Learn how to ask "Who?"
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.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Ahoj, já jsem 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 "When" questions in Czech. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions with the interrogative word "Who?" |
| Imagine you want to ask your friend who the attractive girl just behind him is. |
| Here, the question you can ask is- |
| Kdo je ta dívka za tebou? |
| [slowly] Kdo je ta dívka za tebou? |
| So let’s break down this answer. |
| First we had- |
| kdo which is the basic translation of "Who" in Czech. |
| Je which is "is", the 3rd person form of the verb být, which we have already studied. |
| Ta dívka means "the girl." |
| And finally za tebou which is "behind you." |
| Tebou is the informal pronoun for "you" in the instrumental case. |
| All together it is - Kdo je ta dívka za tebou? |
| So in Czech, "Who" is mainly translated as kdo to ask about someone's identity. |
| For example, if you want to ask "Who are these people?" You will say Kdo jsou ti lidé? when talking about a group of unknown people. |
| As in English, the interrogative word “Who” is placed in the 1st position here, and is followed by the verb and then the subject. |
| Kdo only works for people, so you can't use it to ask information about things or places. As an interrogative word, kdo can also be used to ask who did something, for example. |
| If you are in a museum for instance, you can ask Kdo namaloval tento obraz? This means "Who painted this painting?" |
| Another interrogative formula with kdo that is used quite a lot, is Čí? In this case, the meaning is different as it can be translated to "Whose." |
| So if you want to ask "Whose pencil is it?" you will have to say Čí je to tužka? |
| If we break down this question, it is- |
| čí which is "whose", |
| je is the verb být in the 3rd person form in the present tense indicative. |
| To means “it” or “that” in Czech. |
| Finally tužka means "pencil”. |
| Another way to talk about “who” in Czech is with the word koho. For example, if you ask "for which person is it?" Then we use the formula Pro koho? |
| So if you want to know "For which person is this piece of cake?" It will be |
| Pro koho je tento kousek dortu? |
| Now it’s time for Veronika’s Insights. |
| If someone that you didn't expect is knocking at your door in the Czech Republic, the common question you can ask is Kdo je tam? before opening the door. |
| This literally means "Who is there?" |
| Before ending this lesson, let’s go back and look at all the ways to translate "Who" in Czech: |
| - Kdo is the basic "Who" as in “Who is this girl?” which is Kdo je tato dívka? |
| - Čí is insisting on the ownership, it is the equivalent of "Whose", as in "Whose pencil is it?" which is Čí je to tužka? |
| - Pro koho, which is the direct translation of "For whom?" As in "For whom is this piece of cake?" which is Pro koho je tento kousek dortu? |
| In this lesson, you learned how to correctly use the interrogative word for "Who" which can be kdo, čí or koho depending on the case. |
| Now you can easily know who is who! |
| The next lesson will be our last of this absolute beginner series. |
| We will deal with the last but not least common interrogative word proč. Do you know what it means? |
| I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Česky za 3 minuty lesson. |
| Ahoj! |
Comments
Hide