- Forum >
- Topic: Czech >
- "František is not interested …
"František is not interested in that."
Translation:O to se František nezajímá.
25 Comments
It is a really weird word order. It would only be acceptable if the sentence continued. Something like "frantisek is not interested in this BUT he is interested in ..." in Czech that would be "František se nezajímá o to, ale zajímá se o..."
Would it be detrimental to hold off on trying to figure out word order until I have a grasp of other basic concepts? I am struggling so much to understand how the word order works and I am tempted to just focus on learning the words and accusative/nominative forms for now. But I don't want to make things harder for myself later...
You might want to consider re-posting your question in the general Czech-from-English forum.
Word order is a very hot topic and a very challenging part of getting our heads around Czech. You may get more opinions, suggestions -- and moral support -- there, since more learners will probably see (and sympathize with) your struggles. As they say, "You are not alone"! :-)
Again, unnatural order of words. It would mean that it is not Frantisek who is interested in it but somebody else. But we are missing the information on that other person.
O to se nezajímá František, ale Kateřina.
Somewhere we need some general guidance on preferred/mandatory word order in Czech.
Try the recommended external reading (Tahal, Noughton) and some web pages like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_word_order (use web search for more).
It seems like sometimes se is right before the verb, and other times that is wrong. How do you decide when it goes right before and when it doesn't?
Se must be in the second position, it is a clitic. To is also a clitic, but here we have "O to" together in the first position.
1171
This is a hard translation (SVO is considered wrong here). Am I correct in assuming that the solution is intended to stress the in that part? As in "František is not interested in that!"?
I do not think there is any special stress implied here. The stress, though not too strong, is most likely on "nezajímá" here, so "is not interested."
You just have to follow the second position rule for "o to" when needed (i.e. not always, it can be also in the frst position). That is the reason why the SVO does not fit well here, because this specific object has special rules.
is this order of words the only way to say this, or are there other ways to say this sentence?
There are many. Different word orders stress different things and change the meaning somewhat. Often the comment of the sentence comes last https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_and_comment
- 538
Just out of curiosity: How would that sentence be like if I chose the other "translation" of zajimat se? There were sentences before when it was like "It does not interest Frantisek", with Frantisek being the object (was it "Ten stroj nezajima Frantiska"?). Anyway, I tried "Frantiska nezajima to" and it was wrong.
"Františka to nezajímá" is accepted.
In the future, please ask a real question, instead of just tossing out a sentence at random. On a related topic, please also use the Report button, if you are reasonably sure that a rejected answer is correct; that allows us to see what you actually wrote.
See the answer to jmw98.
It is only natural if you are saying that it is FRANTIŠEK who is not interested in that and not someone else whom the person you are talking to may have suggested.
František is not interested in that. And not Matěj.
We may think about adding it.
