"I do not know whether to look."
Translation:Nevím, jestli se dívat.
7 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1023
I wrote Neznám jestli se dívat and it wasn't accepted. What is the difference between Nevím and Neznám?
Since you have French in your profile this should be easy. Connaitre - znat, savoir - vedet.
- 922
Znat is to know in the sense of to be familiar with, and is the form used with people. "Znam ho."
Vedet is to know more concretely or factually. Many languages make this distinction, and you may be familiar with the concept from one of those.
The difference was explained to me like this: ZNÁT always takes a direct object, while VĚDĚT is usually followed by a clause. I don't know if this is an absolute, there-are-no-exceptions rule, but it's been very helpful to me.
- 1983
Shouldn’t se be in the second place? Why here it is in the third? Or do we count the place after the comma? Thanks.
Somewhat confusingly, the word that wants to be in the "second position" is not always placed literally after the first word in a sentence. It can also come after the first word in a clause, or after the first "unit of meaning" (a group of related words, like an adjective with the noun it modifies) in a sentence or a clause.
Here, se is the second word in the second clause of the sentence... so it actually does follow the "second position" rule. And, yes. the comma separates the first clause from the second.
