Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| This lesson will teach you how to introduce yourself in the Czech language, and how to say where you are from. Czechs are generally quite curious people. In general, they are nice and hospitable people, although sometimes they might seem a bit colder and less sociable at first sight. A self introduction in Czech will be a pleasant surprise. Let’s begin the lesson. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Let’s imagine that your name is John, and you are from Canada. You came to the Czech Republic and met a person who asked you “What is your name?” That question sounds like this in Czech: |
| Jak se jmenuješ? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Jak se jme-nu-ješ? |
| Once more: |
| Jak se jmenuješ? |
| The first word jak means “how”. |
| (slow) Jak. |
| Jak. |
| And the phrase se jmenuješ is a verb which can be translated as “are you named”. |
| (slow) se jmenuješ |
| se jmenuješ |
| Let’s hear the expression again: |
| (slow) Jak se jme-nu-ješ? |
| Jak se jmenuješ? |
| You can change this phrase into a formal one just by changing the verb a little bit. The phrase will become: |
| Jak se jmenujete? |
| (Slow) Jak se jme-nu-je-te? |
| Can you hear the difference? Let’s hear them again: |
| Jak se jmenuješ? |
| and |
| Jak se jmenujete? |
| ・ |
| The answer to this question will be in our case... |
| Jmenuji se John, which means “My name is John.” |
| (slow) Jmenuji se John. |
| Jmenuji se John. |
| As you may already have noticed, the verb jmenuji se sounds similar. It’s another conjugation of the verb “to be named”, and what makes it different from the previous version, is the final syllable and the position of se at the end. |
| (slow) Jme-nu-ji se. |
| Jmenuji se. |
| The name usually comes at the end. |
| Let’s hear that again: |
| Jmenuji se John. |
| ・ |
| The next question you will usually be asked is “Where are you from?” |
| Odkud jsi? |
| (slow) Od-kud jsi? |
| The first word, odkud, is translated as “from where”. |
| (slow) Od-kud. |
| Odkud. |
| And after that, we have jsi - a form of the verb that means “to be”. |
| (slow) jsi |
| jsi |
| Let’s break this down |
| (slow) Od-kud jsi? |
| Odkud jsi? |
| If you are speaking to a person younger than you, they might ask you... |
| Odkud jste? The polite way to say “Where are you from?” |
| Let’s hear the question one more time. |
| (slow) Od-kud jste? |
| Odkud jste? |
| Here, we just changed jsi for jste. |
| Odkud jste? |
| ・ |
| Your answer will be “I’m from Canada”. In Czech, it will sound like this: Jsem z Kanady. |
| (slow) Jsem z Ka-na-dy. |
| Jsem z Kanady. |
| The first word, jsem, is a form of the verb that means “to be”. |
| (slow) Jsem. |
| Jsem. |
| Next we have z which means “from”. |
| (slow) Z. |
| Z. |
| And at the end, we have the name of the country, in our case Canada. |
| (slow) Kanady |
| Kanady |
| Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time. |
| Jsem z Kanady. |
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