"His grandfather does not want to hear it."

Translation: Jeho dědeček to nechce slyšet.

[venik212]

I don't understand why "Jeho dědeček nechce to slyšet" is wrong. Does it mean something else, or violates some rule?

[VladaFu]

the second position trule for "to"

[FQGfV]

Thanks for that explanation. In the example, is the location of "to" the 2nd position because 'dědeček" is the first word that is stressed (i.e. "Jeho dědeček" is the first complete piece of information)?

[VladaFu]

Yes, "Jeho dědeček" is the first complete piece of information. Both of these two words are stressed and you can also stress any of them with some extra stress to make them the focus of the sentence.

[BjrnMrtens]

"Jeho dědeček to nechce neslyšet" is wrong, but does anyone know what the rule is for when to use double negatives and when not? Maybe only a single verb should be negated?

[VladaFu]

You cannot not negate an infinitive like this. "On to nechce neslyšet" would be "He does not want not to hear it." the same way in Czech and in English.

What you do double-negate is words like no, nothing and similar:

"Nechce nic slyšet." "He does not want to hear anything."

"Nechce slyšet žádnou hudbu." "He does not want to hear any music."

[BoneheadBass]

The "main" verb in this sentence -- chtít -- is the one that is negative... he DOES NOT WANT to hear it. I don't think there's any reason to make the following infinitive (slyšět) negative. But I'm not an expert, so hopefully someone who is will give you a more authoritative answer!