#linguae

– "But why even bother? My Viktor doesn't actually speak Czech, he just uses one or two words as pet names! It's not like the people around him know what he's saying! They would probably get confused if they heard him suddenly change the final suffix."

Sure, it makes sense that Viktor would probably not insist on using Czech grammatical cases correctly while communicating in English. But there are 2 possible situations your Viktor could be in:

A) The Canon Adjacent Approach: Viktor is an immigrant or lives in a Czech enclave. He learnt Czech from his core family but actually studied in the majority language of Zaun/Piltover/USA. People like this sometimes lose their accent in the majority language but we know it's not his case because we can hear his Russian accent in the game and his Czech-ish-RAF-pilot-ish accent in the series. He knows Czech but he probably never used it to write an essay.

B) The International Student Approach: Viktor is an exchange student or he moved to Piltover/USA after graduating a Czech highschool. He knows Czech very well. He wrote a lot of essays in Czech.

The A-Viktor might have an excuse for using Czech words incorrectly or not really minding the misuse of vocative (for ex. like here: "This is my lásko," said Viktor). He knows that English speakers don't understand the difference between nom. and voc. so he uses a vocative form of his nicknames as if they were English words (pl. láskos, poss. lásko's). This usage would probably make a B-Viktor's ears bleed.

B-Viktor doesn't have to think about it when he uses a Czech word. He just uses whatever he'd use in Czech (and maybe if he'd need an other case than nominative or vocative he'd just use nominative cause that's the "default" case in dictionaries). I'm still kinda split on whether he wouldn't actually use only nominative when talking to/about people cause again, it's the "default" case and he would avoid people treating a voc. form like a nom. one. But if he actually tried and at one point explained to his close ones that "láska" is actually the word he's using, just in the vocative form (or just sent them this post, some jayvik fics can be very meta-fictional), he could be using voc. and nom. (lásko and láska) more or less as he'd use it in Czech.

Apart from that, if your POV is Viktor's, you need to use Czech correctly in your indirect speech or I'll come to your house with torches and pitchforks. If Viktor is thinking Jayce was my [Czech pet name], my dearest [Czech pet name], you need to use nominative for the pet name no matter what. One exception is if your Viktor actually doesn't know any Czech and only cosplays as a Czech person cause he loves our stinky cheese from Loštice. Then and only then I can accept him using nominative and vocative indistinguishably.

S láskou,

Your čtenář

1. Infinitive vs. imperative

In English the infinitive and the imperative moods look (mostly) the same.

To do (smth) = infinitive

Do (smth)! = imperative

In Czech they aren't the same.

Dělat (něco) = infinitive

Dělej (něco)! = imperative

If you want to use a sentence in the imperative mood without any object, online translators (in some cases) automatically use infinitive or a noun even when you include an exclamation mark:

(úsměv = a smile, noun)

I recommend finding the verb you want to use in a dictionary (not a translator!!!) and then looking it up on Wiktionary or some other website (that you can find in part 3).

A good dictionary you can use: WORD REFERENCE

You can just google "[czech-word] Wiktionary" and something will come up (tho you might need to automatically translate it like I did in the screenshots above). Or you can use any of the dictionaries that I'll be mentioning in the next part.

2. Misplaced politeness

Czech singular uses something called "tykání" and "vykání" in second-person verbs to indicate politeness. Tykání could be the equivalent of using thou/thee in older forms of English or being on a first-name basis with the one you're talking to. Vykání is reserved for interactions with people you don't know (usually not online though) or people of a higher status than you.

Arcane example:

Viktor would use tykání when talking to: friends, students (while also being a student), family, children

And he would use vykání when talking to: Heimerdinger and other professors, students (while being a lecturer or a TA), strangers, colleagues (that he's not friends with), anyone he calls Mr./Ms./Mrs./Mx.

But why am I talking about all this:

Google Translator uses tykání and vykání as it pleases. So if you want to translate a sentence using the second person, you need to pay attention. Because I can't show you a good example using Google as its translations aren't really consistent, I'll be using Deepl in the examples. But first:

What tykání and vykání look like in Czech?

There's one more thing you need to know about tykání and vykání. While both refer to a singular individual, vykání (the polite one) looks almost exactly like the second person plural.

So finally here's the difference:

You are Jayce.

– Ty jsi Jayce. = tykání, singular

– Vy jste Jayce. = vykání, singular

You (y'all) are Jayces.

– Vy jste Jaycové. = plural

As you can see, both plural and vykání end with -te. That's the biggest clue for you.

I'll give you one more example, this one should sum up what I've told you so far:

When Viktor says this sentence, he's talking to a student he's just met so he would probably use vykání when talking to him. Deepl gave us 4 options, so which one can we choose?

"Trochu egoistické, nemyslíte?" This one can be both vykání and plural.

"Trochu egoistické, nemyslíš?“ This one is tykání. Viktor would say that to a friend or a family member but not a person he's just met.

"Není to trochu egoistické?" The literal translation of this one is "Isn't it a bit egotistical?" so we're avoiding the second person entirely. He could say this to anyone.

"Trochu sobecké, nemyslíte?" Same as no. 1.

Now a nerdy addition for the bravest of you:

I said vykání and second person plural are ALMOST the same. The difference is for example in the past tense indicative that uses an L-participle – nemysleL(i) – and an auxiliary verb "to be / být" in the present tense.

Did you stabilize it?

– Stabilizoval jsi to? = tykání, singular

– Stabilizoval jste to? = vykání, singular

– Stabilizovali jste to? = plural

Also as some of you may know, most participles are gendered. The examples I gave you are masculine, the feminine participles would be stabilizovala/stabilizovaly and the neuter ones would be stabilizovalo/stabilizovala. The rest is the same.

If you want to make sure you're using the correct second person, you can translate your sentence using Deepl and choose the option that uses / doesnt use the -te suffix. That applies for all the moods and tenses that recognise the 2nd person. If you want to make sure your vykání in past tense isn't accidentally in plural, you can add a name at the end/beginning of the sentence and then copy it without the name. For the opposite effect you can add for example a plural demonym (Did you stabilize it, Czechs?) or just use "y'all" instead of "you".

3. Gender in the adjectival predicate

Czech adjectives are gendered (as well as all nouns). Masculine adjectives (in nominative singular) usually have the final suffix -ý, feminine -á and neutral -é:

They can also end with í, that means it can be any of those three grammatical genders:

Plus some foreign adjectives aren't any of those:

But there's one sentence that could give you trouble. It was the first sentence I thought of when I was trying to find examples for this post:

As you can see, Deepl doesn't accept mpreg as it uses only the -á suffix for the adjective "pregnant". Don't get confused, you can just slap -ý on it (Jsem těhotný...) and you'll be fine!

That's all I have for you rn. If you need help, just send an Ask or DM me, I can answer any Czech and Czechia related questions or beta read your fic. If you know anyone that could benefit from this, send them my profile or smth, idk.