Today’s teacher: Karolina Lhotská
Karolina is a Czech community tutor on Italki. She comes from the Czech Republic, but is currently living in Switzerland. She has an MA in Art history, enjoys yoga, travelling and nature. I’ve been working with her for years and she is a kind and patient teacher!
Book a lesson with Karolina on italki and use my code for a discount ⬇️
👉 https://go.italki.com/dream11 and enter code DREAM2023 at checkout. When you make your first purchase of €10 of italki credits, you get €5 off! Valid until 31 Dec 2023.
🎯 Lesson Goals
This was an early lesson for me (7:30am!) so I didn’t really have a goal, except to summon my brain power! Mostly I wanted to speak fluently with Karolina and get my declination correct.
How to translate the word “to meet” and how to use it in the sentence.
Czechs have several verbs that mean “to meet” and they have slightly different meanings ⬇️
| Slovo nebo výraz | dokonavé nebo rod | Anglický | Příklad 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
potkat se | dokonavé | to bump into, to meet without plans | Jaké překvapení potkat se tady! = what a surprise to meet you there! |
potkavat se | nedokonavé | to bump into, to meet with plans | Potkávám se tam občas s holkou = Sometimes I meet girls there. |
scházet se | nedokonavé | to meet according to a plan | je nutné scházet se takhle pozdě v noci? = is it neccesary to meet this late at night? |
sejít se | dokonavé | to meet according to a plan | Mohli bysme se opět sejit = Can we get together again? |
setkat se | dokonavé | to come together, to encounter | Mám se s někým setkat = I’m meeting someone |
setkavat se | nedokonavé | to come together, to encounter | Setkávám se s tím každý den = I counter that every day. |
seznámit se | dokonavé | to get to know, to meet for the first time | Jdi, seznam se s ní. = go get to know her |
seznámovat se | nedokonavé | to get to know, to get acquainted with | příležitosti seznamovat se s bratry = opportunities to get acquainted with our brothers. |
In English, it’s common to say “I met HER” “I met THEM” or “I met JOHN”. The person you met is the direct object of the sentence. We sometimes say “I met with them” but the with is not necessary and not as common. The with usually implies that there was a purpose to the meeting:
- The teacher met with the student to discuss his thesis.
- I need to meet with my landlord to sign a new lease.
In Czech, when you use these “meet” verbs and you want to say WHO you met, you almost always say “with [someone]” so we use the preposition “S,” which is then followed buy the 7th case (INSTRUMENTAL).
- I met Anna. = Setkala jsem s Annou
- I bumped into her = Potakala jsem se ní
- I got acquainted with them = Seznámil jsem s nimi.
Declining který
My mistake at the beginning of this lesson was that I didn’t properly decline “který” which means “which” or “who”. To be honest, I’m often just guessing when I try to decline který 😩. At least I got it partially correct!
I said:
❌ Mám kamarády, kteří jsme se seznámili…
As you can see on the declination chart here ➡️, kteří, is used for nominative masculine animate plural. But because Czechs always use the “meet” verbs with “with” (s), I need to use that preposition, and the case that follows it, which is Instrumental (7th case).
Karolina corrected me:
✅ Mám kamarády, s kterými jsme se seznámili…
This uses the preposition “s” (with) with the proper instrumental declination of kterými.
It’s literally: “I have friends, with whom I met….
Phew! I clearly gotta work on that declination 🤪
A Russian Wheel!
And last but not least, who knew that a Ferris wheel is called a “Russian Wheel” in Europe?