"Those girls are getting to know those cities."

Translation: Tamta děvčata poznávají tamta města.

[chris95041]

Getting to know? That seems like a meaning of this word that hasn't been presented and may be uncommon. Wiktionary suggests a literary usage of 'experience'. Can a native speaker comment on the use of this word?

[VladaFu]

You probably wanted an English speaker. From a Czech speaker point of view just comparing the dictionary definitions of

"poznávat" http://bara.ujc.cas.cz/psjc/search.php?hledej=Hledej&heslo=pozn%C3%A1vati&where=hesla&zobraz_ps=ps&zobraz_cards=cards&pocet_karet=3&ps_heslo=poznati&ps_startfrom=0&ps_numcards=915&numcchange=no&not_initial=1

and "experience" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experience

they may coincide in the "2. to learn by experience" definition. Poznávat really contains the aspect of getting some knowledge about something from, for example, observing it.

[chris95041]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for your clarification in this point. I definitely wanted some input from a native Czech speaker, as your understanding of the word goes far deeper than the simple definitions in translation dictionaries I am currently limited to reading. I will keep this in mind.

[PritelBobka]

I answered, "Tamta města tamta děvčata poznávají." I used this order based how I've seen many other sentences constructed in these lessons. This was marked wrong.

Is this a case, where because both are plural neuter, you cannot tell which is in the nominative and which is in the accusative (i.e., the situation I always suspected was coming but couldn't confirm)?

In a case such as this, is it safe to assume order matters, and if so, does that order always have to be SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT as in the case of this answer?

[VladaFu]

This order works, but for recognizing, not for getting to know.

When you stress the verb, it makes much better sense to stress that they DO RECOGNIZE them, rather than that they ARE GETTING TO KNOW them.

[PritelBobka]

Thanks as always, that makes sense.

Out of curiosity, if someone said, "Tamta zvířata tamta děvčata poznávají," would you interpret this as "Those animals recognize those girls," or "those girls recognize those animals."? Is there a standard or more common way to make this unambiguous? For example, would you split subject and object with the verb? Would you put the subject first?

[BoneheadBass]

So... "poznávat" can be translated as both to RECOGNIZE and to GET TO KNOW?

The meanings in English are slightly different. Would you use "poznávat," for example, in both of the situations below?

SITUATION ONE -- I'm walking down the street and I see someone that I recently met briefly... I RECOGNIZE her, even though I don't know much about her and don't even remember her name.

SITUATION TWO -- I'm sitting in a bar and I see a guy I first met there, and with whom I've had a beer several times recently. Having chatted with him a few times already... I feel like I am GETTING TO KNOW him.

Thanks for any insight someone might offer!

[rsail]

BHBass, your examples make sense. I will add, that based on my Czech learning experience your second example could also be "BECOMING ACQUAINTED WITH"

[VladaFu]

Yes, both.

Also "poznávat jiné kultury" "getting to know other cultures". "Poznává svou dceru" - "He recognizes his daughter.".