Learn how to ask someone to "Write it down please"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In the previous lesson, we covered how to ask, “How do you say this in Czech?” Jak se řekne tohle česky? Do you remember? |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In this lesson, because we don’t want you to be caught off guard in the Czech Republic, we are going to introduce a new phrase that is very important to help you focus your skills, not on the sounds, but on the writing. So let’s start this new lesson. |
| In Czech, “Can you write it down, please?” is |
| Můžete to napsat, prosím? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Mů-že-te to nap-sat, pro-sím? |
| Once more: |
| Můžete to napsat, prosím? |
| The first word Můžete is translated in this case as “can you”. Můžete also makes the phrase formal. |
| (slow) Mů-že-te. |
| Mů-že-te. |
| The word to means “it” in English. |
| (slow) To. |
| To. |
| Next we have napsat, which is translated as “to write” |
| (slow)Nap-sat. |
| Napsat. |
| Prosím is “please” as you can remember from the previous lessons. |
| All together: |
| Můžete to napsat, prosím? |
| This means, "Can you write it, please?” |
| As you already observed, the previous phrase is not very specific. To make yourself more clear you can say: “Can you write this phrase?” In Czech, this is.. |
| Můžete napsat tuhle frázi? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Mů-že-te nap-sat tu-hle frá-zi? |
| Once more: |
| Můžete napsat tuhle frázi? |
| The new word in this question is tuhle, that means “this” |
| And frázi which is the form of the noun “phrase”. |
| So tuhle frázi means “this phrase”. |
| (slow) Tuh-le frá-zi. |
| Tuhle frázi. |
| Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time: |
| (slow)Mů-že-te nap-sat tu-hle frá-zi? |
| Můžete napsat tuhle frázi? |
| Also you can say “Can you write down this word?” In Czech, this is.. |
| Můžete napsat tohle slovo? |
| “Let’s break it down. |
| (slow) Mů-že-te nap-sat toh-le slo-vo? |
| Můžete napsat tohle slovo? |
| The only new word here is slovo, which means “word” in English. |
| (slow) Slo-vo. |
| Slovo. |
| It might happen that people are not carrying a piece of paper or a pen. So before asking: Můžete to napsat, prosím? “Can you write down this word?”, ask “Do you have paper and a pen?” In Czech, this question is.. Máte papír a tužku? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Má-te pa-pír a tuž-ku? |
| Once more: |
| Máte papír a tužku? |
| The first word máte is translated in our case as “do you have” |
| (slow) Má-te. |
| Máte. |
| Then you have papír, which in English is “a paper”. |
| (slow) Pa-pír. |
| Papír. |
| Then you have a which means “and”. |
| (slow) A. |
| A. |
| Finally we have tužku which is the form of the noun “a pen”. |
| (slow)Tuž-ku. |
| Tužku. |
| Here’s the whole sentence: |
| (slow) Máte pa-pír a tuž-ku? |
| Máte papír a tužku? |
| As usual, before asking someone for something, it’s a good idea to say “excuse me”, promiňte, at the beginning of the sentence. |
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