"When he is thirsty, he drinks even water."

Translation: Když má žízeň, pije i vodu.

[kpxja23]

what's the difference between "kdy" and "když"?

[VladaFu]

Kdy is asking when something happened or will happen. (When are we going to do it?)

Když is for relative temporal clauses (I was doing it when you came in.) or for conditional clauses (I will do it only when he will do it too.).

[kpxja23]

thanks! very clear

[AlexanderK291823]

It would be better English to say 'when he is thirsty, he even drinks water'. So, in answer to Dillon below, the meaning is that he will resort to drinking water when he is thirsty but he doesn't usually drink it.

[VladaFu]

I can understand that. But I think the author wanted to stress that in the Czech sentence the "i" binds with "water", not with "pije". So he will resort to drinking even water and not some other drink. While in "he even drinks water" he will resort to drinking water instead of doing something else.

[PaulRobert667871]

I understand the distinction you are able to make in Czech by changing the position of "i" in this case, but in English we would almost never say "...he drinks even water", but rather say "...he even drinks water" and use voice stress, another qualifier, or other context to explain whether he would drink something besides water, or do something besides drink the water.

As the English is now, it sounds awkward. I'm not saying it's grammatically impossible, just really irregular and a confusing example for non-native speakers.

[Chris900231]

For the second half of this sentence, could you also say "..., pije ani vodu"? In other words substitute ani for i?

[VladaFu]

No that is impossible. "ani" is used in negative clauses (not even).