"Františka ten zvláštní člověk nezajímá."
Translation:František is not interested in that strange person.
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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.
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I've read the comments below, and I feel this answer needs to be changed.
"To interest" and "To be interested in" are two different verbs. From what I've read, "To interest" is "Zajímat" and "To be interested in" is "Zajímat se," and even though the MEANING may be interchangeable in Czech (just like in English), they should be treated separately in the literal English translation if the focus is on nominative vs. accusative. Otherwise, this is super confusing for learners.
If František is in the accusative (Františka) then he MUST be the recipient of the action in which case the literal translation is, "That strange person does not interest František."
"That strange person does not interest František" is among the accepted translations, and your logic is sound.
But I would suggest, as a fellow learner, that, while the whole "X is interested in Y / Y interests X" thing is definitely confusing, the teaching purpose of switching things up may be to demonstrate that there are two ways of making the same point, and they involve different word orders -- just as they do in English.
While I might be curious to know why Option A, rather than Option B, was chosen as a the main translation, It wouldn't prevent me from sooner or letter "getting the message." :-) (As always, just one person's opinion!)
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!
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?
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It must be wrong. Other examples show that František is the subject who is interested in sth.: O to se František nezajima = František is not interested in that. František se o ženy nezajímá = František is not interested in women.
But here: Františka ten zvlastni člověk nezajímá = František is not interested in that strange person. -- The only exception would be if the missing reflexive "se" may change the subject to the object.
They are just two ways of saying the same thing:
- František (subject, nominative) se nezajímá o toho člověka (object, locative). = František is not interested in the person.
- Františka (object, accusative) nezajímá ten člověk (subject, nominative). = The person does not interest František. (not very common in English)
So, yes, the missing "se" changes a lot. It's very important if a verb is reflexive (se, si) or not. Compare:
- František učí matematiku. = František teaches math.
- František se učí matematiku. = František studies math.
- Matěj půjčil peníze (Františkovi). = Matěj lent money (to František).
- Matěj si půjčil peníze (od Františka). = Matěj borrowed money (from František).
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.
"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.
I still don't really understand why the accusative of Frantisek is used ie Frantiska when he is the one who is not interested
Two ways of saying the same thing, in both languages:
- František (subject) is interested in Matěj. - František (subject) se zajímá o Matěje.
- Matěj (subject) interests František. - Matěj (subject) zajímá Františka. = Františka zajímá Matěj.
Both Czech and English are able to express the same idea with person A as the subject or person B as the subject. While the second way is not very natural in English, Czech is fine with both ways. Don't be fooled by the word order though.