"We need the names of their mothers and fathers."

Translation: Potřebujeme jména jejich matek a otců.

[rosemarie45933]

Isn't plural of "mothers" "matky"?

[BoneheadBass]

It is! But in this sentence, we need the GENITIVE plural (OF their mothers), rather than the nominative. And... that would be "matek."

[CountryCatSmith]

That's what I think is hard with Czech, it's kinda crazy!

[Matt92HUN]

Is it matek, because matk would be difficult to pronounce?

[VladaFu]

Yes. In Old Czech you can sometimes find similar words without this vocal, e.g. desk instead of desek.

[volorin]

proč bych nemohl napsát "potřebujeme jmena jejich matek a tatínků"?

[kacenka9]

Two reasons. The course sticks to formal "mother= matka" and "father = otec". You can get mom and dat and in such a case we go for máma a táta. The system does not have diminutives at the moment.

The second one is, even if we did accept 'tatínek:, nobody would ever mix it with "matka". Once you use diminutive for one, you use the same for the other, because it just simply sounds funny.

Potřebujeme jména jejich maminek a tatínků....

[Samaelch]

And why matek?

[DOette]

Can't "the names" be "ta jména"? Use of adjective in accusative case from earlier lessons.

[VladaFu]

Strange. Not completely impossible, but unnatural. I would translate that using "those", not using "the".

Translate the whole blocks, not just individual words and certainly not individual articles. "the names of their..."="jména jejich..."

[EricWeigle]

Regarding word ordering, why is "Potřebujeme jejich jména matek a otců" wrong? (We need their names, Mom and Dad)

[VladaFu]

Their/Jejich belongs to the fathers and mothers, not to the names.

We need their names, Mom and Dad. is a completely different sentence.