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- "František is not the boys' f…
"František is not the boys' father."
Translation:František není otec těch chlapců.
18 Comments
There is no instrumental here, but you could use it (je otcem). Je otec is just nominative. Těch chlapců is genitive.
Can't I say "Frantisek neni otec syna?" do we start with a case and finish with the same case or somewhere we have to mix the cases along the way to finish the sentense? since like sometimes with start with Nom. and finish with Gen or acc. thanks
I do not understand your reasoning. There is no starting with something or finishing with something. Every element of a sentence (in any language) has its syntactical purpose and can be classified in a syntax tree as one of the parts of a sentence (subject, verb, object, complement, modifier,...).
In Czech, certain word classes (nouns, pronouns, adjectives) then get their case from the role they do in the sentence. It is not about which word is after which word. It is about what modifies which word. What is the subject (->nominative) and what is the object (->most often accusative, but it depends on the verb).
You can say: František neni otec svého syna? meaning František is not the father of his son?. It does not make much sense without the svého possessive.
You can also say: František není otec toho chlapce? meaning František is not the Father of that boy?
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Hi everyone, thanks for your help guys :) 'František není têch chlapcú otec' was marked wrong. I seem to have frequent problems with word order in Czech, where can I find clear rules about word order in Czech? Am I missing some basic rule? Thx for ur help, have lovely day to all of u. :)
The non-agreeing modifier (that means it does not follow the case and number of the word it modifies) like "těch chlapců" must be after the word it modifies (otec).
You could say that the word "to" is used in this sentence, but not the nominative neuter form. The genitive plural form of the demonstrative pronouns ten/ta/to is těch.
Chlapec is masculine, so we need ten chlapec for "the/that boy".
Genitive singular: toho chlapce - "of the/that boy" (the/that boy's)
Nominative plural: ti chlapci - "the/those boys"
Genitive plural: těch chlapců - "of the/those boys" (the/those boys')
Yes, but we do not have the non-clitic stand-alone TO translated as this/that used together with JE.
"Those" is also accepted. There is no need for to here, and není is the negative form of je. If I have not understood your question correctly, perhaps someone else will offer something else.
The subject of the sentence is František.
František is not ... František není ...
Then you can consider the rest:
otec těch chlapců ... the father of the/those boys
It has to be the plural, so "otec (těch) kluků". If it were "the boy's father", we would have "otec (toho) kluka". Did you try reading the Tips that come with the web lessons?
