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- "dobrá mladá žena"
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Hi. I have spoken about the use of žena to mean woman or wife in regards to another question "čekám na ženu" And I received a great answer :- Both (wife/woman and žena/manželka) are accepted now, here and in the reverse exercise. But I think the important take-away is that when žena is without a possessive pronoun and with no other clarifying modifier, it it almost always understood as "wife." So what is it that I am missing here that tells me this sentence is referring to a woman and not a wife? Would something be considered to be a clarifying modified maybe ?? Thankyou for your help.
I'm native AmE and I understand your dilemma!
FWIW, for me the question would be: What is it about this sentence fragment that would tell me I'm referring to a wife and not a woman? While both translations are accepted, I would just expect the phrase to be used more often when referring to a woman then when referring than to a wife.
I can easily imagine someone using "good young woman" as a description in many contexts, so "real world" use would likely remove the confusion. Another factor, for me, would be that "woman" is the primary translation of žena, while "wife" is more of a special usage, so I'd probably go with "woman," absent clear context.
I saw this translation: 'good young wife'. It's very disturbing that the answers differ al the time for the same words...
Because žena could mean either, depending on context. At many, but not all, situations the word ŽENA can mean wife. Most of the time it means WOMAN but at certain times, specially when preceded by possesive pronoun like MY, HIS, etc. it means WIFE only.
That is true, but, indeed, we have even more ways, how to say "wife". There is for example a special word, with just this meaning, which is "manželka", so I would prefer using that. Especially since "žena" is confusing for beginners.
Is the l in "mlada" silent, or is it just a mispronounciation by the translaton (Or AI, whatever you call it).
No, it is not silent and the pronunciation is excelent here. Try also forvo.com for real people recordings.
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Is it just me, or does the pronunciation of dobrá in the fast and the slow version sond like dobreá? Is that the correct pronunciation?
Is the order of the adjectives anything to think about? Would "mlada dobra zena" be just as good as the other way around? (Sorry, I don't know how to get to the Czech alphabet).
It could probably work. I am not completely sure. We actually translate "good old" as "stará dobrá" but that is idiomatic (stará dobrá Anglie). Here we have an actual young woman.
Thanks! I will stick with the order given in the lessons. Checking out these discussions has been very helpful for me. Whenever I wonder about something, usually somebody has already asked the same question. Thank you so much for your contributions here---and thanks to the other moderators, too. :)
