Lesson 9 – Nouns (basics, declension)

It's been a long time since my last grammar post. Wow, I could hear your heartbeat speed up.

As I have promised, I'm going to dedicate this article to the nouns of our model sentence. Let's check it out.

We now know which two words create the ZSD together. (If you don't, go back here.) One of them, the subject, is a noun (or a pronoun). If you've read the Lesson 7 carefully, you know that the subject can only be in the first case. So "pes" (="a dog") is a noun in its basic form, nominative (the first) case. (If you don't see why, just look at this sentence: "I'm going shopping." The subject is "I" and, as you can see, it's not inflected. How do you know? Well, the English language evolved from Latin and German and there are still some "anachronisms" or relics which include the declension of pronouns. It's not a big deal, really, but every time you want to say "I" in a different place than as a subject you say "me". That's it. If you'd use "me" in English, it's the sign that the Czech word is inflected.) 

What about the object? That's tricky. Let's write down what we know. It's a noun.... Man, we don't know much about it. Let me give you a hint. Check out the list of prepositions for each case mentioned in the Lesson 7. Now look at the preposition in our model sentence. It's "s" (="with") which indicates which case? The instrumental (seventh)! Great, now how do we find out the gender, number and the paradigm? I'm sorry to disappoint you but no how. There’s no way of figuring it out. I decided to make it easier for you by using the word "kost" (=bone) which is a paradigm itself. But still you have to know which paradigm the noun belongs to. This has an advantage, though. If you memorize the paradigm, you don't have to learn the gender because each gender has its own group of paradigms. 

"Kost" is neuter and singular. Why do I refer to the object of our model sentence as "kost" not "kostí"? It's not a typo. The word "kost" is in the nominative (first) case which means it's in its basic form. When I talk about a word I shouldn't use the inflected forms because it's confusing. (Now that I'm talking about "confusing", I should mention that diacritics are pretty important because "kostí" is the seventh case of the word "kost" whereas "kosti" is a plural form of the word "kost".)

I've nothing more to tell you about this since all you need to know are the suffixes which you just have to memorize.

It's been a lot of information in the last few lessons, I'll make a conversational one next time! (:

love & peace

Ciray

Lesson 8 – Simple sentences, ZSD

Dear students,

     this is the moment you've been waiting for. We'll learn... HOW TO COMPOSE A SENTENCE. YIPPEE!
     OK, it's probably not such an achievement but let's be modest and, eventually, you might be surprised.

     So, Czech and English sentence structures do not fatally differ, at least not in their gists. We start with subject followed by a verb and then we place an object into the sentence. Here ends the simple part.

Let me itroduce you the structure of a Czech sentence:

BOOM! Don't worry, I know there's too much information in that picture. I'll explain it all. But, at first, I'm going to answer the question you've been asking from the very beginning of this article, which is: What is ZSD?

ZSD

Základní stavební dvojice consists of two words– the subject and the verb (subject-verb agreement). Why is it so important? When little children learn to write sentences, they write what they hear and mostly it's correct. However, "y" and "i" are read the same way in Czech and it's hard for them to find out which one they should use, especially in verbs, because they have no "permanent" form. Let me explain– the noun "myš" even if inflected (myši, myší) is always written with "y" after the letter "m" and the suffixes for each case never differs neither. Now, the verb zpívat (= to sing; conjugated here) is written with "í" after "p" but when conjugated– in past tense and plural– there are three different endings: -ali, -aly, -ala.

Which one should you use?

The suffix -ali is used when the subject is in plural and it's masculine. And, similarly to French, it can be masculine and feminine (when it's multiple subject or when you refer to feminine and masculine subjects as "they" "=oni").

We use -aly when the subject is plural and feminine.

And -ala if it's plural and neuter.

The subject has to correspond with the verb no matter what. These are the deciding aspects: number (plural or singular), person (first, second, or third), tense (present, past, or future), mood (indicative, imperative, optative, interrogatory, or, conditional), gender (masculine, feminine, or, neuter), and aspect (perfective and imperfective).

I'm not going to bother you with all of these. You only need to learn to distiguish the number, person, tense, and gender.

This is a lot of information so let me simplify and clarify. This is our model sentence:

Pes si hraje s malou kostí.

The subject is "pes" which is a masculine and singular noun. The verb is "si hraje"; now look into the conjugation table of the verb hrát si and find the appropriate form– si hraje. Found it? If so, you already know that the person is third (on/ona/ono) and because the verb in this person doesn't change depending on the gender of the subject, you don't have to worry about the gender (even though it's obvious); and the tense is present. Together, subject and verb, create ZSD.
As to the rest of the sentence, I don't want to scare the hell out of you but the adjective malou is also inflected because in Czech we inflect them along with the noun they precede/follow. Fortunately, there are only two paradigms for adjectives:  mladý and jarní. The adjective malý (mentioned above in the model sentence, inflected) is inflected according to the paradigm mladý. I'll dedicate another lesson to the nouns of this sentence. 

love & peace
Ciray

Lesson 7– Grammar (cases, declension of nouns)

Let's move on. There are lots of things to learn. :)

You don't have to learn anything from this yet. I just want you to understand, what it means. Enjoy!

Introduction: What are the grammatical cases?

Today's lesson is about grammatical cases. I can hear you saying: "I don't need them, they'll understand me anyway." Yes, we do understand but if you put some effort into learning them, it will pay off.

If you speak Finnish, German, Sanskrit, or Latin (or any other inflected language), you will probably find it easier to learn than those who don't even know what "grammatical cases" actually mean.

For those who don't know what they are (yes, they, there's a lot of them):

When you say: "I drank a cup of tea," the subject "I" is in its basic form (nominative case).

If you say: "The cup of tea drank me," (ok, perhaps you don't say this) the object "me" is declined.

English doesn't use the declension of nouns, pronouns, numerals and adjectives (except for exceptions). The German language has four cases and they are markedly easier than the Czech ones because you only have genders as the deciding factor for the type of declension (der, die, das [ein, eine, ein]).

To explain the system in the Czech language, I'll use Latin as an example: When you learn a list of nouns, apart from the gender, you have to memorize their suffixes in the genitive case, too. This is the way to find out how to decline a word. But I'll provide you with some tips to help you with recognizing it.

POI: Both Latin and Czech have 7 grammatical cases.

The Czech system of noun declension

As I mentioned before, the Czech language has seven grammatical cases. Is it too many for you? Try learning Finnish. As you may know, almost every noun (not all!) has a simple form and a plural form. If you can multiply, you already know, that we've got to the final number of suffixes a noun can have. It's fourteen. 

Shall I tell you the total of all of the suffixes? Sure, but if you get discouraged easily, don't read it. It should be 196 plus some exceptions. You don't need to faint right now. Let me finish. 

It's 56 for feminine, 56 for neutrum, and as usual, men just have to complicate everything– so it's 84 for masculine. 

Feminine gender has four paradigms of noun declension. These are: žena (woman), růže (rose), píseň (song), and kost (bone), (škola [school], ves [village]).

Neutrum– four paradigms: město (town), moře (sea), kuře (chicken), and stavení (building).

Masculine– six paradigms: pán (sir, lord), hrad (castle), muž (man), stroj (engine, machine), předseda (chairman), soudce (judge), (kůň [horse],divák [spectator], zámek [lock, chateau], otec [father]); they are divided into two groups: animate (pán, muž, předseda, soudce, host, kůň, otec) and inaminate (hrad, stroj, zámek)– this makes no difference, as regards the noun declension. 

NOTE: The paradigms in brackets are declined the same way as one of the regular paradigms but at least one of the suffixes is different. (hrad– zámek, žena– škola, pán– host).

The seven cases

They have names that you don't have to learn, I'll refer to them as the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh case. But if you're the kind of a language geek I like, you'll definitely find it useful. 

1.     Nominative

2.     Genitive 

3.     Dative

4.     Accusative

5.     Vocative

6.     Locative

7.     Instrumental

How to figure out, which of the cases should be used

Ta žena dostala růži. (= That woman (has/had) received a rose.) As you can see, a subject of a sentence is always in the first (nominative) case. Who (has/had) received a rose? That woman. The object "růži" is in the forth (accusative) case. Unfortunately, there is no way of recognizing the case immediately. One thing you can say for sure is that the object is never in the first (nominative) case (but of course, there's one exception). The Czechs have a list of questions (and prepositions, in some cases) as a "helping tool", but for you, it's useless because it doesn't tell you much. When you start to think like Czechs, (congrats and) you can check it out. The list is consisted of questions you ask about the object, e. g. "What did (or has/had) that woman receive(-d)?" 

1.     Nominative– Kdo? Co? (=Who? What?) (Asking about the object to find out, whether it's animate or inanimate.)

2.     Genitive– Bez/z koho/čeho? (=Without/out of/from whom/what?) 

3.     Dative– Komu? Čemu? (=To whom/what? [Example: Give it to her.])

4.     Accusative– Koho? Co? (=Whom? What? [Example: Do it for me.])

5.     Vocative– Oslovujeme, voláme. (=We address, we call. This is a case for addressing. Ex.: Man!)

6.     Locative– O kom/čem? (=About who/what?)

7.     Instrumental– S kým/čím? (=With who/what?)

For foreigners, there are lists of prepositions for each case.

To be continued...

Biz,

Ciray

Conjugation– MÍT (to have)

PRESENT TENSE 

Já mám                                   My máme

Ty máš                                     Vy máte

On/a/o má                              Oni/y/a mají

FUTURE TENSE

Já budu mít                           My budeme mít

Ty budeš mít                         Vy budete mít

On/a/o bude mít                   Oni/y/a budou mít

PAST TENSE

Já jsem  měl/a/o                    My jsme měli/y/a

Ty jsi měl/a/o                          Vy jste měl/i/y/a

On/a/o měl/a/o                       Oni/y/a měli/y/a

IMPERATIVE

Já ------                                    My mějme    

Ty měj                                     Vy mějte

On/a/o ať má                         Oni/y/a ať mají

Example sentences:
Měj se hezky. (Have a nice day. [Informal.])
Na oběd jsem měla salát z okurků a rajčat. (I had some salad consisted of cucumbers and tomatoes for lunch. [The subject is feminine.])
Když jsem byl malý, měl jsem psa. (When I was little, I had a dog. [Masculine subject.])

Lesson 6– Verb conjugations (basics, division)

 There are four verb groups in Czech (and some +/- million exceptions). It might be less difficult for those who speak French because both Czech and French have very similar systems.

    As I mentioned before, every single Czech verb infinitive ends in -t. But to recognize what group it belongs in you need to learn which suffixes indicate what group. Each group has its vary conjugation suffixes for each pronoun/person.

GROUP I

Suffixes -at and -át. For example "hádat" (to guess), "dát" (to give).

Já          hádám/ dávám        My          hádáme/ dáváme

Ty         hádáš/ dáváš            Vy           hádáte/ dáváte

On/a/o  hádá/ dává                Oni/y/a    hádají/ dávají

GROUP II

Suffixes -ovat, -ít and -ýt. Verbs like "darovat" (to give, to dedicate), "šít" (to sew), "mýt" (to wash).

Já          daruji/ šiji/ myji*               My         darujeme/ šijeme/ myjeme

Ty          daruješ/ šiješ/ myješ     Vy          darujete/ šijete/ myjete

On/a/o   daruje/ šije/ myje            Oni/y/a    darují/ šijí/ myjí

*Czechs often use ending -ju instead of -ji when speaking but it's incorrect, nevertheless tolerated. We never use the suffix -ju in written form.

GROUP III

Suffixes -it, -et and -ět. Verbs such as "platit" (to pay, to be accurate/in effect), "válet" '(to roll, to rock [slang]), "rozumět" (to understatnd).

Já            platím/ válím/ rozumím          My          platíme/ válíme/ rozumíme

Ty           platíš/ válíš/ rozumíš               Vy           platíte/ válíte/ rozumíte

On/a/o    platí/ válí/ rozumí                      Oni/y/a    platí/ válí/ rozumí

GROUP IV

Suffixes -ést and -ci. For instance "nést" (to carry), "moci" (can, to be able to, to be allowed to).

Já             nesu/ můžu (mohu*)       My         neseme/ můžeme

Ty            neseš/ můžeš                    Vy          nesete/ můžete

On/a/o     nese/ může                          Oni/y/a    nesou/ můžou (mohou*)

* these forms are archaic but still you can hear them from elders or when somebody wants to be deemed an educated man.

      As regards the exceptions, most of them can be classified in these groups, the only problem is that they don't end in those suffixes listed above.

Lesson 5– Assimilation

 This is a topic I forgot to mention in the Lesson 1. Native speakers do it automatically, we don't even realise it.
     What is assimilation? It is a phonological process by which one sound becomes more similar to the previous one or the following one. It is usually done to facilitate pronunciation. When voiced and voiceless sounds meet, one of them turns into a voicless sound.
      First, you need to find out the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants:

D x T  (dry x try)
G x K (gone x calm)
Z x S (zygote x sleep)
H x Ch (hold x loch ness)
B x P (burst x plant)
V x F (via x fake)
Ď x Ť (dy x ty)
Ž x Š (pleasure x mushroom)
N x N (note x fang)
Ř x Ř (tři x dři) => you don't have to pay attention to this one, because it is impossible to pronounce voiced "ř" after any voiceless consonant and vice versa.
(Other consonants don't assimilate.)

Assimilation in the middle/ at the end of words

V x F

borůvka, f. ['boa-roof-kah] (blueberry) – "k" is a voiceless sound, therefore you have to read "v" as "f"

plav ['pluf] (swim!) – it sounds weird when pronouncing each sound voiced, especially those at the end of words, therefore "f" instead of "v"

BUT!

zavolat ['zah-voa-lut] (call) – "o" is a vocal, it doesn't change anything about the pronunciation of the word

B x P

trubka, f. ['troup-kah] (tube) – "k" is a voiceless consonant, "b" is read as "p"

zob, m ['zoap] (seed for poultry) – "b" at the end of a word is pronounced as "p"

BUT!

obvaz, m. ['oab-vus] (bandage) – "v" is a voiced sound, so you must read "b" as "b"

zip, m. ['zip] (zip)

D x T

vodka, f. ['voat-kuh] (vodka) – "d" => "t"

med, m. ['met] (honey) – "d" => "t"

BUT!

medvěd, m. ['med-vyeht] (bear) – "v" is a voiced consonant, therefore the preceding "d" is really read as "d" 

kat, m. ['cut] (executioner)

Ď x Ť

choďte ['choaty-teh] (walk!) – "t" is a voiceless consonant, so "ď" is read as "ť"

káď, f. ['ca:ty] (tub) – "ď" at the end of a word is read as "ť"

BUT!

nať, f. ['nutye] (leaves)

Z x S 

kaz, m. ['cus] (flaw) – "z" => "s"

oblázky, pl., m. ['oab-lu:s-kih] (pebbles) – "k" is a voiceless sound, "z" => "s"

BUT!

jízda, f. ['yie:z-duh] (ride) – "d" is a voiced sound, so "z" must be read as "z"

les, m ['les] (forrest)

Ž x Š

muž, f. ['moush] (man)– "ž" is at the end of the word, so it must be read as "š"

pokožka, f. ['poa-kosh-kuh] (epidermis)  – "ž" => "š"

BUT!

kůže, f. ['coo-sue] (skin) – "e" is a vocal, it doesn't change anything about word's pronunciation

veš, f. ['vesh] (louse)

H x Ch

výtah, m. ['vee-tuch] (lift/ elevator) – "h" => "ch"

nehty, pl. m. ['nech-tih] (nails) – "h" => "ch"
BUT!
nehoda, f. ['neh-hoa-duh] (accident) – "o" is a vocal, it doesn't change anything about the pronunciation
hoch, m. arch. ['hoach] (boy)

You don't have to memorize all of these; as you listen to the words, you'll start doing it subconsciously.

love & peace
Ciray

Lesson 3– Short conversations

 In this lesson, we'll learn how to converse.
      First of all, check the Lesson 2 (http://ciray.blogspot.cz/2013/10/lesson-2-greetings.html) to read the greetings once again. It's for your own good, believe me.
Now, let's find out some information about Czech grammar. The most important (and most difficult) are declension and conjugation. I won't bother you with these in this lesson, you'd go mad. I just want you to take it into account when learning to converse, because the verbs may sound similar but they don't necessarily have the same meaning.

      Let's start with formal conversations. Now that you know, when to use the formal language (if you don't, check the Lesson 2– Greetings) and you also know how to start a conversation, all you need to learn is to continue it. Read these dialogues aloud:

Slečna Nováková: Dobré odpoledne, pane Vyskočile, jak se dnes máte?
Pan Vyskočil: Výborně. A vy?
Slečna Nováková: Dobře. Na shledanou.
Pan Vyskočil: Přeji vám hezký den. Na shledanou.

Paní Veselá: Dobrý den. Jmenuji se Silvie Veselá a jsem vaše průvodkyně. Měla jste dobrou cestu?
Paní Skřivánková:  Ano, děkuji za optání. Jak se vám daří?
Paní Veselá: Nemohu si stěžovat. Tak, půjdeme?
Paní Skřivánková: Jistě.

Vocabulary

slečna f. ['sleh-chnah] Miss, n.
Nováková ['noh-vah:-coh-vah:] girls' Czech surname
pan (/pane) m. ['pun] Mister, n. (pane is an inflected form of pan)
Jak se (dnes) máte? ['yuck 'seh ('dnes) 'mah:-teh] How are you (today)?
Vyskočil ['vis-kohch-chil] men's Czech surname
výborně ['vih:-bor-nye] great, adv.
a ['ah] and, conj.
vy ['vih] you, pronoun, formal
dobře ['doh-břeh] well, adv.
Přeji (vám) hezký den. ['přeh-yih ('vu:m) 'hez-kih: 'dehn] I wish a nice day (to you [formal]).
paní f. ['pah-nyi:] Misuse, n
Veselá ['veh-seh-lah:] girls' Czech surname (literally translated: happy :)
Jmenuji se... ['ymeh-nooh-yi 'seh] My name is...
jsem... ['ysehm] I am...
vaše ['vah-sheh] your/s, pronoun, formal
průvodkyně f. ['prooh-vod-kih-nye] female guide
Měla jste dobrou cestu? ['mnye-lah 'ysteh 'doh-brow 'tses-to] Did you have a pleasant journey? (when asking a female, formal)
ano ['ah-noh] yes
děkuji za optání ['dyeh-kooh-yi 'zah 'op-tah:-nyi:] thank you for asking
Jak se vám daří? ['yuck 'seh 'vu:m 'dah-řih:] How are you doing?
Nemohu si stěžovat. ['neh-moh-ho 'sih 'stye-suo-vut] I can't complain.
tak ['tuck] so
Půjdeme? ['poo:-ydeh-meh] Shall we go?
jistě ['yis-tye] sure

       Informal conversations are more complicated especially among children. I'll give you some examples of dialogues but, as you know, children have their own language.

Lucie: Čau, jak to jde?
Martin: Ujde to. Co ty?
Lucie: Dobré. Měj se.
Martin: Ty taky.

Vocabulary

Jak to jde? ['yuck 'toh 'ydeh] How's it going? (the same as German "Wie geht's?")

Ujde to. ['ooy-deh 'toh] Not bad.

dobré ['doh-bre:h] good, adj.

Ty taky. ['tih 'tah-kih] You too. (It's because "Měj se" is an equivalent of "Stay cool", which you can answer "you too" ("ty taky") or "stay cool" ("měj se".)

       I know that nobody likes to learn words and phrases, but remember that they're the basis of any language. 

P. S.: Sorry for being late with this lesson. I had to do the stuff for school and visit a doctor. I cannot believe it. Another package of antibiotics, spray and some pills. xP 

Lesson 2– Exercises

   Hello, now we'll do some exercises. Practise makes perfection!
        If you've missed the Lesson 2, click here: http://ciray.blogspot.cz/2013/10/lesson-2-greetings.html

        So, read the descriptions of situations and choose the appropriate greeting. Good luck to you!

1) You've moved in to a new house in the Czech republic. One day in the morning, you get up and go out to check your mailbox. While you're checking it, you note that a curious neighbour is staring at you. What do you say? (Don't be rude, hehe.)

2) It's your first day at school. You're sitting at your desk, when a classmate sits next to you and says hello. What do you say?

3) Your husband/ wife has invited you to their house. She/ he wants you to meet her/ his parents. How do you greet them?

4) You're with your friend, but, unfortunately, you have to leave. What do you tell them?

Post your answers below, I'll check them. ;)

Lesson 1– Exercises

Hello, it's time to revise. Here are two videos with Czech subtitles. Listen and read the subtitles to improve your writing, listening and reading skills. The subtitles contain exactly what is said, so all you have to do is to read them. I should mention that Richard Nedvěd (the comedian/magician in the video) is from Prague (the capital of the Czech Republic), so he speaks colloquial Czech, not the proper language. :)

 (Prohlašuji, že nevlastním žádná práva na tato videa a nebyla uveřejněna za účelem zisku. Volně stažitelná.)

Another Video With Richard Nedvěd

      I heard that you liked the first one, so I made another video – the one I didn't entirely manage to save yesterday. ^_^
Here it is:

 (Prohlašuji, že nevlastním žádná práva na toto video a nebylo uveřejněno za účelem zisku. Volně stažitelné.)

      Sorry for the quality, I couldn't find any of better. I'll add the Czech subs later. :)
BAVTE SE! :)

Lesson 2– Greetings

  Hi, welcome to the second lesson, if you missed the first one, look for it on my blog. (Sorry, I still have no idea how to create a menu. :)
         Now we'll learn how to greet someone. It's very important, because you start communication with a greeting. So, first, I need to tell you that Czech language has two forms: formal and informal. You should use the formal language when talking to: someone you don't know, your boss, an elder person, your colleagues (if you haven't agreed on an informal form), teachers, etc. Yes, and your mother-in-law and father-in-law, even if you've known for a while, don't use the informal talk until they ask you to. :)

Formal greetings                  

Dobrý den –"good day"                    
used during whole daytime                
                                                          
Dobré ráno – "good morning"                                                                        
used in the morning                                  
                                                                               
Dobré poledne –"good noon"
used only in the midday                        
                                                          
Dobré odpoledne –"good afternoon"   
used in the afternoon                        
                                                            
Dobrý večer –"good evening"             
used in the evening                               
                                                           
Dobrou noc –"good night"                   
used when wishing good night to          
somebody

Na shledanou –"see you"
used when leaving and you'll
or plan to meet the person again

Sbohem – "goodbye"
used when leaving supposing you
won't meet the person ever again 

Informal greetings

Ahoj –"hello"                            

Čau –"hey"                              

Čest –"honor" (Yes, very similar to
the English "chest".:)

Zdar or Nazdar –"well-being" or
"succes" (Actually, I don't know how
this developed. :)

Měj se/ Mějte se –"stay cool" (only
 when leaving). "Měj se", when leaving
one person, "Mějte se", when leaving
two or more persons.

You can use all of these, except for
"Měj se" when leaving and when
meeting someone.

Both

Zdravím –"I'm greeting"
+ You can use all of the formal
greetings when greeting
friends, but they'll probably
think that you're weird.


     One more thing – we separate greetings with commas like in English, e. g. Ahoj, Sarah. Dobrý večer, slečno. (=Good evening, miss.)

Taste Our Humour :)

This is not the video I had been making. After 6 hours of working on it, the application claimed that it was launched wrong and everything just disappeared. The saddest thing is that the app doesn't have the AutoSave function; but still it's far the best app I found.

      So, after I learned my lesson, this morning I made another video – shorter but still funny. Here it is:

(Prohlašuji, že toto video nebylo uveřejněno za účelem zisku a nevlastním na ně žádná práva. Volně stažitelné.)

     For those who are interested in making subtitles and adding them into a video:

     First download the video you want to add subs into. Then download Subtitle Workshop 4 (or elder version, which has the AutoSave function). All you need to know about this app is on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtss9P36goI. But you can learn it yourself as I did but remember – you can make mistakes.... as I also did. Now you can create the subs. When you're finished, save them in .srt format. Then just rename both video and subtitles to the same filename. And voila, you have a video with subs. 

      If you want to put the subs into the video permanently, then download MediaCoder (very useful thing :). It's a very complicated app, but I'll do my best to explain how to work with it. Open MediaCoder. At the top-right corner, there's "Output folder". Choose the original folder by clicking "...", find the video and open it. Drag it to the white space on the left. Then look at the black big icon, there is menu above. Choose "Video" (the third from the left). Find "Format" and choose "MPEG4". Then go back to menu and click "Audio". Look for " Format" again, then choose "LC-AAC". Again to the menu, click "Container", choose "MP4". Back to the menu, move it to the right and click "Subtitle". "Mode" – "ASS Render", then choose the "Subtitle file" below. Find your subtitles and open them. Then in the upper menu (the one with ten icons) click "Start". And here you go, you've created a subtitled video. 

      If there's something unclear, feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to answer you. :)

      This would not be possible without my elder brother. I hereby want to thank him. He showed me this way to make this vid. Unfortunately, after I had downloaded millions of other apps and viruses. Heh. 

      Later I'll make a video with Czech subtitles for you to practise your listening and reading skills. :)

HAVE FUN! BAVTE SE! 

P. S.: Bavte se [buhfte seh]  (= have fun) is really red with "f" instead of "v" because it's difficult to pronounce "vt". More in the Lesson 5 – Assimilation

P. P. S.: Another video available here: http://ciray.blogspot.cz/2013/10/another-video-with-richard-nedved.html 

The Sound of the Czech Language

   As I mentioned before, foreigners hear merely consonants when somebody speaks Czech. (Sounds funny to me.:D) But not everybody speaks that way. For example, I try to speak slowly because I tend to mix words together and mumble. It all depends on the person's usus (Czech "úzus") (= a specific speaking habit of a person). Nevertheless I checked out some web pages and made a little research in a facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/languagescom/), which you can join, and foud out that Czech sounds like Russian with an Italian or Spanish accent. Some say that it's like Russian, or that all Slavic languages sound the same (*facepalm*).

      So, Czech has the stress on the first syllable of a word. Surprisingly, without exception. :) Our neighbours, Slovaks, say our language is monotonous and "harsh" and that they can speak our language, but we can't speak theirs. (If I were on facebook, I'd put here the F*ck Logic pic. :) On the other hand, Polish people find our language melodic, cheerful and full of optimism, despite the fact that we are well-known for our coldness and pessimism. I like both Slovak and Polish. They sound familiar. 

While I was watching the reactions on facebook, I decided to write an article about Czech humour because it's something that needs to be mentioned. 

      Feel free to tell me your opinion on Czech language. You can leave a comment below. :)

P. S.: There is nothing better than listening, listening, listening...  here you can listen to this (as a podcast): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdBV0HEzpbg. I'll try to add subtitles to some videos, so that you could know what they're saying. :)

Lesson 1 – Alphabet, reading

      I know, nobody likes grammar. But in the Czech language the letters in words are read the same way they are written (unlike English, French, ...), so knowing the alphabet is pretty useful.
      There is a regular alphabet, same as in English (with one extra letter "ch"). Then there are letters with a small comma upon them (vocals only) and letters with a hook upon them (some consonants and the vocal "e"). Because Czech is a languages with millions of exceptions, there is one special letter "ů" with a ring.

A a – as in "but"
Á á – as in "can't" (British English) or "dart"
B b – as in "bath"
C c – as in "tsunami"
Č č – as in "cheek"
D d – as in "dust"
Ď ď – as "dy" or "dya"
E e – as in "bet"
É é – as in "bear"
Ě ě – as in "yet"
F f – as in "fear"
G g – as in "gram"
H h – as in "hug"
Ch ch (note the form of the capital letter – C + h) – as the Scottish Loch
I i – as in "pig"
Í í – as in "beak"
J j – as in "yard"
K k – as in "card"
L l – as in "lump"
M m – as in "mug"
N n – as in "nun"
Ň ň – as in "canyon"
O o – as in "sort"
Ó ó – as in "board"
P p – as in "plain"
Q q – as in "squirel"
R r – like Spanish "r"
Ř ř – like Polish "rz" (play it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cs-%C5%99eka.ogg)
S s – as in "sand"
Š š – as in "shop"
T t – as in "trust"
Ť ť – as "ty" or "tya"
U u – as in "put"
Ú ú – as in "soup"
Ů ů – as in "soup"
V v – as in "vague"
W w – as in "vague" (used in foreign words only)
X x – as in "fix" (used in foreign words only)
Y y – as in "fill"
Ý ý – as in "feel"
Z z – as in "zip"
Ž ž – as in "measure"
       You might have noticed that the vocals with comma are just prolonged forms of regular vocals. Yes, they are. But remember that the length is not so distinct. We don't hold the vocal for 2 seconds.
      "Ů" is read the same way like "ú". "I" and "y" are read the same too.
       Letters "d", "t" and "n" followed by "i" are read as "ď", "ť" and "ň". "D", "t" and "n" followed by "ě" are also read as "ď", "ť" and "ň".
       "Mě" (and "mně") is read as "mňe". (That's why so many Czechs don't manage to write a sentence correctly.:)

      You can read words merely by connecting the letters. Here are some examples:
čest f. [chest] = honor
jídlo n. [yiedlo] = food, supper
most m. [moast] = bridge
tělo n. [tyelo] = body
konzerva f. [conzervah] = tin
ahoj [uhhoy] = hello – remember this one :)

Now you know, how to read Baťa [batya], girls! :) (The shoes, if you don' know.)