"Vzal mi ze stolu sešívačku."

Translation: He took a stapler off my desk.

[Shathu_Entayla]

Is this "He took my stapler of my desk" wrong?

[tatka_]

How do you know that the stapler is mine? Only the desk is mine.

[Shathu_Entayla]

Actually is not defined. That "mi" is a clitic. And it affects the verb. It would be literally "He took me, from desk, stapler". In that sense both of them can be "mine". I think It would depend on context actually.

But I'm not a native. Let them answer.

[VladaFu]

Basically yes, he took it from me, but it didn't have to be necessarily mine.

[DaliborNovy]

Sorry, I disagree.

"Vzal mi sešívačku." ... "He took my stapler."

"ze stolu" ... "off the desk" (/ "off my desk" in this case).

Just please consider it again. And then I will agree and keep silent :-)

[svrsheque]

no, it was not yours just because he took it from you. you are seeing things that are not there. the dative means he took it from you, thus impacting you.

ETA: on second and third thought, the dative of involvement is so weird that it could have been your desk and/or your stapler, or even neither. if it is neither, i will need to think through the translations because the involvement would seem positive (gain) rather than negative (loss), like he brought/took it for you.

and yes, He took my stapler. is a good translation of Vzal mi sešívačku.

[DaliborNovy]

OK, thank you, svrsheque . Just one last question. Can I translate this sentence "Vzal mi sešívačku." as "He took my stapler." ? Or am I wrong also at this point?

[DaliborNovy]

Well, thank you, svrsheque. And also thanks for adding these alternatives.

[AgnusOinas]

FWIW, "He took a/the/my stapler from/off a/the/my desk/table" are all accepted solutions, among others.

Just note that it can't be "of my desk".

[DaliborNovy]

I don't want to be a troublemaker but I think these combinations should be excluded:

"He took a/the stapler from/off a/the desk/table."

If there are only a/the in both positions, then the meaning of the word "mi" from the Czech sentence is missing.

Anyway, Thank You!

[AgnusOinas]

Yes, you're right, and the combinations where there is no "my" on either side are, indeed, not accepted. I only wrote a simplified "template" in the comment above, it's more complicated in the actual system ;)

[DaliborNovy]

Okay, then there is no problem :-) Good night!

[Dona-Pier]

So from what I understand from the comment, this means:

He took a stapler off my desk.
He took my stapler off my desk.
He took my stapler off a desk.

Could it mean: ?
He took the stapler off the desk from me.

And

"Vzal mi sešívačku." means

He took my stapler.
He took the stapler from me.

That's quite a lot of informations!