Learn Czech With Anna!

Czech Lessons

Lesson #1

Lesson #2

Vocabulary+

In this lesson you’re going to learn how to ask the question “What is this?” and responses you can give to this question.

What is this? What is that?

Co je to? - What is this?

Co je tamto? - What is that?

In Czech language it is possible to translate the sentence exactly as it is in English. Meaning: 

Co - What

Je - is (3rd person, singular)

To - this

Tamto - that

If you are asking the question and pointing at more than one thing, you ask the same way! That means that if you want to say “What are those?”you are still going to say Co je tamto?

It must sound a bit weird but believe me, it is natural in Czech.

As you will find out in the next lessons, in Czech we use conjugations and declensions to determine whether the noun is a subject or subject and to whom the verb points to. Therefore it is possible, in some cases, to change the structure of the sentence (usually to emphasize a specific detail). It can happen you’ll encounter very often Co to je? which is the same as Co je to?

Remember though, that in most cases the sentence structure is SVO (subject-verb-object) as in English.

This is.../That is...

This is where things get a bit complicated because unlike when asking the question, when replying, you need to differentiate between plural and sigular.

Let’s look at the singular first:

To je ... - This is...

Tamto je ... - That is...

It works just as in English!

Now when the refered noun is in plural:

To jsou ... - These are...

Tamto jsou ... - Those are...

Unlike in English, the pronouns haven’t changed. Only the verb did because as I said before, we conjugate verbs depending on the subject of the sentence.

Jsou - are (3rd person, plural)

Vocabulary and examples

Let’s look at how we can use this grammar in practice. First let’s learn some new vocabulary.

Unfortunally there is no one way of making plural in Czech so I am going to put the plurals in brackets after the noun. You’ll learn more about plural nouns in the future so for now let’s not think about it too much.

Pes (psi) - Dog

Kočka (kočky) - Cat

Pták (ptáci) - Bird

Dům (domy) - House

Fotka (fotky) - Photo

Kniha (knihy) - Book

Telefon (telefony) - Phone/Mobile phones

Počítač (počítače) - Computer

Láhev (láhve) - Bottle

Klíč (klíče) - Key

Look at this dialogue. Did you understand everything? Let me know!

A: Ahoj! B: Ahoj! A: Co to je? B: To jsou knihy. A: A co je tamto? B: Tamto je počítač.

A - and (it can be used the same way as in English - for conecting either two words or two sentences)

As you can notice, there are also no articles in Czech language. It might be a bit weird in the beginning but you don’t have to put anything before a noun, it can stand on its own.

Practice

Try to translate these sentences into Czech! 

What is that?

Those are photos.

This is a phone.

These are bottles.

That is a key.

This is a cat.

What is this?

That is a dog.

These are birds.

Those are houses.

This is a book.

These are computers.

Colours are all of a feminine gender when in the function of a noun. (You can remember it better by knowing that barva, which is colour in Czech, is feminine as well.)

Hello! Welcome to your first Czech lesson! I am really happy, that you decided to learn Czech. In this lesson, you’ll learn, how to greet people and few other very useful phrases! Let’s get started!

Hello and Goodbye

In Czech, we differentiate between formal and informal speech. Usually, when the person is older or a stranger, you use formal speech. If you’re talking to a child or a person you know closelly, you’ll use informal speech. 

Formal Greetings

Dobrý den - Hello (literally good day)

You can use this greeting universally during the whole day. There is no wrong and no right time of the day to use this word.

Dobré ráno - Good morning

Unlike in English, in Czech we usually greet each other with good morning after waking up and during the breakfast. Morning is usually considered the time up to 10 am. 

Dobré odpoledne - Good afternoon.

Dobrý večer - Good evening

Dobrou noc - Good night

Na shledanou - Goodbye

Informal Greetings

Even though I have sorted the greetings dobré ráno, dobré odpoledne, dobrý večer and dobrou noc as formal, they can be used between friends too.

Ahoj - Hi/Bye

Čau - Hey/Bye

Both čau and ahoj can be used as well when you are meeting someone as when you are parting your ways.

Asking and replying to “How are you?”

Again, because of the formalities, there are two ways of asking this question in Czech.

Formally: Jak se máte?

Informally: Jak se máš?

Can you see how the last word changed? Depending on the formality of the situation we conjugated the verb differently. However let’s not worry about it for now, you’ll learn how to do that in the next lessons!

Fortunately, you can reply in the same way to both of these questons.

Mám se dobře - I’m fine/good.

Mám se špatně - I’m unwell.

Ujde to - Neither good nor bad.

So that’s it for today’s lesson!