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- "Františka ten zvláštní člově…
"Františka ten zvláštní člověk nezajímá."
Translation:František is not interested in that strange person.
27 Comments
Since člověk is in the nominative while František is in the accusative, shouldn't this instead be translated as "That strange person doesn't interest František"? The meaning is similar but there is a grammatical difference.
The translation reads: "František is not interested in that strange person." but isn't it the other way around? "That strange person is not interested in Frantisek"?
Which one would be? As I understand it, "František nezajímá toho zvláštního člověka." means "Frantisek is not interested in that strange person"
Ok, so now that this is clear, I don't understand why toho zvlastniho cloveka is accusative if it translates as the subject of the verb.
Is it because the czech structure is closer to "frantisek is not of interest to that strange person"?
zajímá is actually much like "interests":
- That strange person interests me. the object of my interest is in the nominative and serves as the subject of the verb. "me" is in the remnant of the accusative. Ten zvláštní člověk mě zajímá. is conveniently almost word for word.
we can make "me" the subject. but then we need to either switch to the "be interested" construction or express it differently:
- I am interested in that strange person. czech does this reversal for this verb (and others) by adding the "se": Zajímám se o toho zvláštního člověka.
why is "se" omitted? I supposed that "to be (not) interested in" is always translated into " (ne)zajímat se o"
Zajímat and zajímat se are two different verbs. "Zajímat" - means that something interests me (or someone else) and "zajímat se" - means that i am (or somebody else is) interested in something.
This is it! The explanation I have been searching for! It finally clicked. Thank you!
Dekuji! I wondered why the correct answer was "zajima" rather than "se zajima" ? Thanks, ValaCZE!
In czech names are declined as well as nouns, pronouns and adjectives.
Yes, but isn't Frantisek the nominative in this sentence? He is the one who is interesed in something (the strange person which would be the accusative).
Nope, člověk is in nominative. Literally, but awkward English, it is "That strange man does not interest František." So František is the object and člověk is the subject of the sentence.
Is there a rule for which construction is most common? zajimat or zajimat se?
I've read all the discussion about this sentence. Having previously studied Latin, I understand the Czech declensions of nouns, nominative, accusative etc, but what I think particularly throws people and made me look twice in this exercise is the word order, i.e. accusative>verb. Can I ask, is there a rule in Czech for situations where the accusative comes before the nominative, or is it just something that is according to the whim of the speaker/writer?
Clovek is gender neutral ("person"), where muz means man. You'd use that whenever the gender of the person is unknown or irrelevant to the conversation, just as you'd use "person" in English.
Františka is accusative of František. In czech names we decline names.
"That strange man does not interest František." why this answer does not accept. " that stranger man " is subject right while Frantisek is Object. please help
"That strange man does not interest František." is accepted. Please try again.
