Fun with Czech! [cont. from p.94] #projectPrague
Yesterday's Czech lesson was in the Locative case.
Locative, lokál, the declension for the state of being in a location. Used only after v (in), na (on or to), po (past, after, on, to, for, by - yes, all of them), při (by, nearby, with) & o (about, with). Although s is normally "with". Except if the word starts with a vowel, then it's se, ( Read more... )
That is, in my humble opinion, an extremely inaccurate statement. Czechs learn a ton of morphology, syntax and other pretty advanced grammar stuff even at elementary school. Plus, they learn tricky Czech orhtography, for example regarding s/z, i/y, and capital letters. Furthermore, Czechs need to learn complex rules regarding commas, which require you to distinguish between thirteen types of subordinate clauses: https://www.pravopisne.cz/2012/01/pravidla-prehled-vedlejsich-vet/
I'm afraid this is all *beyond* of what you're dealing with as a learner of Czech at a lower level.
The thing is that native speakers of Czech do a lot of things regarding declensions and conjugations without thinking, which is why a lot of people are not able to help you with your Czech without a special training -- they didn't need to learn that stuff at school because native Czechs don't make the kind of mistakes learners of Czech make.
However, Czechs do learn a lot of pretty advanced grammar at school. Feel free to check the following link to get an idea of what an elementary school curriculum contains: https://www.icestina.cz/
I distinctly remember having to be able to distinguish and give examples of various types of predicates at the age of 11 -- I failed a test because I wasn't able to provide examples of přísudek jmenný se sponou. You can learn more about different kinds of predicate in Czech here: https://www.pancelcino.cz/prisudek-druhy-prisudku-a-jak-ho-poznat-ve-vete/
==
"The saintly Jana has memorized all the names for the cases so she can tell me which word is in which case when I ask."
It's true the Czechs typically know only the number of the case and not the Latin name, but that's just a quirk of the Czech system. The other day, I purchased a piano video course in Spanish. To my surprise, the Spanish music terminology differs from the one used in English or Czech. For example, "D sharp" is "Re sostenido", "G flat" is "Sol bemol", and Am7 is "La Menor Séptima": https://desafinados.es/equivalencias-nomenclatura-notas-musicales-inglesespanol/
I needed to relearn the terminology for all notes and chords because making the "translation" in my head was too slow. I think it might be better if you learn the numbers used for cases in the Czech system rather than complain that Czechs don't know the Latin names. I mean, it's just seven numbers and corresponding Latin case names -- why not just memorize it? Then, you can ask "V kterém pádě je __?", and any Czech will tell you that the noun is "v šestém pádě" and you'll immediately know that it means "locative". Achievement unclocked! :-)
I've actually attended multiple courses as an adult to improve my Czech grammar and ortography skills -- it was all stuff I was supposed to learn at school.
Good luck with your Czech efforts! :-)
Reply
Leave a comment