What is this? [Lesson #2]
In this lesson you’re going to learn how to ask the question “What is this?” and responses you can give to this question.
What is this? What is that?
Co je to? - What is this?
Co je tamto? - What is that?
In Czech language it is possible to translate the sentence exactly as it is in English. Meaning:
Co - What
Je - is (3rd person, singular)
To - this
Tamto - that
If you are asking the question and pointing at more than one thing, you ask the same way! That means that if you want to say “What are those?”you are still going to say Co je tamto?
It must sound a bit weird but believe me, it is natural in Czech.
As you will find out in the next lessons, in Czech we use conjugations and declensions to determine whether the noun is a subject or subject and to whom the verb points to. Therefore it is possible, in some cases, to change the structure of the sentence (usually to emphasize a specific detail). It can happen you’ll encounter very often Co to je? which is the same as Co je to?
Remember though, that in most cases the sentence structure is SVO (subject-verb-object) as in English.
This is.../That is...
This is where things get a bit complicated because unlike when asking the question, when replying, you need to differentiate between plural and sigular.
Let’s look at the singular first:
To je ... - This is...
Tamto je ... - That is...
It works just as in English!
Now when the refered noun is in plural:
To jsou ... - These are...
Tamto jsou ... - Those are...
Unlike in English, the pronouns haven’t changed. Only the verb did because as I said before, we conjugate verbs depending on the subject of the sentence.
Jsou - are (3rd person, plural)
Vocabulary and examples
Let’s look at how we can use this grammar in practice. First let’s learn some new vocabulary.
Unfortunally there is no one way of making plural in Czech so I am going to put the plurals in brackets after the noun. You’ll learn more about plural nouns in the future so for now let’s not think about it too much.
Pes (psi) - Dog
Kočka (kočky) - Cat
Pták (ptáci) - Bird
Dům (domy) - House
Fotka (fotky) - Photo
Kniha (knihy) - Book
Telefon (telefony) - Phone/Mobile phones
Počítač (počítače) - Computer
Láhev (láhve) - Bottle
Klíč (klíče) - Key
Look at this dialogue. Did you understand everything? Let me know!
A: Ahoj! B: Ahoj! A: Co to je? B: To jsou knihy. A: A co je tamto? B: Tamto je počítač.
A - and (it can be used the same way as in English - for conecting either two words or two sentences)
As you can notice, there are also no articles in Czech language. It might be a bit weird in the beginning but you don’t have to put anything before a noun, it can stand on its own.
Practice
Try to translate these sentences into Czech!
What is that?
Those are photos.
This is a phone.
These are bottles.
That is a key.
This is a cat.
What is this?
That is a dog.
These are birds.
Those are houses.
This is a book.
These are computers.
Continue to Lesson #3 or practice your vocabulary of this lesson on Memrise.