is important because nouns change their endings when declined according to the seven “declension cases” or pády. |
| Becky: In this lesson, we’ll explain how to distinguish the gender of nouns by their endings and how many declensions there are. First, let’s start with the gender. How can we recognize it? |
| Martin: In most cases you can check the last letter. |
| Becky: What are the most common endings for the three genders? |
| Martin: Masculine nouns usually end with a consonant such as hrad |
| Becky: which means “castle.” |
| Martin: Feminine nouns usually end with -a, such as voda |
| Becky: which means “water.” |
| Martin: Neuter nouns usually end with -o, such as město, |
| Becky: which means “town.” However, there are some exceptions, right? |
| Martin: That’s right. For example, fotbalista, which means “soccer player” and ends with an -a, but is masculine. Lekce, which means “lesson” and ends with an -e, is feminine, and muzeum, which means “museum” and ends with an -um is neuter. |
| Becky: Listeners, you can find more exceptions listed in the lesson notes. Now let’s go ahead and hear the declensions themselves. |
| Martin: For this we should also keep in mind that nouns are divided into hard and soft types. |
| Becky: This distinction is related to consonants, which can be hard, soft, or ambivalent. |
| Martin: Also, masculine nouns are divided into animate and inanimate nouns. |
| Becky: For each group there is a declension pattern. |
| Martin: There are seven declensions and six declension patterns for masculine nouns, seven declensions and six patterns for feminine nouns, and the same for neuter nouns. |
| Becky: The genitive form is the second form of seven and it’s important to recognize the type of declension. It is connected with the preposition meaning “without.’’ |
| Martin: ...or in Czech, bez. |
| Becky: To figure out which model to use, Czech native speakers ask the question “without what?” |
| Martin: In other words, as in Latin, if you remember the genitive, you’ll be able to recognize the model. So for example we say žena bez ženy |
| Becky: which means “woman without woman.” It’s good to learn these by heart, because it shows both the nominative and the genitive case. |
| Martin: The phrase žena bez ženy makes clear that žena is a hard-type feminine noun. Another example for a feminine noun is the phrase růže bez růže |
| Becky: which means “rose without rose.” |
| Martin: That makes it clear that růže is a soft-type feminine noun. Another example is Pán bez pána... |
| Becky: ...which means “master without master.” |
| Martin: That phrase makes it clear that Pán is a hard-type animate noun. |
| Becky: Ok, in the next lesson, we’ll go over the cases more closely. Now, let’s have a look at how nouns are used in sentences, and how they’re useful when discussing plans, as we saw in the dialogue. Can we see an example for masculine nouns? |
| Martin: In the dialogue, rok, meaning “year,” is an example of a masculine inanimate noun, and we had it in the sentence Co budete dělat na Nový rok? |
| Becky: which means “What will you be doing for New Year’s?” |
| Martin: rok is in the accusative case. Its genitive is roku, so the declension follows the model of Hrad - hradu, |
| Becky: which is the noun that means “castle.” |
| Martin: In the dialogue there is also manžel, which means “husband,” and is an example of a masculine animate noun. Here is the sentence – Řeknu teda manželovi. |
| Becky: which means “All right, I’ll tell my husband.’’ |
| Martin: manželovi is the dative case. The genitive is manžela, so the declension follows the model of Pán - pána |
| Becky: which is the noun that means “master,” or “gentleman.” Are there any examples for feminine and neuter nouns? |
| Martin: Yes, an example of a feminine hard noun is in the sentence Na chatě se dá dělat spousta jiných věcí. |
| Becky: meaning “One can do many things in a chalet.” |
| Martin: The feminine noun is chatě, which is in the locative. Its declension model is the same as žena-ženy |
| Becky: which is the noun that means “woman.” |
| Martin: That’s because the genitive of chata also ends in -y. It’s chaty. |
| Becky: OK, let’s wrap up with an example of a neuter noun. |
| Martin: There’s a neuter hard noun in the sentence A ještě přehodit zimní pneumatiky na autě. |
| Becky: which means “And swap the winter tires on our car.” |
| Martin: The neuter noun is autě, the locative of auto, which follows the same declension as město. |
| Becky: which is the noun that means “town.” That’s because their genitive ending is the same. |
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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