Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Czech
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Intro |
|---|
| Antoni: Is it common to omit the subject in Czech sentences? |
| Veronika: And why? |
| Antoni: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: High school students Daniela Druláková and Ela Erbanová are trying to make plans for the weekend. Daniela asks, |
| "Do [you] want to go to the movies tomorrow?" |
| Daniela Druláková: Chceš jít zítra do kina? |
| Dialogue |
| Daniela Druláková: Chceš jít zítra do kina? |
| Ela Erbanová: Chci. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Daniela Druláková: Chceš jít zítra do kina? |
| Antoni: "Do [you] want to go to the movies tomorrow?" |
| Ela Erbanová: Chci. |
| Antoni: "[I] want [to go]." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: Omitting the subject or the pronoun is possible in so-called "pro-drop languages." Pro-drop-languages are languages where omitting the pronoun, or the subject, doesn’t affect the information conveyed by the sentence. You can observe this, for instance, in Romance and Slavic languages. However, this is not possible in the English language. In a flexible language like Czech, dropping the pronoun is acceptable in some situations. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Daniela Druláková says "Do [you] want to go to the movies tomorrow?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Daniela: Chceš jít zítra do kina? |
| Antoni: This is literally, "Want to go tomorrow to cinema?" In Czech, subject pronouns are often omitted, except when they are necessary for emphasis. In this case, the pronoun "you" is implied and is therefore unnecessary. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Ela says "[I] want [to go]?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Ela: Chci. |
| Antoni: This is the first-person singular present form of |
| Veronika: chtít |
| Antoni: which means "want." Once again, we observe that the subject pronoun is omitted. You will also notice that Ela’s answer doesn’t require the verb, |
| Veronika: jít |
| Antoni: or "to go." Again, that’s because it is already implied. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: We learned in today’s lesson that Czech often allows the omission of subject pronouns in sentences, except in instances when necessary or when they are used for emphasis. Let’s have a look at some other sentences where the subject can be omitted. Our first example is |
| Veronika: Já mám propisku. |
| Antoni: or "I have a pen." In situations like this, we can drop the subject pronoun "I," or |
| Veronika: Já |
| Antoni: and still get the same meaning. |
| Veronika: Mám propisku. |
| Antoni: "I have a pen." Here’s another one: |
| Veronika: Ty znáš tuhle píseň? |
| Michae: "Do you know this song?" The subject pronoun "you" can also be dropped in this case, so that we get, |
| Veronika: Znáš tuhle píseň? |
| Antoni: And, finally, we have |
| Veronika: Ano, ony jsou tady. |
| Antoni: or "Yes, they are here." In this case, the subject pronoun "they" can be omitted, and what remains is |
| Veronika: Ano, jsou tady. |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: In Czech, the subject can be dropped as long as it's understandable from the context what the speaker is referring to. In the case of direct questions such as the questions from the dialogue, |
| Veronika: Chceš jít zítra do kina? |
| Antoni: it's perfectly clear that the person asking is referring to his conversation partner since the verb |
| Veronika: Chceš |
| Antoni: is indicating the pronoun |
| Veronika: ty, |
| Antoni: making it clear who it is referring to. However, imagine the conversation is about a lost phone. The subject, the phone in this case, needs to be mentioned at least one time in the conversation to create the context. The person who lost their phone might ask, |
| Veronika: Kde je můj telefon? |
| Antoni: or "Where is my phone?" Starting from this point, the subject can be dropped, and the second person could, for example, respond with |
| Veronika: Je tady. |
| Antoni: or "It is here," where the subject "it," or |
| Veronika: to |
| Antoni: is dropped. The conversation can be continued from now on without the subject, until the topic changes. |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: We've discussed before situations where the subject can be omitted. But there are also sentences where the subject can't be used at all. For instance, when talking about weather, in sentences such as |
| Veronika: sněží |
| Antoni: meaning "it snows," or |
| Veronika: prší |
| Antoni: meaning "it rains," the subject is completely unnecessary and can't be used here. Another examples for when the subject can't be used are the phrases, |
| Veronika: je chladno |
| Antoni: "It's cold," and |
| Veronika: je vedro |
| Antoni: "It's hot." |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Veronika: Na shledanou! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Veronika Ageiwa (Czech, Prague), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
Comments
Hide