Learn how to say "no" in Czech
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How do you say "no" in Czech? |
| Veronika: And what is a double negative? |
| Antoni: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Šimon Švehlík, a high school student, has just returned home. Upon seeing him, his father asks, |
| "Did you meet with your friends?" |
| Švehlík : Potkal jsi se se svými přáteli? |
| Dialogue |
| Švehlík : Potkal jsi se se svými přáteli? |
| Švehlík : Ne, s nikým jsem se nepotkal. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Švehlík : Potkal jsi se se svými přáteli? |
| Antoni: "Did you meet with your friends?" |
| Švehlík : Ne, s nikým jsem se nepotkal. |
| Antoni: "No, I didn't meet with anyone." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say "no" in Czech and what the "double negative" is. First, let's review how to make a simple negative sentence. In Czech, you make a negative sentence by adding a prefix to the main verb in the sentence. The prefix is |
| Veronika: Ne- |
| Antoni: which means "not." Here’s an example: |
| Veronika: Martin neplave. |
| Antoni: "Martin doesn’t swim." The verb in the sentence is |
| Veronika: neplave, |
| Antoni: which is the root verb, |
| Veronika: plave |
| Antoni: or "swim," with the prefix "not," or |
| Veronika" Ne- |
| Antoni: attached to it, resulting in the negation "doesn’t swim." Let’s hear that once again: |
| Veronika: Martin neplave. |
| Antoni: If you are answering a yes-or-no question, similarly to English, you just have to add, |
| Veronika: Ne |
| Antoni: at the beginning of the sentence. For example, if you are asked, "Does Martin swim?" or |
| Veronika: Martin plave? |
| Antoni: you can reply with |
| Veronika: Ne, Martin neplave. |
| Antoni: which means, "No, Martin doesn’t swim." Now, let’s talk about double negation, or |
| Veronika: dvojitý zápor |
| Antoni: In English, you are not allowed to use two negatives in the same negative sentence. For example, if you’ve been kept in the dark about something and you’re asked about it, you can’t say "I don't know nothing." You have to say "I don’t know anything." This rule doesn't apply to Czech, where two or more negatives in the same sentence are possible and intensify the negation. Let’s take a look at some examples: |
| Veronika: Už nikdy tam nepůjdeš. |
| Antoni: The literal translation for this one would be "You will never not go there again," but the correct meaning is "You won’t ever go there again." Here, you have the negation "never," or |
| Veronika: nikdy |
| Antoni: and the negation prefix attached to the verbal phrase, |
| Veronika: půjdeš |
| Antoni: meaning "you will go." Here’s another example: |
| Veronika: Nikdo tu není. |
| Antoni: which literally means "Nobody is not here" or "There isn’t nobody here." This time, we have the negative pronoun "nobody," or |
| Veronika: Nikdo |
| Antoni: and the negated form of "to be," or |
| Veronika: není |
| Antoni: giving us a sentence with a double negative. The proper meaning would be "There is nobody here." |
| [Recall] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Šimon says "No, I didn't meet with anyone?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Šimon: Ne, s nikým jsem se nepotkal. |
| Antoni: This literally means "No, I didn’t meet with nobody," which is a case of double negation. Here, you can see the negation word |
| Veronika: Ne |
| Antoni: or "no" at the beginning of the sentence. It’s followed by the negative pronoun "nobody," or |
| Veronika: nikým |
| Antoni: and the negated verb, |
| Veronika: nepotkal |
| Antoni: or "did not meet." |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you learned how to make a negative sentence in Czech, and how the "double negative" works. In Czech, two or more negative words in the same sentence don’t make a positive but create the negation. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: In Czech, there isn’t only double negation, but also triple negation is possible. It is used to emphasize the negation. Let’s imagine that you want to say "I have never seen anyone anywhere." |
| Veronika: Nikdy jsem nikde nikoho neviděl. |
| Antoni: The literal translation would be "I haven’t never seen nobody nowhere." Can you spot all the negations? |
| Veronika: [SLOWLY] Nikdy jsem nikde nikoho neviděl. |
| Antoni: The sentence starts with the negative adverb "never," or |
| Veronika: nikdy |
| Antoni: It is followed by the first-person singular present indicative form of the verb "to be," which is |
| Veronika: jsem |
| Antoni: or "I have," which is then followed by the negative pronoun "nobody," or |
| Veronika: nikoho |
| Antoni: and, finally, by the negated form of the verb "to see," which is |
| Veronika: neviděl |
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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