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- "Nejez špinavýma rukama!"
11 Comments
Why Do not eat with your hands dirty but better is Do not eat with your dirty hands
I would translate that as "Nejez se svýma špinavýma rukama.".
I can feel some difference in the meaning of "with your hands dirty"="with your hands when they are dirty" and of "with your dirty hands"="your hands are dirty so do not eat with them". But some native English speakers can comment on that.
Maybe, you are correct with the difference in the meaning of both English sentences. Nevertheless, I presume that the Czech sentence can be translated in both manners.
When you flip the order, you should omit "your" to keep the same meaning: "Do not eat with dirty hands" - and that's an accepted answer.
I would personally translate "Don't eat with your dirty hands" as "Nejez těma špinavýma rukama".
I don't get why sometimes you use "s" meaning as "with", and others just use Instrumental Case, as in this case.
Different verbs use different prepositions or direct objects. Like in English.
Oh! It is just that? In that case i will be more aware of it. I wasnt paying attention to that. Thanks!
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I think when 'with' means together (walk with me) or possessing (cat with black ears) it is translated 's'/'se' but when 'with' means the instrument used then you just put the instrument in the instrumental case. Here 'dirty hands' is the instrument used for eating so no 's'/'se'
Actually, there are two possibilities in Czech.
Nejez špinavýma rukama. Indeed the hands are like an instrument and you should not eat with them when they are dirty.
Nejez se špinavýma rukama. Don't eat while having your hands dirty.
I just checked the corpus and both are possible.
If you are using the Comitative case (using, by means of...) you do not use any preposition, it is already a part of the Instrumental case (kým, čím) Do not eat (using) dirty hands
