As a child in America, learning the meaning of a double negative and how it actually means the opposite ("I never don't go by car" actually means "I always go by car") was difficult for most children. When I started learning Czech and learned that we have to use double and triple negation, it was a little bit strange for me but not too difficult to grasp. But I couldn't help but think that it must be quite a difficult concept for Czechs learning English.
Ahoj Katrino, díky za zajímavý komentář! You're right, some of my Czech students struggle with literal translation and they tend to use the double negation in English as well. But I guess that is how you learn our grammar from their mistakes (if you have experience teaching English to the Czech audience)
Thank you for this instructive video 👍 You mentioned the frase 'Níkdy nechci nič dělat', is there a difference in meaning when you say 'Níkdy nechci nič nedělat'? I would expect them to mean basically the same.
I don't speak Slovak, but in Czech, you don't say "Nikdy nechci nic nedělat," you say "nikdy nechci nic dělat." Generally more than 2 negatives is acceptable only in some memorized phrases, more than 3 negatives is just mostly bad and confusing language.
Ahoj, I'm glad you enjoyed it, feel free to share it:) Both sentences mean the opposite, the first one: I never want to do anything, the second: I never want to not do anything, to put it simple: I always want to do something.
Don't do triple or more negatives in Czech, there is mostly a way how to say it in a normal a more clear way, it's confusing even for native speakers, as a Czech, I hate it when people use these trpli and quadriple negatives for no reason, you don't know if it's negative or positive then. 🙂
@@Pidalin yeah, of course it does make any sense because in english you cant have more than one negation, but in czech you can have triple negation and it still makes sense. And if you are czech, which I suppose you are, you should know that it is still very common to use it.
@@Pidalin A ještě mi řekněte co je tak nepochopitelného na větě: Tady nikdo nikdy neparkuje. Řekl bych, že je to zcela normální česká věta a není na ní nic nepochopitelného. Mimochodem všimněte si, že jsem použil tři zápory v předešlé větě a jsem si skoro jist, že jste si toho nevšiml. :)
@@martinsolc9021 Ale o tom jsem přece mluvil, že v některejch známejch frázích a jejich variacích je to v pořádku protože člověk je na to zvyklej, ale neměli bysme cíleně vytvářet další nesmyslný věty kde to fakt matoucí je.
As a child in America, learning the meaning of a double negative and how it actually means the opposite ("I never don't go by car" actually means "I always go by car") was difficult for most children. When I started learning Czech and learned that we have to use double and triple negation, it was a little bit strange for me but not too difficult to grasp. But I couldn't help but think that it must be quite a difficult concept for Czechs learning English.
Not so much. You just have to rememeber there is only one negation in the sentence. A lot of us tend to forget it :-)
Ahoj Katrino, díky za zajímavý komentář! You're right, some of my Czech students struggle with literal translation and they tend to use the double negation in English as well. But I guess that is how you learn our grammar from their mistakes (if you have experience teaching English to the Czech audience)
Thank you for this instructive video 👍 You mentioned the frase 'Níkdy nechci nič dělat', is there a difference in meaning when you say 'Níkdy nechci nič nedělat'? I would expect them to mean basically the same.
I don't speak Slovak, but in Czech, you don't say "Nikdy nechci nic nedělat," you say "nikdy nechci nic dělat." Generally more than 2 negatives is acceptable only in some memorized phrases, more than 3 negatives is just mostly bad and confusing language.
Yes, both sentences are exactly opposite.
nic dělat
I never want to do anything (lazy person)
nic nedělat
I never want to do nothing (active person)
Ahoj, I'm glad you enjoyed it, feel free to share it:) Both sentences mean the opposite, the first one: I never want to do anything, the second: I never want to not do anything, to put it simple: I always want to do something.
Its common in Slavic languges. We can have a 4 time negation in Serbian.
Wow. Can you write some example?
wow even more complex :D
Dekuju
není zač!:)
Don't do triple or more negatives in Czech, there is mostly a way how to say it in a normal a more clear way, it's confusing even for native speakers, as a Czech, I hate it when people use these trpli and quadriple negatives for no reason, you don't know if it's negative or positive then. 🙂
Ain't no problem once you get used to it.
@@MertowVA Ain't no no problem once you don't get not used to it. Now tell me if it's negative or positive. 😀
@@Pidalin yeah, of course it does make any sense because in english you cant have more than one negation, but in czech you can have triple negation and it still makes sense. And if you are czech, which I suppose you are, you should know that it is still very common to use it.
@@Pidalin A ještě mi řekněte co je tak nepochopitelného na větě: Tady nikdo nikdy neparkuje. Řekl bych, že je to zcela normální česká věta a není na ní nic nepochopitelného. Mimochodem všimněte si, že jsem použil tři zápory v předešlé větě a jsem si skoro jist, že jste si toho nevšiml. :)
@@martinsolc9021 Ale o tom jsem přece mluvil, že v některejch známejch frázích a jejich variacích je to v pořádku protože člověk je na to zvyklej, ale neměli bysme cíleně vytvářet další nesmyslný věty kde to fakt matoucí je.