"But you were looking!"
Translation:Ty ses ale díval!
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no, that was not the problem. czech has a pretty flexible word order, except when it comes to something called the "clitics". you just ran into the complexity of the czech clitic system here.
"ses" is an obligatory enclitic (a word that follows something) that belongs in the second position in the clause, after the first complete unit of meaning. the problem with Ale ses dívala. is that "ale" is one of the conjunctions (also including "a" and "i") that do not count as the first unit of meaning. so you would actually have "ses" as the first word, which standard czech does not allow.
Thanks! I had the same question, but I had forgotten that certain conjunctions don't count regarding clitics.
I wrote 'ty ses díval, ale' I'm sure I've heard people using 'ale' at the end of sentences.
Is this just a colloquialism that I should ignore if I want to learn Czech more correctly.
No, that is incorrect. That would use in the same occasion as in English the dangling "but...". It significatly changes the meaning.
How about "Ty ale ses díval"? Technically, ses is in the second position, since ale doesnt count.
Ale does count if used like this. It does not count if it is a conjunction starting a clause.
"Ale díval ses" is correct and accepted.
As VladaFu has pointed out, "ale" doesn't count when it starts a clause.
Another possibility is "Ale ty ses díval".
"Ale ty ses dival" makes much more "sense" for those of us still not paddling around in the deep water of the Czech pool. Solves the 2nd position problem and as an English-Czech translation, just works better for those still "thinking" English word order.
«Ale jste se díval» and «ale jste se dívala» Why are those wrong?
"ale" does not count as filling a position, as already mentioned in previous comments on this page. Therefore, you need to start with the first position after "ale", and only then use the clitics ("jste" and "se") which always want to be in the second position. For example:
- Ale vy jste se díval(a).
- Ale díval(a) jste se.
- Vy jste se ale díval(a).
In all the above examples, "jste se" take up the second position together.