Talk:Czech phrasebook

Quarter to/past times?
Quarter past nine (9:15) - čtvrt na deset (literally "a quarter to ten")

This doesn't sound right to me, but since I'm not native, I'd like more input. In Slovenia we also say "četrt na deset" for 9:15, but "na"(.si) does not mean "to"(en) ("do"(.si) would be "to/until"(en)). I think literally it should be something along "a quarter on top of ten" (not quite "a quarter past ten", there's another word for that, "čez"(si)).


 * The quoted phrase is indeed correct, 9:15 is "čtvrt na deset" in Czech. I'm native from Prague. (WT-en) Jkt 21:38, 29 November 2009 (EST)

long and short vowels
Could somebody clarify the difference between 'e' and 'é', and also 'o' and 'ó'? The examples given don't make sense to me - in English, "red" and "bled" have the same vowel sound, and "for" and "bore" do as well. —The preceding comment was added by ‎83.240.79.93 (talk • contribs)
 * Probably User:Danapit can help. --ϒpsilon (talk) 20:02, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
 * I see the point, 83.240.79.93, to me "red" and "bled" also sound the same and would represent the sound of 'e'. 'é', sounds the same, but is longer: /ɛː/. Similarly, 'o' sounds like "for" and I'm not sure if "bore" in English has a somewhat loner sound. 'ó' certainly is longer than 'o'. I can't come up with suitable examples of English words with the same sounds. Should we perhaps describe it similarly as 'ee' (='é') and 'oo' (='ó') are described in the Finnish phrasebook, ϒpsi? Because I think they are the same sounds. --Danapit (talk) 06:53, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think it's a good solution (though I don't know any Czech vowels or anything else, can just say ahoj and dekuji :)). Otherwise, if we wish to use an example from a fairly widely known language, in German 'oo' and 'ee' are pretty much the same as they're in Finnish (and Czech?). English doesn't seem to have it. ϒpsilon (talk) 13:14, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh, I didn't mean to give an example from Finnish language, just wanted to use similar explanation as for 'ee' and 'oo' sounds in Finnish. Hope it's better now. Kiitos :) Danapit (talk) 13:27, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * It's better now. Ps. look at the banner's proportions. ϒpsilon (talk) 13:46, 9 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for pointing to my mistake! Sometime the fixed ratio checkbox in my software goes unchecked without me noticing... Danapit (talk) 16:58, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Czech "Anekdota" vs Polish "Anegdota"
Sorry if this is irrelevant but I wanted to discuss something. so it is very common in Czech for voiceless consonants to become voiced (ex: "k" in Anekdota is [g]). However, one of the things I noticed is that, K is used more often for [g] than G in Czech which is the opposite in Polish since most words with [g] sound are written with G. Why doesn't Polish use K more for the [g] sound like Czech does? Couldn't Anegdota be Anekdota? Akshatgos (talk) 14:33, 9 December 2023 (UTC)