"Téměř jsem přišel o prst."

Translation: I nearly lost a finger.

[EinatAdar]

Why is there "o" in the Czech sentence?

[JanLyko]

"Přijít o" is a preposition connected to a verb in a very similar way to English "look after" or "wait for".

"Přijít k" means the opposite - "ke štěstí přišel", "přišel k penězům".

[EinatAdar]

Thanks for the explanation. One more thing to remember (:

[CountryCatSmith]

I don't get why the 'prisel o' has the form of 'he lost', but yet, it's 'I nearly lost...'
Is there any specific reason for that?

[VladaFu]

téměř is the nearly here.

[CountryCatSmith]

Ok yeah, sorry I didn’t look for the word téměř but more about ‘přišel o’. I see now it’s because it’s past tense, but do I then don’t have to include ‘jsem’ if it’s ‘I lost’?

[VladaFu]

Yes, you do. You have to specify the first person using this auxiliary verb. In colloquial speech you can also say "já přišel" but that is not considered standard.

[CountryCatSmith]

Ok, Is the ‘jsem’ in form of ‘o’ in this case then?

[VladaFu]

The "o" has nothing to do with the "jsem". The "o" is just the preposition used in "příjít o něco"="to lose something".

[LukasBlech]

"I barely lost a finger" isn't possible?

[VladaFu]

The meaning is different. Like Czech "jen tak tak". I barely escaped. Jen tak tak jsem unikl. Not. *Téměř jsem unikl. That means something else.

[CountryCatSmith]

I think it would be almost the same in daily speech, but i guess they want to get as close to the actual translation as possible with these lessons.

Also, 'barely' wouldn't always work for 'téměř'