Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Now it’s time for some useful Survival Phrases for when you have time to shop in Czech stores.
GRAMMAR POINT
The first thing you say to a shop clerk is promiňte. This is an apology phrase that we learned in our previous lessons. After that, you will want to ask: “How much is this?” or “How much does this cost?”
In Czech, we say
Kolik to stojí?
Let’s break the question down:
(slow) Ko-lik to sto-jí?
Once more:
Kolik to stojí?
Kolik, means “how much.”
(slow) Ko-lik.
Kolik.
To, means “it.”
(slow) To.
To.
Stojí is a present tense form of the verb that means “to cost”
(slow) Sto-jí.
Stojí.
Imagine that you find a clothing stand in a local market and want to buy a shirt. To attract the attention of the stall-keeper, say promiňte, then ask how much the shirt costs. The question will sound like this:
Promiňte, kolik stojí tahle košile?
“Excuse me, how much is this shirt?”
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Pro-miň-te, ko-lik sto-jí tah-le ko-ši-le?
And again at natural speed:
Promiňte, kolik stojí tahle košile?
After promiňte we have kolik which means “how much”.
Next comes the word stojí, that means “to cost”.
Next word is tahle which is the feminine form of the word “this”.
After that we have košile, the word for “shirt”
(slow) Ko-ši-le.
Košile.
The whole question is
Promiňte, kolik stojí tahle košile?
If the thing you want to buy is masculine, replace the word tahle with tenhle.
Another way of asking the price in Czech is:
Jaká je cena? translated in English as “What is the price?”
Let’s break that down:
(slow) Ja-ká je ce-na?
Once more:
Jaká je cena?
In this question jaká means “what”.
Je is the form of the verb “to be” and cena is translated as “price”.
Let’s hear these three words again.
(slow) Ja-ká je ce-na?
One more time at natural speed.
Jaká je cena?

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