"Dvě jeho ženy přišly o hlavu."

Translation: Two of his wives lost their heads.

[Alun612958]

If two of his wives lost their head, and it doesn't mean "went crazy", I'm guessing he's called Henry and had 6 wives..?

[iad58g]

Aye, he's the chap. Or in Czech he's called Jindřich VIII. Tudor.

[thexeem]

Well, I read through the comments but I'm still quite confused.
Does "Dvě jeho ženy" equal to "dvě z jeho žen"?
To my mind, the meanings are slightly not the same. The first case may imply that HE has only two wifes, but the second one -- that he has many wives

[magpie_gir]

It's like you wrote.

Dvě jeho ženy - you don't know if he had only two or more wives

Dvě z jeho žen - you know that he had at least three wives. "z" means 'from a larger set/collection', eg. 3 z 6 = 3 out of 6

[Zeego1]

I really hope this is just a saying for "went crazy"

[VladaFu]

Certainly not in Czech.

[cozarro]

https://cs.wiktionary.org/wiki/ztratit_hlavu

[VladaFu]

Yes, sure, let's just not pretend it that this ztratit hlavu is the same as přijít o hlavu.

[cozarro]

ofc, but closer to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lose_one%27s_head

[VladaFu]

I don't think it is closer. Both are on the same level for me. Přijít o něco = to lose something = ztratit něco in their basic meaning.

[folshost]

Why is it "Dvě jeho ženy" instead of "Dvě jeho žen"?

[Jamie08MD]

You would use genitive (žen), if the numeral was higher than 4 (ie. 5+ or indefinite numeral). From the amount of 5, the things/people/etc. are no longer viewed individually, but as one group (due to historical reasons).

jedna žena přišla (singular); dvě/tři/čtyři ženy přišly (plural); pět žen přišlo (again singular and the noun-subject is in genitive plural).

I'm quite sure it's mentioned in the tips and notes as well if you want to read more about it.

[kacenka9]

There is also an option not mentioned in the otherwise great explanation above. You can say "Dvě Z jeho žen". Two OUT OF his wives.

[igamenir]

"ženy" is nominative, "žen" is genitive.

[JosephAKr]

I like how this is probably talking about Henry VIII. It's great! I think it would be more accurate to say 'Dve z jeho zen' because of the fact that he had 6... haha :)

[BoneheadBass]

You'll be pleased to learn that the reverse exercise accepts translations that use "dvě z jeho žen." :-)

[JosephAKr]

Oh ok that’s nice

[nueby]

CENSORED.

[Maya943954]

Shouldn't it be "their heads," not "their head"?

[VladaFu]

It is accepted. Do you have a reaspn to believe "head" is wrong?

[ken55414]

To me as a native American English speaker, the only possibility of two people loosing their head would be co-joined twins with only one head. If we think of the heads of companies there are slightly less unlikely possibilities. Two workers could work for two different companies headed by the same person. If that head person left both companies, the two workers would loose their head. If the companies had different heads who left at the same time, the two workers would loose their heads.

[nueby]

This was an error on my part. I agree that English and Czech view the reality of one thing per person in a group differently. People lose their lives, but lidé přicházejí o život. I am switching it up, which will spread the challenge to the reverse exercise.