Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Ahoj, jmenuju se Veronika. Hi everybody! I am Veronika.
Welcome to CzechClass101.com’s “Česky za 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Czech.
In the last lesson, you learned how to use Czech adjectives easily.
In this lesson we will start a series of lessons dedicated to the most common Czech verbs, the ones you will certainly hear all the time!
The first verb in our series will be jet, which means "to go by a vehicle". Of course we will use this word along with many different destinations.
You will see that in Czech you have to use appropriate prepositions to connect jet to your destination.
So imagine someone asks you Kam jedeš na prázdniny? That means "Where are you going for your holidays?" in an informal form.
So if you are going to a ski resort, for example, you will say in Czech Jedu na hory.
[slowly] Jedu na hory.
So let’s break down this answer:
First we had:
Jedu which is "I am going ..."
It is the 1st person form of the verb jet, "to go by a vehicle" in present indicative tense.
After it was na which is the preposition, and it’s like "to" in English.
Finally we had hory which is a noun that means "the mountains".
So now, let’s have an explanation of prepositions between jedu meaning "I go" and your destination.
If your destination is wide and spacious, like for example the airport or letiště in Czech, or in case it is some kind of an organization like for example the police, which is policie in Czech, you use the preposition na with it. In this particular situation, the noun, which comes after the preposition na, is in the accusative case. So, for example,
Jedu na letiště. is “I am driving to the airport” and Jedu na policii is “I am going to the police station.”
[slowly] Jedu na letiště. Jedu na policii.
Most places are connected with the preposition do. The nouns after this preposition have to be in the genitive case. For example,
Jedu do školy is “I am going to school (by a vehicle).”
[slowly] Jedu do školy.
We also use do with most countries and cities:
Jedu do Ameriky. meaning “I am going to America”
[slowly] Jedu do Ameriky. And
Jedu do Berlína. meaning “I am going to Berlin”
[slowly] Jedu do Berlína.
Now it’s time for Veronika’s insights.
If you are not going by a vehicle, but on foot, you should use the verb jít. We also use this verb if we go to a social event regardless of the means of transportation.
For example, if you want to ask your friend whether he or she goes to the cinema or kino in Czech, you should say:
Jdeš do kina?
[slowly] Jdeš do kina?
And the answer will be:
Jdu do kina.
[slowly] Jdu do kina.
So, in this lesson, you learned how to use the verbs jet and jít and to use the correct prepositions with it to talk about your destination.
Next time we’ll learn another very useful verb, dělat.
Do you know what this Czech verb means? I’ll be waiting for you with the answer in the next Česky za 3 minuty. Ahoj!

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