"Podíval se na své ruce."

Translation: He took a look at his hands.

[Daku_]

Why not He looked at his hands?
Může mi někdo vysvětlit, kdy se používá spojení took a look? Děkuji.

[AgnusOinas]

Když chceme zdůraznit, že se na ně jen "podíval" (dokonavý vid) místo toho, že se na ně "díval" (nedokonavý vid) delší dobu. Ze samotného "he looked" to není poznat.

[butterfly604479]

I'm having trouble divining a difference in meaning in English between "He took a look at his hands" which is accepted and "He looked at his hands" which isn't. In terms of tense or ongoing activity I can't see any difference between those two sentences in English. Each of them is an event that happened once. He took a look perhaps implies a quicker glance, but then it doesn't accept "He glanced at his hands" either.

[VladaFu]

"He looked at his hands." is accepted. Use the report button to report missing translations, but first double-check or triple-check your answer for obvious typos, missing or duplicated words and similar. It happens all the time.

[chartsman]

Would "... at his hand" be "... na svou ruku"?

[VladaFu]

yes

[Chessnecof]

Would "was looking" at his hands also be correct? I'm on the phone version so can't check

[endless_sleeper]

No. That would be: "Díval se na své ruce."