"Je nás pět set čtyřicet jedna."
Translation:There are five hundred and forty-one of us.
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Within the meaning of this statement, are there alternatives such as "My jsme..." or "To je/jsou..." to express the same thing? Thanks
No, not above four. My jsme tři. My jsme čtyři. Je nás pět. We use genitive after numbers above four, so it cannot be the subject of the sentence.
1023
I trust your conclusion (that "my jsme pět" is not valid Czech), but I do not understand the argument. In the sentence "my jsme tři", the number "tři" is not the subject.
Do you want to say that the numbers above four cannot stand alone, but one always needs to specify "five of something"?
What about: "my jsme pět žen." - is that valid?
"My jsme pět žen" is not valid. It has to be "Je nás pět žen."
Numbers 2, 3, and 4 act kind of like adjectives.
- My jsme dva/dvě.
- My jsme dvě ženy.
- My jsme hezké.
- My jsme hezké ženy.
- My jsme dvě hezké ženy.
- My jsme dva/tři/čtyři.
- My jsme dva/tři/čtyři hezcí muži.
In the above sentences, the subject is "my" and the rest is the predicate. The numbers 2, 3, 4 modify the noun (ženy, muži etc.) just like adjectives (hezké, hezcí) etc. modify it also.
From 5 on, it all changes. The number becomes the main entity (here it's the subject, but it can be an object in other sentences). The number binds with verbs in singular and you can attach nouns to it in the genitive:
- Je nás pět. Je nás deset. Je nás mnoho. Je nás málo.
- Je nás pět mužů. Je nás pět žen.
- Je nás šest hezkých mužů. Je nás sedm mladých žen.
As you can see, other quantities, such as "mnoho", "málo", "několik" (many, few, several) behave the same way as these numbers 5+.
- 1023
Thanks, that helps. What happens when numbers above and below the threshold are mixed? Example: We are four or five.
Hah! Good one. I would say "Je nás čtyři nebo pět" erring on the side of the higher numbers. And of course, you can always separate it and say "Jsme čtyři nebo je nás pět."
"Jsou tam dva lidi." but "Je tam dva až pět lidí." (two to five)
It surely is. The technical team of Duolingo somehow does not seem to agree. This is, sadly, done automatically.
It is in the Tips and notes: "Just like we did with 21 through 29, we form the compounds from 31 to 99 by following the appropriate multiple of ten with the appropriate numeral for one to nine, separated by a space. No matter what the gender of the counted entity, we use the feminine jedna and the masculine dva in these compounds."
