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- "Hezký víkend!"
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Can we also say "Dobrý víkend!" or do we only have to use "hezký"? I mean, one won't say "Hezký den!" I suppose, because "Dobrý den!" is definitely idiomatic. Thanks to who is going to help :-)
1765
dobrý and hezký do not mean the same thing. dobrý is good and hezký is nice, pretty. Of course one could say "Hezký den", but to me, the first thing that comes to mind when someone says it is that the weather is nice - "a nice day".
Some people do say "hezký den" as a goodbye though. It is like "have a nice day" (except that you omit the "have a"). With "hezký víkend" you can say that on Friday to your colleagues when leaving the office for example, or something like that.
The difference between the two sentences is that Dobrý den. means Good day. and you say it when you greet someone. If you say Hezký den!, you wish them a nice day (or Hezký víkend! - a nice weekend). You can say Hezký víkend! on Friday for example, but then when you meet someone on Saturday, you'll not greet them with Dobrý víkend., instead, you'll again say Dobrý den. (both on Saturday and Sunday).
I just would like to add one little thing here, normally you wouldn't say Dobrý víkend to any one, it sounds awkward. The only chance I can imagine to say "dobrý víkend" is, when you are talking with friends about your weekend on Monday and you say it was a good weekend: Byl to dobrý víkend.
Of course, it is essentially the same word, just pronounced and spelled slightly differently :-) The literal translation of weekend, would be "konec týdne", which literally means "(the) end of (the) week". But that's two words and nobody ain't got the time to say that on Friday afternoon!
I wonder what people called it say 200 years ago, aside from the fact that a lot of Czechs actually spoke German as the first language back then, I doubt they said "víkend". Then again, weekend as two days of not working is a rather modern luxury so maybe they did not really need a word for that as Sunday was the only day people did not work.
I think, they didn't say it at all. Only "nedĕle" (Sunday), Saturday was not any special day.
Did Czech ever have its own word for "weekend", before borrowing from English?
There wasn't any weekend until 1950s or 1960s because people used to work (and go to school) on Saturday in most countries. Then only a shorter workday on Saturdays and now it is free. So no, we didn't have any word and the very concept of weekend did not exist at all.
Yes, read the Tips and notes about voiced and unvoiced (assimilation).
In very careful pronunciation I think one can use d to mimic the English origin.
