"We do not want to age either."
Translation:Stárnout nechceme ani my.
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Please explain why "my" is necessary here but in other cases we is understood.
1040
Without “my” the word “ani” would have nothing to refer to. The English “either” makes a distinction between “we” and somebody else who does not want to age. So there is an emphasis (or opposition) on “we.”
If you take a different approach and translate it as "My také nechceme stárnout" then you can omit the pronoun and have "Také nechceme stárnout" with the stress on "we" completely removed. But the word "ani" cannot stand alone, it needs something to bind to.
I am learning, too, so this is a guess.... It's probably there for emphasis, like "WE don't want to age either." As I understand it, a word to be emphasized is often placed at the end of the sentence.
There is nothing in the sentence to imply emphasis, like an exclamation point. This totally confuses me.
You're absolutely right about that, and it's true of A LOT of these sentences. Without context, it's awfully difficult for us to know what is in the "speaker's" head. Also, sometimes someone says that emphasized words tend to be placed at the end of a sentence, then at another time someone else says that XXX is at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis. Those two statements may not be mutually exclusive, in terms of Czech grammar and word order, but it IS very confusing when you're your're trying to learn the language and your head is about to explode! :-)
Thanks - l’m going to quit worrying about it and just parrot back whatever they seem to want.
No, here we have "ani my" "not even us". And in your sentence it would be "ani nechceme" "we don't even want".
Is there any difference in meaning between "Stárnout nechceme ani my" and "Stárnout nechceme my ani" ? or last one is just incorrect?
The other sentence is just incorrect, ani is a conjunction that comes before something it negates.
Some exceptions can be found in poetry where the word order often changes to follow some rythmic pattern.
You should use "ani" to say "not...either" or "not even".
It is also possible to use "také" instead, but then the word order has to be "My také nechceme stárnout" - preferably with "my" included, because it's contrasted with someone else who also doesn't want to age.
The sentence is very ambiguous. It could mean 'We (like you) also don't want to age' or 'We don't want to age (as well as other things - stop going to parties, lose our teeth etc) How could these two meanings be expressed in Czech. For the second one is ' Take nechceme starnout' acceptable?
You put "ani" (or "i" in positive sentences) directly before whatever you want to emphasize.
- "Také nechceme stárnout" is ambiguous.
- "Stárnout nechceme ani my" or "Ani my nechceme stárnout" is solely the first meaning.
- "Nechceme ani stárnout" or "Ani stárnout nechceme" is solely the second meaning.
- "Ani nechceme stárnout" is yet another meaning -- "We don't even want to age." or it could be the second meaning again, as well.
This little "trick" hadn't registered with me yet. Thanks for pointing it out!
I wrote: Nechceme ani stárnout. This was not accepted - and that was too bad for me since I was doing an unsupported level of lesson -LOL. But here you offer it as a possible sentence, so is my sentence actually wrong, or just awkward, or does it for some reason need "my", or should I just let this sentence age gracefully? :-)
The question is -- should it be accepted? It's an unlikely meaning. And whenever someone enters "Nechceme ani stárnout" and it will be accepted, they might be easily misled into believing that that's how you say "Even we don't want to age", when it actually only means the unlikely "We don't even want to age in addition to not wanting something else."
My appreciation for the Moderators' efforts is boundless. You all are highly dedicated teachers, as evidenced by the patience you show in your thoughtful replies. By all means, hold strong to the intended learning that you hope your students will gain from each sentence.
I answered "Nechceme ani stárnout my." But it wasn't accepted. Can anyone explain why?
"ani" must be placed just before the word that it emphasizes. Here we want to say that it's even us, not just other people who don't want to get old. Therefore: "Ani my nechceme stárnout" or "Ani my stárnout nechceme" or "Stárnout nechceme ani my" or even, less commonly, "Stárnout ani my nechceme".
Just wondering, based on the "emphasis" reference: Could we have "ani stárnout" if the English thought were something like, "We don't even want to get older, let alone die"?
Yes, placing "ani" before "stárnout" emphasizes that:
- We don't even want to get older, let alone die. - Nechceme ani stárnout, natož umřít.
- We don't want to get younger, and we don't want to get older either. - Nechceme mládnout a nechceme ani stárnout.
Or another example:
- Nechci lízátko! Nechci ani zmrzlinu! - I don't want a lollipop! I don't want ice cream either!
- Matěj nechce zmrzlinu. Ani já nechci zmrzlinu. (or: Zmzrlinu nechci ani já.) - Matěj doesn't want ice cream. I don't want ice cream either. (can be same in English as in the previous example)
- Zmrzlinu? Zmrzlinu ani nechci. - I'm not really in the mood for ice cream. (This one a little shifted from the literal "not even want" meaning.)
- 1040
Wasn't a similar topic discussed two months ago, and AgnusDinas wrote:
- "Nechceme ani stárnout" or "Ani stárnout nechceme" is solely the second meaning [= don't want to age, in addition to other things we don't want]
I think "emphasis" here is with respect to other parts of the same sentence (such as "we"), not with respect to similar but alternative sentences.
Thank you for pointing out my failure to "Please read the existing discussion," as I have often suggested to others.