Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In this lesson, we'll cover phrases used for apologizing. Since you haven’t quite mastered Czech, it's probably a good idea to go over the phrases for apologizing, because they’ll likely come in handy.
GRAMMAR POINT
One of the most common ways of saying “Excuse me” or “Pardon me,” in Czech is
S dovolením.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) S dovolením.
Once more:
S dovolením.
S is a preposition, and it means “with”.
Then we have the word dovolením, a form of the noun “permission”.
(slow) Do-vo-le-ním.
Once more:
Dovolením.
The whole expression S dovolením means literally “with permission“.
You can use this expression when you want to get someone’s attention, before asking a question to a stranger - about directions for instance - or when you’re trying to work your way through a crowd. Just say s dovolením!
If you want to be even more apologetic, or if you’ve done something worse than just bumping into someone, you can say “I’m sorry”. Omlouvám se. Literally, this phrase means “I apologize”.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) O-mlou-vám se.
Once more:
Omlouvám se.
Omlouvám se is a form of the verb omluvit se, which means “to apologize”.
Omlouvám se.
There are also two short versions of apologising, which are Promiňte and Pardon, and both of them are equivalent to the English “sorry”.
Lets hear them one more time:
(slow) Promiňte
Promiňte
and
(slow) Pardon
Pardon.
Both of them are polite, yet they are used for minor apologies.
Literally promiňte means “excuse me” and pardon is the same as the English “pardon (me)”.

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