Czech Basics 2- Introductions

So more than half a year after the last one, here is Czech Basics 2!

In this lesson we will learn how to introduce ourselves and ask how someone is.

The verb for “to be called” is “jmenovat se”. In case you are a complete beginner, here is a quick grammar explanation. Czech verbs (doing or action words, like “do”, “run” etc) change ending according to who is doing the action. This happens in English as well, where we say “I walk” and “you walk” but “he walks”. It’s a bit more complicated in Czech, there are a lot more endings, but they follow quite simple patterns. Here is the full pattern for “jmenovat se”.

I	Jmen-uju se	We	Jmen-ujete se
You	Jmen-uješ se	You (polite and plural)	Jmen-ujeme se
He, she, it	Jmen-uje se	They	Jmen-ují se

 Note that you don’t include the dash when writing, that’s just to make the endings obvious.

Another important thing about Czech verbs is that, because of the endings, they can stand alone, without the need for words meaning “I”, “you”, “he” etc. But just in case you need them, for emphasis, here they are:

I	Já	We	My
You	Ty	You	Vy
He	On	They	Oni
She	Ona
It	Ono

There are two different “you’s”. One, “ty”, is like French “tu”, it is informal and can be used with friends, family, or those of an equal age to you. “Vy” is either plural, for use with more than one friend, or formal, for use with shop assistants, work superiors, relatives of friends etc.

Here is a little dialogue to show how these work in a (admittedly unrealistic) conversation. Try to guess the meaning of words that you don’t know.

Jan: Dobrý den. Jak se jmenujete?
Josef: Dobré ráno. Jmenuju se Josef. A vy?
Jan: Těší mě Josef. Jmenuju se Jan. Jak se máte?
Josef: Děkuju, dobře. A vy?
Jan: Jde to. Na Shledanou.
Josef: Na Shledanou.

When introduced to someone, it is polite to say “těší mě“, “pleased to meet  you”.

“Jak” is a question word meaning “how”. Here it is used with “jak se jmenujete”, to ask what someone’s name is. It is also part of the set phrase “Jak se máte”. This means “how are you?”, the normal response to which is “dobře“, which means „well/ good“. "Jde to" is similar to French "ca va" when used as a response, it means literraly "that goes", you can think of it as "fine".