# České zdravotnictví patří v Evropě mezi ty lepší



## Tagarela

Ahoj,

A news headline:*České zdravotnictví patří v Evropě mezi ty lepší, *from Radio Praha. 


Does it mean _Czech health system is/belongs among the best of Europe_? I didn't understand very well that *ty* on the phrase. 

Nashled.:


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## Jana337

Think of it as "one of the better ones". In other words, in full the sentence would read "mezi lepší systémy zdravotnictví".


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## jazyk

The ty is being used to avoid repeating the word zdravotnictví. Also note the use of the accusative in this construction, and not of the instrumental, as you might expect. Another possibility would be to use k + dative: *České zdravotnictví patří v Evropě k těm lepším.*


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## winpoj

Interesting that nobody has noticed the grammatical mistake in the sentence. "Zdravotnictví" is neuter so it should be "ta lepší".


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## texpert

*Patřit mezi *= umístit se ve (skutečné či fiktivní) soutěži (srovnání, na žebříčku) na nějakém místě. *Patřit mezi *+* accusative* is obligatory, so it took me a while to figure out what jazyk meant by the expectations of instrumental. But of course, the preposition *mezi* always *governs the instrumental *(though in previous case it was governed by the verb). These are the things we almost never think about..


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## texpert

winpoj said:


> Interesting that nobody has noticed the grammatical mistake in the sentence. "Zdravotnictví" is neuter so it should be "ta lepší".


 
I believe it becomes acceptable in spoken forms..


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## winpoj

Agreed. Headlines of Radio Praha are not spoken forms though. And certainly it's still non-standard, isn't it?


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## texpert

After visiting the page I agree with the *mistake *interpretation. It would be acceptable as a *transcript* of the speech, or as a *citation*. Had the speaker (Minister of Health in this case) actually used the words, it would perfectly report his speech and slightly _mock_ him at the same time. But as he had not (he said _české zdravotnictví patří do lepší poloviny _instead), it becomes the editor's rendition and after being published on the website even a *regular headline*. So it was a lousy job in the end.


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## cajzl

I didn't notice the mistake, too. But "*ty* lepší zdravotnictví" is terrible.



> But of course, the preposition mezi always governs instrumental (though in previous case it was governed by verb).


I don't understand it.

Když něco dám mezi stůl a skříň (acc.), tak to bude mezi stolem a skříní (instr.).


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Děkuji vám moc

So, to sum up: 

*Patřit k + *_dative_*
Mezi +*_ instrumental_but:
*Patřit mezi + *_accusative_

So, could it be: České zdravotnictví je v Evropě mezi _těmi lepšími* 

*not sure about the declension 

_Nashled.:


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## texpert

Correct. Could well be. 

Patřit (dát, dostat se, zařadit.. etc) mezi + accusative.
Hledat (chodit, žít, vyjímat se.. etc) mezi + instrumental.

Now this language is tricky, pardon me, I never really _studied _it.


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