INTRODUCTION |
The Czech Republic is famous for its tasty food and especially its beer. There is a wide variety of Czech dishes, and your job as a visitor is to try as many different meals as possible! However, before you start eating, you have to get a table! In this lesson, we'll cover getting a table in a restaurant. |
GRAMMAR POINT |
When entering a Czech restaurant, you might be greeted with Vítejte, which is translated as “welcome” |
(slow) Ví-tej-te! |
Vítejte! |
You can also be greeted with Dobrý den which means “Good day” and we have learned it before. |
(slow) Dob-rý den. |
Dobrý den. |
・ |
When you enter a restaurant, a waiter or waitress will come and greet you and often ask you |
the question “How many people are you?” In Czech you will be literally asked “Table for how many people?” This is: |
Stůl pro kolik osob? |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) Stůl pro ko-lik o-sob? |
Once more: |
Stůl pro kolik osob? |
The first word, stůl, means “table”. |
(slow) Stůl |
Stůl |
After this comes pro, which means “for”. |
(slow) Pro. |
Pro. |
Next word is kolik, that means “how many”. |
(slow) Ko-lik. |
Kolik. |
and the last word we have is osob, which is a form of the noun “osoby” meaning “people”. |
(slow) O-sob. |
Osob. |
Altogether, it is: |
Stůl pro kolik osob? |
・ |
Now let’s learn to answer. |
You might tell the waiter or waitress |
Jsme dvě osoby which in English means “We are two people.” |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) Jsme dvě o-so-by. |
Once again: |
Jsme dvě osoby. |
The first word, jsme, is a form of the verb translated as “to be.” |
(slow) Jsme. |
Jsme. |
After this comes dvě, the feminine form of the number two. |
(slow) Dvě. |
Dvě. |
And last we have osoby which means “persons”. |
(slow) O-so-by. |
Osoby. |
You have probably noticed that the word “persons” can be said as osoby but we also used the word osob. Both are correct. They are different grammatical cases of the noun “persons”. |
Let’s take a look at some of the numbers you might need here, from two to five: |
2 dvě |
(slow) dvě |
3 tři |
(slow) tři |
4 čtyři |
(slow) čty-ři |
5 pět |
(slow) pět |
If you are just one person, say Jenom já. We can translate it as as “only me” or “just me”. |
Let’s break it down: |
(slow) Je-nom já. |
Once more: |
Jenom já. |
The first word, jenom, means “only”. |
(slow) Je-nom. |
Jenom. |
After this we have já which is translated as “me”. |
(slow) Já. |
Já. |
Comments
HideHi Listeners! Do you prefer to eat alone or among friends?
Dear Leticia,
thank you for your comment! My advice would be to try and practice regularly, at least 15-30 mins every day. Try to build up your vocabulary and slowly but surely start learning how to build sentences and observe how Czech grammar works.
Good luck!
Bára
Team CzechClass101.com
Hello!
I’ve been practicing each lesson and feel that I have emprroved a little, would you give me an advice so I could know I’m doing well?, thank you (dēkuji)
Ahoj Scotte,
thank you for your message. As for the restaurants, not all restaurants require you to wait to be seated. In fact, often you as an individual can freely go and find your own seat. I think this is most likely why you felt ignored. ''Sit wherever you want'' is quite a common practice in Czech. When it comes to a group, it is often the same case, but sometimes the staff assist to a group because after all they might not have many tables free immediately for a group of five etc. Thus they navigate the groups, but individuals are more free to choose themselves. You can always test it upon the entry, when there is no staff for few minutes to take you to a table, you can most likely take a seat yourself. I myself tend to just briefly ask the staff if I can sit wherever. I am sure even Czech people go to eat on their own at times. I hope my answer is helpful a bit ;)
Hope you are enjoying your life in the Czech environment.
Sincerely Hanka
team CzechClass101.com
Since living in Czech, I've noticed that at a restaurant when I enter with a group we are seated right away. But when I go alone, the staff don't approach me, as if to wait for more people to arrive. Is it unusual for a Czech person to eat alone?
Hi Robert!
Thank you for posting!
I am glad you seem to like this lesson!
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Engla
Team CzechClass101.com
Good