# Pravda vítězí / vítězit



## Tagarela

Ahoj,

I would like to know in which sense the Czech Land moto *Pravda vítězí* should be understand.

I have seen that *vítězit* may mean either_to win_ or _to prevail_. 

So, I want to know if I should get the phrase as In conflict situations the truth has an advantage  or the truth is always alive in Czech Land. 

Perhaps my question is a little confusing... but I guess that I haven't grasped this moto very well. 

Na shledanou.:


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## kusurija

You are right, here "vítězí" is in both meanings: _to win_ (or/)and _to prevail_. 
Pravda here means not only the true but the right too. Mostly this saying is used, when Rigth is trampled under foot - as believing, that true/right will prevail after more or less long time anyway.
Hope this helped. Excuse my poor English.


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## Garin

The Czech motto originally comes from the Bible, or from the Apocrypha, to be correct. 
 It is in 3 Esdras and it goes like this:

Now when Darius reigned, he made a great feast unto all his subjects, and unto all his household, and unto all the princes of Media and Persia, and to all the governors and captains and lieutenants that were under him, from India unto Ethiopia, of an hundred twenty and seven provinces. (...)
The first wrote, Wine is the strongest.
The second wrote, The king is strongest.
The third wrote, Women are strongest: but above all things _*Truth beareth away the victory.*_

The third one was a winner. Quite nice, isn't it?


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## werrr

I think the best translation is:

*The truth is to win (out).*

In English the noun “winner” is derived from the verb “to win”, but in Czech there it is the other way around – the verb “(z)vítězit” is derived from the noun “vítěz” (= victor, winner). In fact it is a standard change of state verb with the meaning “to become winner”. This makes the meanings of the English and Czech verbs identical in the perfective sense, but not so in the imperfective sense. The verb “prevail” works here as a by-pass to solve the problems with the imperfective form “vítězí”. The imperfective form may denote a current state in pocess (truth is winning) or, in this case preferably, a general fact (truth is [predestined] to win [always and anywhere]).


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