"Znám syna Kateřiny."
Translation:I know Kateřina's son.
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I know a son of Kateřina. Why not. Maybe Kateřina has two sons. Proč nemůže být a son? Katečina může mít dva syny. Thakns :-)
Your suggested English sentence, "I know a son of K", is equivalent in English to "I know one of the sons of K".
But that is not what the Czech sentence says. The Czech implies that K has one son. (Or am I mistaken?)
The correct English is therefore "K's son" = "the son of K'. English idiom requires the "the" if you use the latter form.
I am guessing, but perhaps: "Znám jednoho synů Kateřiny."
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
Here, syna is the accusative, as the direct object of the verb. The genitive and accusative singular forms of syn are the same. But Kateřiny is genitive (son OF Kateřina).
Weird question but... Could Kateřiny also be accusative plural and syna genitive singular?... does this mean that in a very specific context this sentence could mean "I know the son's Kateřinas"?
But for your meaning, wouldn't the word order then be as follows?
Znám Kateřiny syna = I know the Katerinas of the son
A funny notion :)
Seeing "Znám Kateřiny syna", I still immediately interpret it as "I know Kateřina's son" (or.. the son of Kateřina) -- just with an unusual word order, but not unheard of. The interpretation comes from the fact that it's a much more likely thing to say. It also sounds like a lazy way (Czechs do this sometimes) of saying "Znám Kateřinina syna", i.e. replacing the possessive adjective with a plain genitive without switching the word order.
If I really wanted to say "I know the son's Kateřinas" (let's say he's dating more than one girl named Kateřina), I would say "Znám synovy Kateřiny", using the possessive adjective, to remove the other meaning completely.
Angličtina nepoužívá určitý člen dohromady s přivlastňováním. Stejně tak nejde např. "I know the my son."
You can say: "I know the son of Kateřina" (less common)
