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- "I remember that day."
"I remember that day."
Translation:Ten den pamatuju.
5 Comments
I'm noticing inconsistent usage of si/se/na with pamatuje. Which of these particles does it take and when?
Is "Pamatuju se na ten den" wrong? What's the correct way to use pamatuju?
It's correct, I have added it now.
The trouble with "pamatovat" is that there are 3 ways of using it, so it's difficult to encompass all the possible correct permutations (together with various word orders etc.).
- Pamatuju ten den.
- Pamatuju si ten den.
- Pamatuju se na ten den.
There are subtle nuances in the meaning between those three, but they're all used and all correct.
Looking for a little clarification. I wrote "Tamten den pamatuju" which was not correct. Had the prompt been about "the" day, then I would understand, but when it says "that" day, I think I need to use the more specific article (Tam). If someone would reply about how to generalize this usage I would appreciate it.
I added it. But you are relying on a drastically simplified representation of THE=TEN and THAT=TAMTEN. There is much more to it.
"TEN" is not the Czech definite article, but rather a wider word that overlaps with both THE and THAT. Czech frequently uses noun phrases without TEN where English needs the definite article. After all, Czech has a fluid word order, which it often uses to show the parts of the statement already connected to some known context, while English is often stuck with having to stick the article or another determiner in there to make that clear. I have a dream. The dream is that...
Where English uses THAT, Czech has a wider selection of demonstratives: TEN, TAMTEN, TAMHLETEN, ONEN. TEN will probably always work (and never mind that it overlaps into the THE territory). TAMHLETEN matches the uses of THAT X OVER THERE, so it is a poor fit for abstract things. TAMTEN may not be as bad as that, but it also works much better for real objects (as if the TAM really did connect to some physical THERE, as in THE X THERE), and with something like "den", I get the image of someone pointing to the spot in the calendar. (I only see things like TAMTEN DEN and TAMTU NOC in not exactly confidence inspiring translations of English books.)
ONEN is more bookish but does not suffer from the real/abstract limitation. (I do not think we teach it.)
