Learn about the Nominative and Accusative cases
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 20 - Office Workers are Terrible Guests. Michael, here. |
| Veronika: Ahoj, I'm Veronika. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the singular and plural nominative and accusative cases. The conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Veronika: It's between Jack Jones and Tomas Tvrdik. |
| Michael: The speakers are an employer and employee, therefore, they will speak formal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JACK JONES : Tomáši, měl bych jeden návrh, jak po prázdninách zvýšit tržbu. |
| TOMÁŠ TVRDIK: Myslíš si, že máme malou tržbu? |
| JACK JONES : To ne, ale je pravda, že v létě chodilo více lidí a teď je zákazníků méně. |
| TOMÁŠ TVRDIK: Chodí hlavně úředníci na oběd a to nejsou zrovna skvělí hosti. Nikdy nedávají spropitné. Co navrhuješ? |
| JACK JONES : Já znám skvělé hosty! |
| TOMÁŠ TVRDIK: Koho? |
| JACK JONES : Studenty! |
| TOMÁŠ TVRDIK: Studenti nikdy nepřijdou na oběd! Ti chodí pro kávu do kelímku! |
| JACK JONES : No právě! Můžeme nabízet kávu a jídlo s sebou! |
| TOMÁŠ TVRDIK: Počkej, ale my nejsme rychlé občerstvení! Pokud budeme nabízet kávu do kelímku a jídlo s sebou, ztratíme naši prestiž! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| JACK JONES: Thomas, I have a suggestion about how to increase takeaways after holidays. |
| TOMAS TVRDIK: Do you think that we have small takeaways? |
| JACK JONES: No, but it is true that in the summer more people were coming and now we have less of them. |
| TOMAS TVRDIK: Mainly office workers come for lunch and they are not exactly great guests. They never leave a tip. What do you suggest? |
| JACK JONES: I know some great guests! |
| TOMAS TVRDIK: Who? |
| JACK JONES: Students! |
| TOMAS TVRDIK: Students never come for lunch! They go for coffee in a to-go cup. |
| JACK JONES: Exactly! We can offer coffee and meals to take away. |
| TOMAS TVRDIK: Wait, but we're not fast food! If we offer coffee in a cup and meals to take away, we will lose our prestige! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: How long is a typical lunch break in the Czech Republic? |
| Veronika: It’s approximately 30 minutes long, which is not enough time to eat in peace. However, in general, Czechs consider lunch as the main meal of the day instead of dinner. |
| Michael: How does that work with such a short lunch break? |
| Veronika: Restaurants usually offer polední menu “lunch menus” at reasonable prices that are quickly served. |
| Michael: So employees have to rush to a restaurant to get their lunch! |
| Veronika: That’s right! In theory, you can use your lunch break for personal matters too, as it is unpaid time. |
| Michael: Just make sure you don’t go over your thirty minutes! |
| Veronika: Yes! Employees often eat their lunch at their desk so they can leave earlier. |
| Michael: What time is a typical Czech lunch? |
| Veronika: It’s normally served at noon, sometimes even at eleven thirty. |
| Michael: And what is a typical lunch? |
| Veronika: It begins with a polívka “soup” followed by a hlavní jídlo “main dish.” |
| Michael: Is this the same on weekends when people aren’t at work and have more time to eat their lunch? |
| Veronika: On the weekend, Czechs might enjoy a coffee and dezert “dessert” after their main meal. |
| Michael: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Veronika: návrh [natural native speed] |
| Michael: suggestion, proposal |
| Veronika: návrh[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: návrh [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: zvýšit [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to increase, to boost |
| Veronika: zvýšit[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: zvýšit [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: tržba [natural native speed] |
| Michael: takeaways |
| Veronika: tržba[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: tržba [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: zákazník [natural native speed] |
| Michael: customer |
| Veronika: zákazník[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: zákazník [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: úředník [natural native speed] |
| Michael: office worker |
| Veronika: úředník[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: úředník [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: host [natural native speed] |
| Michael: guest |
| Veronika: host[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: host [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: spropitné [natural native speed] |
| Michael: tip |
| Veronika: spropitné[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: spropitné [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: s sebou [natural native speed] |
| Michael: with oneself (to take away, to go) |
| Veronika: s sebou[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: s sebou [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Veronika: rychlé občerstvení [natural native speed] |
| Michael: fast food |
| Veronika: rychlé občerstvení[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: rychlé občerstvení [natural native speed] |
| Michael: And last.. |
| Veronika: prestiž [natural native speed] |
| Michael: prestige |
| Veronika: prestiž[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Veronika: prestiž [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Veronika: Měl(a) bych návrh... |
| Michael: meaning "I have a suggestion..." |
| Michael: This phrase is formed by conjugating the modal verb |
| Veronika: mít |
| Michael: meaning “to have,” to the conditional mood and then following it with a noun. It’s in third person singular and has the ending |
| Veronika: -a |
| Michael: This is for a female speaker and makes |
| Veronika: měla |
| Michael: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Veronika: Sure. For example, you can say.. Měla bych návrh na zlepšení. |
| Michael: ..which means "I have a suggestion for improvement." |
| Michael: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Veronika: Jídlo s sebou |
| Michael: meaning "Takeaway food" |
| Michael: This phrase literally means “food with oneself.” It’s used to order takeaway food. If you’re only ordering drinks, then you can say |
| Veronika: pití s sebou |
| Michael: Literally “beverages to go.” However, it’s more common to specify the drink. |
| Veronika: Such as káva do kelímku. |
| Michael: This is literally “coffee to a disposable cup.” |
| Veronika: Or čaj do kelímku. |
| Michael: “Tea to a disposable cup.” Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Veronika: Sure. For example, you can say.. Vezmete si jídlo s sebou, nebo ho sníte tady? |
| Michael: .. which means "Is it a takeaway or will you eat here?" |
| Michael: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn about the singular and plural nominative and accusative cases. |
| Michael: Sometimes the nominative and accusative cases can be problematic as the questions they answer are very similar. For example, the nominative case can answer questions like: |
| Veronika: Kdo? Co? |
| Michael: “Who? What?” This is the case that contains the subject of a sentence. The accusative case can answer questions like: |
| Veronika: Koho? Co? |
| Michael: “Whom? What?” This is the case that contains the direct object of a sentence. The accusative is what is receiving the action of the nominative. This is made more confusing because the endings for the nominative and accusative cases are identical for some nouns. For example, masculine inanimate and neuter nouns are the same in the nominative and accusative in both singular and plural. Let’s hear some examples: |
| Veronika: České hrady a zámky mají hodně návštěvníků. |
| Michael: “Czech castles and chateaux have a lot of visitors.” This is a nominative sentence. |
| Veronika: Mnoho turistů navštíví české hrady a zámky. |
| Michael: “Many tourists visit Czech castles and chateaux.” This is an accusative sentence. Plural feminine nouns in the accusative look like feminine nouns in the nominative plural. |
| Veronika: Květiny byly ve váze. |
| Michael: “The flowers were in a vase.” This is in nominative. |
| Veronika: Dal květiny do vázy. |
| Michael: “He gave flowers in a vase.” This is accusative. Unlike the examples we just heard, plural masculine animate nouns differ in the nominative and in the accusative case. You will see a table explaining this in the lesson notes. Veronika, let’s hear some examples. |
| Veronika: Já znám skvělé hosty! |
| Michael: “I know great guests!” This is accusative. |
| Veronika: Znám studenty. |
| Michael: “I know students.” This is also accusative. |
| Veronika: Studenti nikdy nepřijdou na oběd! |
| Michael: “Students never come for lunch!” This is nominative. |
| Veronika: Staří profesoři předávají vědomosti. |
| Michael: “Old professors pass on knowledge.” This is also nominative. Finally, we’ll look at some prepositions. We are going to look at how to tell the difference between: |
| Veronika: jít na and jít pro |
| Michael: The verb |
| Veronika: jít |
| Michael: meaning “to go,” can be combined with the prepositions |
| Veronika: na and pro. |
| Michael: Both of these mean “for” in English, however in Czech they change the meaning of the sentence. Let’s see an example. |
| Veronika: Jít na oběd |
| Michael: This means “for lunch,” as in to have lunch somewhere. |
| Veronika: Jít pro oběd |
| Michael: This also means “for lunch,” but in the context of fetching a lunch and taking it home to work. In both cases the preposition is followed by a noun in accusative. Veronika, can we have some examples? |
| Veronika: Chodí hlavně úředníci na oběd a to nejsou zrovna skvělí hosti. |
| Michael: “Mainly office workers come for lunch and they are not exactly great guests.” In this example, the office workers go to the restaurant to eat their lunch there. |
| Veronika: Studenti nikdy nepřijdou na oběd! Ti chodí pro kávu do kelímku! |
| Michael: “Students never come for lunch! They go for coffee in the cup.” Here, the students don’t come to have lunch in the restaurant, they only come for a take-away coffee. Let’s finish this lesson with some final examples. |
| Veronika: Zajdeme po práci na pivo? |
| Michael: “Will we go for a beer after work?” |
| Veronika: Dojdi mi pro jedno pivo, prosím. |
| Michael: “Go and bring me one beer, please.” |
| Veronika: Šli jsme na pizzu do italské restaurace. |
| Michael: “We went for a pizza at an Italian restaurant.” |
| Veronika: Šli jsme pro pizzu a pak jsme ji snědli v parku. |
| Michael: “We went for a pizza and then we ate it in the park.” |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Veronika: Na shledanou! |
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