# All Slavic languages: singular verb + se + dative + well



## jazyk

In Czech you can use a singular verb followed by the pronoun se, a dative pronoun and then an adverb such as badly or well to mean that someone feels at ease performing a certain activity. An example that comes to mind is something that my wife just asked me: Překládá se ti dobře? (Are you translating ok? How do you feel translating that? Is that a good text to translate? How is your translation coming along?). Do other Slavic languages have a similar structure?

Thank you very much.


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## robin74

Polish has the same construction.


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## Azori

Slovak has this, too: Prekladá sa ti dobre?


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## trance0

This structure exists in Slovene too.


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## Athaulf

jazyk said:


> In Czech you can use a singular verb followed by the pronoun se, a dative pronoun and then an adverb such as badly or well to mean that someone feels at ease performing a certain activity. An example that comes to mind is something that my wife just asked me: Překládá se ti dobře? (Are you translating ok? How do you feel translating that? Is that a good text to translate? How is your translation coming along?). Do other Slavic languages have a similar structure?



BCS has something similar, but the meaning is different. A phrase that follows the pattern dative + _se_ + verb X in 3SG means "I feel like doing X." For example:

_Meni se pije kava. = I feel like drinking coffee.
_ 
Interestingly, if the verb is transitive, the logical "object" is in nominative and plays the syntactic role of the subject, as in the example above. In other words, the verb behaves like an anticausative reflexive one. 

Of course, as always in BCS, there are complex syntax rules about when and how the component words of these phrases can be reordered and strewn around the sentence, together with enormously complicated issues with the use of clitics, emphasis, etc.


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## Panda Nocta

In Russian we don't have anything like "se", rather the passive form is used in such constructions:
Мне _(dative)_ хорошо _(well)_ работается _(passive)_ по ночам. I like to work at night.
Я вижу, тебе легко мечтается (from the Equilibrium movie translation)


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## robin74

Panda Nocta said:


> In Russian we don't have anything like "se", (...)
> Мне _(dative)_ хорошо _(well)_ работается _(passive)_ по ночам.


But that's exactly the construction jazyk was asking about


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## jazyk

> In Russian we don't have anything like "se", rather the passive form is used in such constructions:
> Мне _(dative)_ хорошо _(well)_ работается _(passive)_ по ночам. I like to work at night.
> Я вижу, тебе легко мечтается (from the Equilibrium movie translation)



Could you then say Переводится тебе хорошо? I have my doubts about this one.


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## Kanes

In Bulgarian it is not possible, to ask a question you use the question particle ли. се means oneself. Construction with it also expresses desire as in BCS, in the last example:

ех: Is that a good text to translate - xубав текст ли е за превод
ех: they signed themselves up - записаха се
ex: I feel like drinking coffee - пие ми се кафе


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## Panda Nocta

jazyk said:


> Could you then say Переводится тебе хорошо? I have my doubts about this one.


You are right, this one sounds very awkward. Now, after rereading the thread, I realise that only intransitive verbs work here and my reference to the passive form was wrong (even though  спится, мечтается and others are constructed in the same way as the passive form for transitive verbs).


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## Daniel.N

This construct is possible in Croatian, it would be:

_Prevodi ti se dobro._

But it's sounds strange. It's not used really. One would normally say:

_Prevođenje ti ide dobro._

However, one can say:
_
Prevodi mi se_. = "I feel like translating".

PS Russian _ся_ is the counterpast of Czech/Croatian/Slovenian _se_.


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