Learn about Czech suffixes
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some suffixes in Czech? |
| Veronika: And Why Is It Useful To Know Them? |
| Antoni: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Kristýna Komárková learns from her mother Karolína Komárková about the neighboring countries. She wonders which language is used in Poland, |
| "What language do they use in Poland?" |
| Kristýna Komárková: Jaký jazyk používají v Polsku? |
| Dialogue |
| Kristýna Komárková: Jaký jazyk používají v Polsku? |
| Karolína Komárková: Používají polštinu. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Kristýna Komárková: Jaký jazyk používají v Polsku? |
| Antoni: "What language do they use in Poland?" |
| Karolína Komárková: Používají polštinu. |
| Antoni: "They use Polish." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In Czech, words usually consist of a stem, a prefix, and/or a suffix. In this lesson, we will have a closer look at suffixes, also called |
| Veronika: přípony |
| Antoni: in Czech. This is the part of the word that always follows the stem. The function of a suffix is to expand a word stem into a completely new word. You may wonder exactly how it works. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Kristýna says "What language do they use in Poland?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Kristýna: Jaký jazyk používají v Polsku? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Karolína says "They use Polish?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Karolína: Používají polštinu. |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the noun "Polish," |
| Veronika: polštinu |
| Antoni: Here, the suffix used is |
| Veronika: -štinu |
| Antoni: The ending "u" indicates that the word is in its accusative form. In the nominative, the word would be |
| Veronika: polština |
| Antoni: The Czech suffix, |
| Veronika: ština, |
| Antoni: is the equivalent of the English suffix -ish, which means "belonging to" or "relating to." In this case, it’s used to give meaning to the word "Polish," a language that belongs to the Poles. |
| Antoni: Suffixes play an essential role in the Czech language. Learning about them will help you learn Czech faster. We’ve covered one suffix so far, but there are many more suffixes that will help you to recognize which part of the speech the word is. For instance, one suffix that forms adjectives is |
| Veronika: -natý |
| Antoni: This suffix is especially used to indicate the plentiful presence of the noun it is attached to. Consider the word, |
| Veronika: svalnatý. |
| Antoni: The root word here is |
| Veronika: sval |
| Antoni: which means "muscle." With the presence of the suffix in question, we get the adjective "muscular." Here’s another example: |
| Veronika: olejnatý |
| Antoni: Here, we have the root word, |
| Veronika: olej |
| Antoni: meaning "oil." Attaching the said suffix, we get the adjective "oily." Other Czech suffixes are used to form verbs. One such suffix is |
| Veronika: -ět |
| Antoni: Here’s a word bearing this suffix: |
| Veronika: chybět |
| Antoni: The root word here is |
| Veronika: chyba |
| Antoni: which means "fault" or "error." Dropping the final letter and attaching the suffix, we get the verb "to miss" or "to be absent." Not only do Czech suffixes form nouns, verbs, and adjectives, but they can also form diminutives. One suffix used to convey small size or intensity is |
| Veronika: -ek |
| Antoni: You’ll find this in words like |
| Veronika: stolek, |
| Antoni: which refers to a small table, and |
| Veronika: kočárek, |
| Antoni: which refers to a small carriage. Belonging to the same category of suffixes is |
| Veronika: -átko, |
| Antoni: which is found in words such as |
| Veronika: děvčátko |
| Antoni: which means "little girl," and |
| Veronika: děťátko, |
| Antoni: which means "baby" or "little child." |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we learned that suffixes can morph a stem into many different words with slightly different meanings. Depending on the suffix, the stem can transform into either a noun, a verb, or an adjective. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: There are a few Czech suffixes that especially exist to form agent nouns. These are nouns that denote someone performing the action implied by the verb from which the noun has been derived. One example is the word "milkman," or in Czech, |
| Veronika: mlékař |
| Antoni: The word is composed of the root |
| Veronika: mléko |
| Antoni: which means "milk," and the suffix, |
| Veronika: -ař |
| Antoni: Another example would be the word |
| Veronika: elektrikář, |
| Antoni: which means "electrician." In this case, the suffix used is |
| Veronika: -ář |
| Antoni: Words formed by both suffixes are not limited to occupational names. They can also be used to denote an inclination to something. For instance, there’s the word, |
| Veronika: tajnůstkář |
| Antoni: The root word here is |
| Veronika: tajnůstka |
| Antoni: which is derived from the word |
| Veronika: tajný |
| Antoni: which means "secret." Adding the suffix |
| Veronika: -ář, |
| Antoni: we get the resulting expression "secretive person." |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: When talking about suffixes, it's interesting to mention a suffix which you won't find a counterpart for in English. We're talking about the suffix, |
| Veronika: -ová, |
| Antoni: a feminization suffix used to form the surname of wives and daughters based on the surname of the husband or father. To make it simple, in Czechia, the wife usually takes over the surname of the man she marries, but attaches the suffix |
| Veronika: -ová, |
| Antoni: to make the surname feminine. The same goes for girls that take over the surname of their fathers. |
| For instance, if the name of the husband is |
| Veronika: Řezník, |
| Antoni: the name that the wife and daughter would carry would be |
| Veronika: Řezníková |
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) |
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