# adjectival endings - český vs česky



## svoboda

hello everyone, i'm studying czech, and not moving fast enough. i'm wondering why sometimes it is český and sometimes česky.. americky and sometimes americký.. are both adjectives? and if so, can they be interchanged, and if not, how would you use each example? many thanks for your help in clarifying this..


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## Emys

Český is adjective, česky is adverb.
český jazyk - Czech language
český fotbalista - Czech football player
Česká republika - Czech republic
mluvit česky - to speak Czech
učit se česky - to learn Czech
Umíš česky? - Do you speak Czech?


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## svoboda

Emys said:


> Český is adjective, česky is adverb.
> český jazyk - Czech language
> český fotbalista - Czech football player
> Česká republika - Czech republic
> mluvit česky - to speak Czech
> učit se česky - to learn Czech
> Umíš česky? - Do you speak Czech?



hi emys, thanks for your response.. are you sure that česky is an adverb? from the samples you give, it looks like it means "the czech language", which would be a noun.. but that makes me then scratch my head and think what does americky mean? is it synonymous with anglicky? or does the czech language call american english americky, and english english anglicky? ... i wish i had a better memory as i'm sure i've seen other examples of just the short y, that make me think it is also used as adjective, or do you think that was possibly just typos, or lazy typing?


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## Emys

svoboda said:


> hi emys, thanks for your response.. are you sure that česky is an adverb? from the samples you give, it looks like it means "the czech language", which would be a noun..



Czech language is *čeština* (noun), *česky* is really an adverb, in Czech the sentence is: to speak how, not to speak what.
udělat něco hezky česky means do something in nice Czech way
We use adverb with verbs mluvit, umět, rozumět, psát etc. when we talk about languages.



svoboda said:


> but that makes me then scratch my head and think what does americky mean? is it synonymous with anglicky? or does the czech language call american english americky, and english english anglicky? ...


 
americky means in American way, we don't use it for language, we say that in America se mluví anglicky (adverb) - English is spoken - or that they use American English - používají americkou angličtinu (noun).



svoboda said:


> i wish i had a better memory as i'm sure i've seen other examples of just the short y, that make me think it is also used as adjective, or do you think that was possibly just typos, or lazy typing?



 With short y it's always an adverb but people usually omits diacritics wnen writing SMS or e-mails. So if there is no diacritics at all, it could by both, it depends on the context.


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## svoboda

hi emys, a thousand thanks for your help with clarifying this.. i am  still trying to get my head around česky being an adverb though.. 

you say 





> We use adverb with verbs mluvit, umět, rozumět, psát etc. when we talk about languages.


, and yet, i think it is ok to also say *učim se čestinu* as well as *učim se česky*, and in the first sentence *čestinu*  is a noun, isn't it? (so it looks like those verbs can take nouns as  well as adverbs?) in any case, i guess i just have to accept the adverb  thing, even though it looks so alien to me..


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## Tchesko

Hi Svoboda,

Emys is correct in saying *česky* is an adverb whereas *český *is an adjective.
What probably confuses you is the way the Czech language uses adverbs and adjectives when compared to English.

You can indeed say "učím se češtinu" as well as "učím se česky". In the former expression, "češtinu" is a noun (singular accusative declension of čeština) while in the latter, "česky" is an adverb. To me, both expressions are equivalent.
Please note that in the "češtinu" case, the accusative is required due to the use of the verb "učit se": when "učit se" is followed by a noun, the noun in question has to take on the accusative case. (This is merely a matter of linguistic convention. In a not-so-remote past, it used to be dative and one used to say "učím se češtině".)

With the other verbs mentioned by Emys, the adverbial expression is usual but the nominal expression is not always possible (when talking about languages, although it may exist in other contexts). Examples:

To translate "I speak Czech", you have to say "mluvím česky": you can't say "mluvím češtinu" (or any other declension of čeština). The verb "mluvit" isn't used that way.
To translate "I write in Czech", you have to say "píšu česky": you can't say "píšu češtinu". However, in other contexts, the verb psát (= to write) can take nominal (direct and/or indirect) objects: "I write a letter to my mum" = "píšu mamince dopis".
I hope it is clearer now. If it's not, don't hesitate to ask.


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## bibax

English uses the adverbs with the verb _'to speak'_ as well:

*to speak loudly, to speak silently*, etc.

However English is not consistent, there is no _'to speak Czechly'_.



> (This is merely a matter of linguistic convention. In a not-so-remote past, it used to be dative and one used to say "učím se češtině".)


It is still correct and sometimes the only possibility:

Učím se kázni, pečlivosti, ... (dative) 

Učím se kázeň, pečlivost, ... (accusative)


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## werrr

There is an ellipsis within the phrase "učím se česky". The phrase in its full form goes like "učím se mluvit česky".
The ellipsis is so common that a lot of natives even fail to see the proper meaning of the phrase which is "to learn (something) using Czech language".


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## Tchesko

werrr said:


> There is an ellipsis within the phrase "učím se česky". The phrase in its full form goes like "učím se mluvit česky".
> The ellipsis is so common that a lot of natives even fail to see the proper meaning of the phrase which is "to learn (something) using Czech language".


Indeed, I never thought about it this way.


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## svoboda

thanks everyone, i really appreciate your clarifying this for me.


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