"Dogs are allowed here."

Translation: Psi sem smějí.

[BoneheadBass]

I'm curious why "sem" is used instead of "tady." Is it because the real meaning of the sentence is "Dogs are allowed (to come) here? Just wondering...

[VladaFu]

Yes, this Czech translation is like that. "Psi sem smějí (vstoupit/přijít)." "Dogs are allowed (to enter/to come) here.".

You can as well say "Dogs are allowed to be here." "Psi tady smějí být."

Another translation, very close to the English original is "Psi jsou zde povoleni." allowed=povolen/povolený

[Paul378887]

I just wrote “psi tady smějí být” and it was not accepted.

[VladaFu]

Well, yes, that is, as I wrote, "Dogs are allowed to be here.", that is a different sentence.

[kacenka9]

"Sem" is a direction. "to here (from somewhere)". "Tady" is static. Simple "Here".

Most commonly used in "Pojď sem" = come here.

[Shathu_Entayla]

Can we say that "tady" is "here, and "sem" is "to here"? As well as kde vs kam?

[walkinwolk]

Great explanation. I always wondered about this.

[BoneheadBass]

Vladimir and Kacenka, thank you both for taking the time to respond. I really appreciate the work you and others do behind the scenes to help those of us who are struggling with Czech!

Czech, by the way, was listed in an article I saw recently as one of the "very hard" languages for native English speakers to learn. On the bright side, however, it was NOT in the "super hard" group, so that's something! :-)

[Paul747131]

I totally agree: Thank you both for answering all our question!