"Žofie, you are a good friend."
Translation:Žofie, vy jste dobrá přítelkyně.
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Hello. Here, in Czech Republic, I am attending currently Czech Language course. Teacher told us that words "přítelkyně" and "přitel" refer to girlfriend/boyfriend relationship, and that "kamarádka" and "kamarád" are used for describing the friend relationship.
Milica, I agree with your teacher. If you're under 50 and in Prague and use the word "přítel/přítelkyně", it will be interpretted as "boyfriend/girlfriend", regardless of your or your friend's gender.
Outside of Prague and/or in older people's speech and/or in special circumstances where it's somehow clear that the speaker does not mean a romantic partner, "přítel/přítelkyně" may be used to mean a good, trusted, sincere friend. The word is old-fashioned, and it has a heavy tone today, it can't be used for a buddy or acquaintance. It even sounds a bit too serious when used for boyfriend/girlfriend, at least in Prague, and other expressions are preferred, based on individual taste.
I have asked my friends in a Czech forum the other day, how they perceive the word přítel when uttered about a přítel of a male person and they agreed that they do not understand him to be a gay partner. In these circles the word partner would be normally used. It may have changed in the recent years but in that case it won't be universal. (I and those people are currently 30-50).
For example: "Casanova ve svých Pamětech zaznamenává , že jeho přítel , hrabě Tiretta de Trevisa , v průběhu popravy čtyřikrát zezadu pomiloval dámu , za níž u okna stál" Not only it is very unlikely he was his gay boyfriend, I would even find the word kamarád to be completely inappropriate here.
That is not the full truth. Firstly, when they are of the same gender then (přítel/přítelkyně) normally mean just a friend. Secondly, even in English a girlfriend of a girl is just her female friend. Thirdly, when you say "jsou přátelé", "jsou přítelkyně", it always means "they are friends".
Olda and the singer are not gay partners, they are just friends https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JayYApaMGsA
In USA English, girlfriend is very heavily perceived as romantic. There are still some places where girlfriend is used to refer to both romantic and platonic, but without the nuances, I would not recommend anybody learning English in order to visit the USA to use girlfriend unless they mean romantic partner.
I appreciate getting the nuance in meaning, and also got a kick out of watching the video. LOL Wild. I then shared the vid to my brother and friends. Thanks, VladaFu.
Anothe current example:
Hvězda Devadesátek Ondřej Sokol přiznal: Boss podsvětí Spěvák je jeho přítel!
https://www.blesk.cz/clanek/celebrity-serialy-filmy-kino-a-tv/703984/hvezda-devadesatek-ondrej-sokol-priznal-boss-podsveti-spevak-je-jeho-pritel.html
They are not gay partners, they are just good friends.
(Disclaimer: found by chance, I do not read this tabloid.)
Žofie is a girl's name. You need "a friend" to be also feminine (přítelkyně or kamarádka).
It isn't. I can see a report from yesterday, but it should have been accepted.
Most likely, it is a problem with the Duolingo mobile app, it sometimes does that.
It is supposed to be accepted.
It isn't. Answers without the pronoun are also accepted. If your answer was rejected, we can't tell you why unless we know exactly what you typed. (That's where the Report button comes in handy...)
I wrote, "Zofie, jsi dobra pritelkyne ty." which was not accepted. I wrote the ty for emphasis. I know it wasn't needed, but really wanted to make it personal to my good friend Zofie. Too much?
"Jsi dobra pritelkyne ty?" only works for a question. For a declarative sentence use "Dobra pritelkyne jsi ty." or "Ty jsi dobra pritelkyne." anything similar.
So I was informed by my Czech friend that kamarád and Kamarádka are more common for "friend" while přítel and přítelkyně are more common for boyfriend/girlfriend. I'm sure that it can have both meanings and I'm assuming that the word that is taught here on duolingo is more formal, correct?
Yes, your friend is right, although opinions on this matter vary. Generally, "přítel/přítelkyně" is very formal when used as "friend" and as such, it usually means "sincere, trusted friend". More often, it's used as "boyfriend/girlfriend", but a lot of people wouldn't even use it for that, preferring "můj kluk / moje holka" or "můj milý / moje milá" etc. "Kamarád/kamarádka" are the most common words for "friend". Then there's the colloquial-informal "kámoš/kámoška" which corresponds to "buddy" or "pal".
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"Jseš" was marked as correct, but a typo (corrected to "jsi"). Is "jseš" really not correct?
Why is not acceptable přítel? I Though that přítelkyně is for girlfriend, přítel for best friends, and kamarádka for other friends.
Please read the previous discussion here. It certainly needs to be a feminine word. Some will use only kamarádka, some would also allow přítelkyně, but it needs to be a feminine word. Přítel is a male person, be it a boyfriend or just a friend.
Of course in plural, přátelé, can be any friends, male or female.
So I put "Zofie, jsi dobra pritelkyne" (with proper accents) and it was not accepted. .
In these cases, where obviously correct translations are claimed to be not accepted, a screenshot would be most interesting. There used to be a grading bug that rejected stuff from the accepted translations list, but it appears to be long gone. Most often, such claimed translations contain other errors like typos, missing words or extra words.
Isn´t it a little weird that the plural you is used here in the same sentence where the person is referred to her first name..?
Even though "tykání" (using the singular "ty") often corresponds to "being on a first-name basis" in English, it's not exactly the same, and it's possible to have a relation with someone where you're maintaining a level of respect and formality (using vy) while being friendly (courteous, nice) to each other (using first names). It doesn't happen very often nowadays (usually it's surname + vy, or first name + ty), but it's still possible, especially in a working or academic environment.