"Whose tree is it?"
Translation:Čí je ten strom?
15 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Posssible, but rather for: "Whose tree is that one?"
Here you have "ten strom" for "the tree"/"that tree".
Čí why does this word have so many syllables, is it supposed to be that incredibly long
There is a known but unresolved problem with the word čí on the Duo system side. It is not something that the Czech team can control.
It is a well known problem. Please do NOT report using the report buttons.
1050
Reading this answer I was a bit surprised but I guess it just means that the following sentences are semantically equivalent:
- Čí je ten strom?
- Čí je to strom?
Still, the grammatical structure is different, right? In the first case the subject is “ten strom” (whose is (that tree)), in the second it's just “to” (literally “whose is (that one) (a tree) = whose tree is that).” After all, “ten” can modify “strom” but “to” cannot, as “strom” is masculine (inanimate).
I would appreciate a correction if I am wrong.
You are correct. The reason to accept both is that they both lead the same English translation as *"Whose is that tree." is not natural enough.
Why is "Ci je strom ten?" incorrect? I'm sure there are instructions somewhere, but I don't seem to have access to them. I'd like to know what the word order means. Sometimes, it seems the Czech word order can be rearranged at will, especially with the "to be" phrases.
"ten strom" is a fixed unit (that tree), with "ten" being the demostrative pronoun acting as a determiner, it can't be moved anywhere.
Instead of literally "Whose is that tree?" (Čí je ten strom?), we also have the option of saying literally "Whose tree is it/that?" -- and that translates to "Čí strom je to?" or "Čí je to strom?" -- here we have two word order choices, because the "to" is not a determiner of "strom" (note that it doesn't even match its gender), it just means "it".