"Je to vlk!"

Translation: It is a wolf!

[garpike]

Little known fact: wolves actually howl as a way of offering suggestions for extra letters in the word 'vlk'...

[pbiegaj1]

I'm fluent in Polish were wolf is wilk (similar pronunciation, with that i in there) and the Czech spelling is bothering me so much.

[dxrsam]

Classic example in Indo-European linguistics textbooks. The 'l' is vocalic, as is the 'r' in the Indic word वृक (vrk), where 'l' has gotten corrupted.

[rkvance5]

I thought "to" was supposed to be more definite than, you know, indefinite. Why is this "a wolf"? Or...does "to" mean "it" in "It's a wolf!" Confused.

[kacenka9]

Yes. TO in this sentence is IT. Since wolf is masculine, if you wanted to say "it is THE/THAT wolf' you would have to say "To je TEN vlk".

[rkvance5]

Thank you! I think it was the demonstratives that scared me away from Polish (they weren't a problem when I took Russian in college...). I'm going to conquer the Czech ones, though!

[Mr.Straight]

Omg where to put stress when there are no vowels in the word xD

[VladaFu]

"l" acts as a vowel. "r" can do it too.

[Ana220479]

A bit off topic, would you hear "To je vlk" more often than "Je to vlk"? I speak another Slavic language and the first one sounds a bit more natural to me. Thanks in advance

[VladaFu]

Both are completely fine. It depends on the context somewhat. "Je to vlk!" is much better if we were discussing what it might be.