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- Topic: Czech >
- "ten člověk"
13 Comments
"ten" cant mean "this" in Czech, I guess, first time so far Polish has made me get it wrong... Or can it mean that?
Sorry about the imperfect punctuation, I havent found everzthing on my Czech keyboard yet.
Is there an error here?
As a Polish speaker, I found it interesting that what means this in Polish would mean that in Czech; but when I asked my Czech girlfriend, she told me that "ten" can be either "this" or "that" or even "the", while "tamten" is specifically "that" and tento is specifically "this".
Does člověk do double duty also meaning man (like some of its cognates in other Slavic languages), or is it specifically just person?
Člověk is just person / human (or man but only in the sense of human). Člověk can't mean man in the sense of male human, that would be "muž".
I see a strange man on my way home. In English, I would say "I saw a strange man". In Serbian, I'd say "Video sam čudnog čoveka" - I'd use "čovek", not "muškarac" which specifically means "man". In Polish, I'd also use "człowiek" instead of "mężczyzna" in this context.
Can I use "člověk" like this in Czech, or does it exclusively mean "person", "human" etc?
117
Yes. "Na cestě domů jsem viděl zvláštního člověka."
If you were sure that it was a man, you would say "muže".
Can "ten člověk" be used to express frustration like in English "that man..." is used? For example, imagine you are a teacher and a particular student has been giving you a lot of troubles lately. You sit at your desk and sigh, "ten člověk..."
I am not sure it is that idiomatic even in English, you can say anything when you sigh enough.
