"František a Žofie žijí u jejích rodičů."

Translation: František and Žofie live at her parents'.

[cricketswool]

The sentence "František and Žofie live at her parents'." strikes my ear as a little too informal or colloquial for standard English. (I would say "with her parents", or "at her parents' house/apartment/etc.") Do any of the other native speakers see it that way?

[BoneheadBass]

I am native AmE. It is very common, especially in the US, to say "live/s at X's parents'." Note the apostrophe at the end of "parents," which is sort of standing in for "at her parents'... house/apartment/etc."

[cassandram684832]

It does seem more likely to me that one would say "at her parents' place/house/etc" but not entirely out of the ordinary for one to use simply "at her parents'"

[ken55414]

u = at, near, by. How do we know if they live at or near her parents?

[chartsman]

"U" placed before people, at least in Polish, always means 'at the house/place of those people'. The construction is also frequently used in restaurants' names with the first name of the owner, for example "U Antka" (where "Antek" is probably a guy who runs it). I'm not sure if it's the same in Czech but given how similar both languages are, I would assume so.

[Kerflumpy]

Can anyone confirm if this is true for Czech, please?

[VladaFu]

Yes, it is. At least in the context of living and mentioning some people.

Bydlím u hradu. - I live near the castle.
Bydlím u náměstí. - I live near the square.

but

Bydlím u rodičů. - I live at my parents'.
Bydlím u babičky. - I live at my grandmother's place.

[VincenzoIo16]

So how is it translated: "I live BY my parents"?

EDIT I scrolled: blizko

[VladaFu]

It is just understood in this specific phrase that it is "at". You have to learn that.

If it were nearby, we would say blízko. Bydlet u někoho is a set phrase.

[SpeculoosKoek]

Does the verb have to be 'žít' or can it also be 'bydlet' here?

[VladaFu]

it can

[Tom307502]

So in general, when would a person use the verb "zit" vs "bydlet"?

[VladaFu]

They are mostly synonymous for the "dwell" meaning. Bydlet cannot mean "to be alive".

[LukasBlech]

"František and Žofie live by her parents'." is not possible?

[BoneheadBass]

If that works on the Czech side, it would be fine on the English side. It would be understood as "near her parents' house/building/whatever they live in." Good job with the apostrophe, by the way, which many English natives would miss! :-) (Native AmE)

[chartsman]

I doubt that "u" can mean "near". Polish and Czech are usually close enough when it comes to prepositions and in Polish "u" is mostly used to represent "AT someone's place", just like the French "chez".