Czech Update

Irglová: Czech singer and actress reaps fame rewards after Oscar win

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:55:19 +0100

"Co Čech to muzikant" (Scratch a Czech, find a musician) goes an old Czech saying (going back to 1800s at least) that used to be known around the musical world. And now it is again! read more »

PĚT "P" (Pohromadě)

Aczua — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:52:17 +0100

People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:01:29 +0100

Sometime ago I started a theme of Czech music on YouTube but never followed up on it. Here's an extension of it: People speaking Czech on YouTube. There are lots of people speaking Czech on YouYube, sometimes the clips are funny, sometimes interesting and informative, and sometimes obscene. The first example is a run down of top 10 phrases from travellinguist.

Google Translate now does Czech, makes for a useful phrasebook

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:59:24 +0100

Google Translate is mainly a source of merriment when funny mistranslations occur as they do on almost any text. But if it's all you have to get the gist of a page, it is (marginally better than nothing). And now, you can get Google translate for Czech (and many other related languages). read more »

Can you teach an old president new tricks?

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:56:21 +0000

"Starého psa novým kouskům nenaučíš" goes the saying. But the freshly re-elected right-wing nationalistic populist Václav Klaus isn't particularly interested in anything new: “I will fight to retain the Czech koruna for as long as it is advantageous for Czechs,” he boasted. read more »

Fables and Understories: Čapek on the Web

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:46:17 +0000

Andrew Malcovsky, the self-described 'Slavicist on spec' (I wonder if this is a conscious bilingual pun for špek) found a great new way to exploit the medium of the blog. For translating Karel Čapek's famous whimsical short pieces Bajky a podpovídky (as Fables and understories). It's certainly a great services to the student of Czech culture. read more »

Translating Prime Minister's profanity

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 02:28:22 +0000

Now, the prime minister Topolánek is getting sued for saying this: "Češi obvykle ale vidí všechno negativně a když k něčemu dojde, podělají se". read more »

Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:07:26 +0000

Záchytka is a wonderful Czech word that stands for the institution for the collection of drunken (and possibly disorderly) individual wondering city streets occasionally referred to in English as 'drunk tank' or ' read more »

Play Czech geography game on Facebook and win PDF of Czech grammar

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:43:31 +0000

Příkopy - Prague street in Top 20 most expensive in the world

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:20:39 +0000

The Prague street that joins into the bottom of Wenceslas square came 20th in the world ranking of the most expensive streets in the world (down from 18th a year ago). Rents there reach 2000 EUR per square meter a year. Paradoxically, the Czech name translates literally as "on the ditches". read more »

Czech 'uzeniny' in branding battles

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:23:48 +0100

Uzeniny is a great Czech word covering all kinds of saussage-like products and uzenář is the purveyor or producer of such meat products (you will often see 'maso a uzeniny' on Czech butchers' store fronts or supermarket sections). read more »

Free pocket guide to Czech language

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:05:49 +0100

Single-serving.com has come up with an easy to print and fold PDF brochure covering most of the basic phrases a tourist coming to the Czech Republic may want. The format makes it easy to carry in your pocket.

Learn Czech web navigation with Aktuálně

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:50:28 +0100

This nascent Czech news service has finally introduced an RSS feed but even more importantly it provides its non-Czech speaking users with a handy little glossary for understanding the Czech navigation on their site. Perhaps the most important: read more »

Burčák came early this year

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:02:13 +0100

Burčák the young wine (stum) popular in the Czech lands in the early autumn came earlier this year appearing in early August. Burčák sales in Prague kiosks around September and October is one of the joys of the Czech 'babí léto' and reminds Bohemians to remember how good it is to have Moravians part of the nation.
read more »

Czech is ...

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:37:01 +0100

If you want to know what Czech and other languages are like, read some of the humorous entries on the Essentialist Explanations page. They may not all be accurate but they are mostly funny. read more »

The simple pleasures of non-Prague

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:29:00 +0100

A visit to Třeboň, a small picturesque town (malebné městečko) in Southern Bohemia elicited justified outbursts of lyricism from a Seattle columnists. And he's right. The individual personality of small Czech towns is something to be experienced through a leisurely journey rather than a hectic 'been there, done that' trip. read more »

100 Years of Czech Teaching in Nebraska

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:20:47 +0100

Here's a nice bit of news. Apparently people were learning Czech as long ago as 1907.

U.S. University of Nebraska celebrates 100 years of Czech lessons - Czech republic read more »

The gender expectation and death

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:09:10 +0100

An interesting headline appeared in today's Mladá Fronta. Zemřel nejstarší člověk světa, 114letá Japonka - iDNES.cz (lit. The world's oldest person [man] died: 114-year old Japanese woman). This is an interesting example of how the strict gender assignment of all nouns can cause problems. read more »

More Czechs happy with public services

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:08:45 +0100

A new survey suggests that more (if still not most) Czechs find improvements in government-provided services. They are more responsive to people's needs but still frequently slow. This is a frequent topic of conversation and the word "úředník" means so much more than "public servant".
read more »

The explicative genitive

Melvyn Clarke — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:18:20 +0100

Sometimes you get the feeling that a subject is being explained to death, with a dozen words being used where none would do. In his The Noun in Translation, Aleš Klégr gives one reason as: "an interesting difference between Czech and English: the much-favoured construction in Czech, termed the expicative genitive, read more »

Hyponyms and hyperonyms

Melvyn Clarke — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:16:28 +0100

One of the differences I find between Czech and English in the lexical sphere is that of the greater or lesser degree of specificity used in referring to certain objects, i.e. the use of hyponyms and hyperonyms. read more »

Post-position adjectives

Melvyn Clarke — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:14:33 +0100

The position of an adjective before or after a noun can occasionally change its entire meaning in English. As you drive into Prague, why do the numerous roadside hoardings offering "free rooms" strike you as not quite right? Because an adjective before a noun can denote a permanent state and after a noun a temporary state. In this read more »

Overuse of Participle Forms

Melvyn Clarke — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:01:41 +0100

English often prefers prepositional phrases to straight participles.

It is being reconstructed - it is under reconstruction
The observed team - the team under observation

The considered design - the design in question
The disputed matter - the matter in dispute read more »

Possessive Pronouns

Melvyn Clarke — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:35:07 +0100

There are many cases where a possessive pronoun needs to be recast in some other form, particularly where it acts as direct object of a verb:

Tento výčet deseti doporučení není jistě vyčerpávající, ale jejich důsledné uplatnění vždy výrazně změnilo průběh a především výsledky pravidelných porad sledovaných manažerských týmů. read more »

Hollywood Rains Puns on Czech

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:53:09 +0100

Jossip Brad And Angie Take A Rain Czech Ditch Boring Senators In Favor Of Glam Hollywood Film July 12th, 2007 » 2 Comments angelina-jolie-pensivemic.JPG According to Us Weekly, Angelina Jolie hasn’t exactly been living up to her (honorary) title as U.N. Ambassador. Reportedly, the pro-adoption humanitarian recently left the Czech senate hanging, canceling a planned get-together in Prague in order to wrap up shooting her latest film, Wanted.