"Ta hruška je pro nás."

Translation: That pear is for us.

[Karolina660330]

Can I have a question about this that the. My Czech teacher told me there is not much difference between ten and tenhle, but here, ten, ta, to is consistently translated as "that" (which for me in English is the one further away, less immediately discussed). And then almost all the sentences in the Czech duolingo are with "that"! This is indeed strange, and seems like there is some semantic problem. And then another thing is that sometimes "ten, ta, to" are translated as "the". Can anybody refer me to a reliable source (like a grammar, or an academic article) that explains this in detail? And of course any insight from the community would be great!

[Paul440375]

I can provide you with my opinion as a native Czech speaker. I feel like "ten" can be translated as either "this", "the" or "that" (depending on situation), but if you want to be more specific, you use the translation "tento/tenhle" for "this" and "tamten/tamhleten" for "that".

[AmeliaD.Warbeck]

why would "this" not be accepted? How would I say "this pear" in Czech then?

[nueby]

If we meant "this pear", we (the contributors for this course) would primarily say "tato hruška" or "tahle hruška".

Imagine the fun of sentences like "This pear is for us and that one is for them.", which apparently would conveniently end up as "Ta hruška je pro nás a ta je pro ně.", as if Czech could not make the "this/that" distinction.

It is easier to remove the training wheels when the student can keep their own balance.