"Why do sheep eat it?"
Translation:Proč jej žerou ovce?
29 Comments
Both the neuter demonstrative pronoun "to" and the neuter personal pronoun "ono" can function as the English "it". Those were the nominative forms. The accusative of "to" is also "to". The accusative of "ono" is "ho", "je", and "jej" (equivalent except for applicable sentence positions) without a preposition, and "ně" and "něj" (equivalent) after a preposition.
You may want to read the tips/notes for the Pronouns skill.
It's the accusative (with no preposition) so it would be "jej." I'm assuming it could also be "ho" or "je" also, but I don't recall whether or not there are special rules for those.
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"Proč ovce je žerou?" wasn't accepted for me. I'm curious if there is some special rule, or if that's an issue with Duolingo.
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This seems super sensitive to word order. I keep getting it wrong for things like "Proč žerou jej ovce?" or "Proč ovce je žerou?". Is the word order important and particular here, or is Duolingo just being picky?
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The pronouns are enclitics which must always be in second position.
Are you saying that a pronoun can ONLY be the second word in a sentence? EVER? If that's the case, it would be a very helpful rule to know!
Life would be too easy if that was true. It seems to be true only if the pronoun refers to the object of the sentence and it is a question. For sentences like "where is his house" the order would rather be "Kde je jeho dům?" But for "Where can I find him?" it is "Kde ho můžu najít?"
Yes, that was too much to hope for... Thank you for the clarification. If I'm lucky, I'll remember your explanation! (IF.)
The orders you are proposing are foreign to Czech. I would not call Czech w.o. or our handling of it super sensitive, but you can only push it so far.
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For some bizarre reason Proc zerou jej ovce was marked wrong. I get the word order was wrong, but the correct answer was given as "Proc je jedi ovce."
The word order is wrong. Jej requires the second position here.
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I understand that jej required the second position. I was wondering why it wanted to use the word "jedi" rather than "zerou"
Because the word order was wrong, as I said.
When you are wrong, the computer selects sentence which is accepted and which looks the closest to your sentence. It is quite dumb so the suggestions can be surprising.
Jedí is also acceptable instead of žerou, so it can happen to be in the suggested sentence.
from tips and notes: "Some of the forms can only appear in the second position in the clause (like the verb particle se). These "clitics" are the forms listed in italics. ".
"jej" is not marked in italics in the list. Can you confirm me is need in second position?
Some words are obligatory clitics, some can be used either in the weak position or in the strong position. So you can choose the weak (second) position: Proč jej žerou ovce? or you can stress it: Proč žerou ovce jej? (somewhat unusual, but possible)
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What is the infinitive of "žerou"? It seems that my dictionary does not know the verb.
It is žrát. You can see the full conjugation here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%BEr%C3%A1t.
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Why is "proč ovce žerou to ?" not correct please ? It is written in the lesson that why can use "to" for "it"...
You can use "to", just not in this specific word order.
Proč to žerou ovce?
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Thanks :) It's hard to find the good order of the words ^^ I tried "proč ovce to žerou ?", and it's incorrect too ! So hard (I'm french ^^)
Second position rule for to ;)
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Ok ^^ Everybody wants to be in the second position : to, se... Thanks ;)
You have two times IT in this sentence. JEJ and TO. You need to decide for one or the other.
In this case, no. The clue is "žerou" == THEY eat. Also, "sheep" is "ovce" in both the singular and plural. (And the other way round, too...)
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I understand my mistake, I am not a native English speaker and I though the plural of sheep was sheeps :)
