Learn how to ask for a picture of someone and ask others to take a picture of you
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| INTRODUCTION |
| How many times have you been on a trip with your camera, trying to immortalize an epic moment? In the Czech Republic there are so many amazing landscapes to tempt your camera that you won’t put it away! I know you don’t want to jeopardize your marvelous album in Czech. That’s why we’ll be devoting this lesson to more photography-related phrases. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In the last lesson we learned how to ask someone “Can you take my picture, please?” |
| Můžete mě vyfotit, prosím? |
| But what do you do if you want to take someone else’s picture? Sometimes with people that you don’t know this request can be bothersome, so you must be as nice as you can. |
| “Excuse me, can I take your picture, please?” |
| In Czech, this is.. |
| Promiňte, můžu vás vyfotit, prosím? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Pro-miň-te, mů-žu vás vy-fo-tit, pro-sím? |
| Once more: |
| Promiňte, můžu vás vyfotit, prosím? |
| You definitely know the meaning of Promiňte and Prosím, so let’s explain the rest of our phrase. |
| Můžu is a form of the verb that means “to be able to or “can”. |
| (slow) Mů-žu. |
| Můžu. |
| Next comes vás, which is the form of the pronoun “you”. |
| (slow) Vás. |
| Vás. |
| After that comes vyfotit which means “to take a picture”. |
| (slow) Vy-fo-tit. |
| Vyfotit. |
| The whole request is |
| (slow) Pro-miň-te, mů-žu vás vy-fo-tit, pro-sím? |
| Promiňte, můžu vás vyfotit, prosím? |
| ・ |
| In situations that don’t call for politeness, such as if you’re asking to take a young person’s photo, you can ask “Can I take your picture?” In Czech, this is.. |
| Můžu tě vyfotit? |
| (slow) Mů-žu tě vy-fo-tit? |
| Můžu tě vyfotit? |
| The only thing we changed was the word tě which is the singular “you”. You can also omit prosím. |
| (slow) Tě. |
| Tě. |
| Once again, the whole question is |
| Můžu tě vyfotit? |
| ・ |
| The situations where you’ll need permission to snap include museums, art galleries, churches and shops. There, you can ask “Can I take a picture here?” In Czech this is.. |
| Může se tu fotit? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Mů-že se tu fo-tit? |
| Může se tu fotit? |
| The first words může se are translated as “is it possible”. |
| (slow) Mů-že se. |
| Může se. |
| Then the word tu means “here”. |
| (slow) Tu. |
| Tu. |
| And the last word is fotit which can be translated as “to take a picture” |
| (slow) Fo-tit? |
| Fotit? |
| So the whole question is |
| (slow) Mů-že se tu fo-tit? |
| Může se tu fotit? |
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