"Všechny dívky to znají."

Translation: All girls know this.

[discordia23]

From what I know dívka is a swear word in Czech?

[VladaFu]

No, it is not. There is a diiferent word which may sound similar to the ears of a foreigner.

[psfinaki]

Should be "that"

[VladaFu]

This is a special case where we allow both this and that.

[butterfly604479]

Any way we can tell what's special about it? I've been penalised frequently in the past for translating to as this rather than that, and now suddenly it's allowed... I'm confused!

[VladaFu]

No. It is hard to argue about this one. That's why both are accepted and that's why it is hard to explain it. Remember the "to je"/"je to" construction that means "this is"/"that is". The "to" in this sentence is close to this one.

You really have to consider when is the sentence likely to be uttered and whether there is or is not a good distinguished form that would be used for "this" specifically. We do not have such a good alternative here. If there were a clear "this" specific alternative, we would not accept "this" for to.

Please understand that it is very different from using "this" and "that" as a demonstrative in front of a noun. Like "this car" and "that car" - "tohle auto" and "to auto", it is really completely different and you can't compare it directly with "to" being used separately.

[butterfly604479]

Thank you - that's very helpful. I did manage to get my head round the je to/to je and how it is different from the demonstrative, but I will revisit it and stay on the alert around "to" in this section!