Learn how to ask "Where?"
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| Ahoj, jmenuju se Veronika. Hi everybody! I am Veronika. |
| Welcome to CzechClass101.com’s “Česky za 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Czech. |
| In the last lesson, you learned how to ask "What" questions in Czech. |
| This time, you are going to ask questions using the interrogative word "Where?" |
| Imagine you want to ask where your friend is now. You will ask him Kde jsi? |
| [slowly] Kde jsi? |
| So let’s break down this question: |
| First we had- |
| Kde, which is the basic translation of "Where" in Czech. |
| Jsi, which is "are", the 2nd person form of the verb být which we have already learned. |
| So, altogether it is Kde jsi?, which means "Where are you?" |
| So in Czech, "Where" is mainly translated as Kde |
| For example, if you want to ask "Where do you live?" You will say Kde bydlíš? |
| As in English, the interrogative word here is placed in the 1st position, and then after it comes the verb. |
| But be careful, because “where” can be translated in several different ways into Czech. For example, if you want to ask "Where do you come from?" you will use odkud instead of just kde. |
| So that question in Czech is Odkud jsi? |
| The word for “where” in Czech also changes if you insist on the arrival point, the destination. If you say, for example, Kam jdeš? |
| This literally means "Where are you going to?" This interrogative formula kam is often used when asking about your final destination, for example, your final train station or highway exit. |
| The grammatical rule for kde, odkud, kam remains the same- they all have to be followed by a verb. |
| In Kde jsi? the verb is být |
| In Odkud jsi? the verb is být, but this phrase means "to come from". |
| In Kam jdeš? the verb is jít, meaning "to go". |
| Now it’s time for Veronika’s Insights. |
| If you ask about a stranger’s country of origin, the exact translation of "Where do you come from", Odkud jste?, can sound a bit too direct in Czech. You could sound rude or even racist. |
| So my advice would be asking Odkud jste původně? That can be translated as "From where are you native?" |
| Before ending this lesson, Let’s look back at all the ways to translate "Where" in Czech- |
| - Kde is the basic "Where" as in "Where do you live?" which is Kde bydlíš? |
| - Odkud is insisting on the origin or the starting point, as in "Where do you come from?" which is Odkud jsi? |
| - Kam is insisting on the destination or arrival point, as in "Where are you going to?" which is Kam jdeš? |
| In this lesson, you learned how to correctly use the interrogative Czech word for "Where", kde, but also its different translations. |
| Now you can avoid getting lost! |
| In the next lesson you’ll learn more about asking questions, this time using "When" in Czech. |
| I’ll be waiting for you in the next Česky za 3 minuty lesson. |
| Ahoj! |
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