# Slovak and Czech: plurals of ahoj and čau



## mateo19

Hello everyone!

I was reading in my Slovak text book that the words for _hello_ and _goobye_, for my purposes being _ahoj_ and _čau_, have plural equivalents which must be used when addressing more than one person:  _Ahojte_ and _Čaute.
_I wanted to confirm that this is correct use.

Also, what verbs do these come from?  Can they be conjugated normally?

I suspect that it is different in Czech and Slovak because a native Czech speaker (Jana, if I may say so ) said that in Czech, making these greetings agree in number makes them sounds horribly wrong.  What do you say, Slavic language speaking colleagues?


Ďakujem pekne a děkuji pěkně!  Čaute!


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## winpoj

They don't come from verbs and they can't be conjugated.


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## mateo19

Are there other greetings or exclamations in Czech or Slovak (that aren't verbs) that agree in number?


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## winpoj

In Czech, I'm only aware of "na/nate" (here you are) - said when handing something to someone.


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## SirVasil

Well, but I'm convinced that "nate" is the same case as "ahojte" - a rather rare colloquial phrase... All these words are inflexible (being mostly interjections) and therefore can't vary in accordance with the number of objects they refer to, I think. So I would say that answer to mateo's question is no. there are no such words in Czech.


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## winpoj

You are contradicting yourself SirVasil: if "nate" is a Czech word (whether colloquial or otherwise), the answer can't be no.
Moreover, albeit rare, "nate" is part of standard Czech (spisovná čeština) in my view.
So who will referee between us?


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## SirVasil

Yes, I was not precise enough, what I meant to say is that, as far as i know, there are no such words in the _literary_ language. But I may be wrong, of course


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## jazyk

There's čauky and ahojky in Czech, but these can be used even when you're talking to only one person.


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## Jana337

jazyk said:


> There's čauky and ahojky in Czech, but *these can be used* even when you're talking to only one person.


(emphasis mine)

Not when you meet me, pretty please.


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## Tagarela

Ahojky, Jano!  



Jana337 said:


> (emphasis mine)
> 
> Not when you meet me, pretty please.



But I should not play this way because she is The Moderatorová!

Now, seriously:
What is this nate thing? I've never seen it in my Czech books.
How about *Nazdar*? Is it very used? And does it have variations? Nazdaryk, Nazdarte, etc? 

Dovidenia a na shledanou (immitating Mateo ^^).


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## SirVasil

Yes, nazdar is used pretty often, it's a bit more reserved than ahoj and less expressive than čau, which makes it very a very popular greeting amongst friends on casual occasions.

As to the "nate word", it means Here you are and is sometimes used instead of the correct form "na", to address more persons or to sound more polite.
An example of application:
"Mohl bys nám podat sůl?" (Could you hand us salt?)
"Samozřejmě, *na(te)*." (Of course, here you are.)
Please note that it is not suitable for a formal conversation.


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

This usage of the word _na_ is very interesting.

We have it also in Slovene with the very same meaning. We also use a plural form _nate_. It is used in the informal speech only. Formal speech requires words _izvoli_/_izvolite_.

I checked the SSKJ and the word is there. It's not even marked as colloquialism. Grammatically it is an interjection, therefore it shouldn't be "pluralized", but it looks like it lives its own life. 



> ná  -te medm. (ȃ) 1. _izraža opozorilo na to, kar se da, daje:_ na knjigo; na, da boš imel za vstopnico / na nazaj svoj prstan / na, pij / pri klicanju perutnine, živine: piška, na, na; na, sivec / na, tu me imaš, pa me udari / pri udarcu: na to za tvoje jezikanje, na, na, na; na za spomin, da me boš drugič ubogal ∙ ekspr. na roko, da bom držal besedo _obljubljam, zagotavljam ti_   2. _izraža podkrepitev trditve:_ na, to bo nekaj za naše opravljivce; tako sem se smejal — na, še zdaj imam solzne oči / pri priganjanju živine na, sivka, potegni ♪


 
Maybe it would be good to move all these into a separate topic now, when there are so many messages about it.


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## iobyo

Tolovaj_Mataj said:


> We have it also in Slovene with the very same meaning.



As do we in Macedonian (as _на!_).

_Nate_ sounds a little strange to me as I wouldn't consider _na_ a verb, but rather an interjection.


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## mateo19

Hmmm, well, returning to the central theme, can anyone say the following decisively?:
It Czech, ahoj and čau are invariable (they don´t change) and it is unacceptable to make the agreement whereas in Slovak they agree in number and this is acceptable.


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## slavic_one

I use "*Ahojte (ľudia)*" pretty often and don't see why should it be wrong


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## kelt

jazyk said:


> There's čauky and ahojky in Czech, but these can be used even when you're talking to only one person.


 
Hi there!

I must say I don't like people who use these words. Peculiar as I may be, I find them childish with a trace of feigned affection.

As for _nate_, it is pretty much the only occurence of such inflection I can think of. To me it does not sound more polite than simple _na_, I would use that only when addressing older people. I feel it is an older variant of the language, in use maybe some 50-100 years ago.
The truth is, _na_ is not polite. When talking politely I'd go for _tady máte_, _tady prosím_, or just _prosím_.


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## mateo19

I like that expression, Slavic One, "Ahojte ľudia"!  I wonder if I can open a post in Slovak like that?  I don´t know if this is correct, but would it be like saying, "Ahojte, _všeci_"?

In any event, I am finally taking a Slovak class at my university and next week I´ll ask my professor, who is a native of Bratislava, what the best form to use is.


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## slavic_one

mateo19 said:


> I like that expression, Slavic One, "Ahojte ľudia"!  I wonder if I can open a post in Slovak like that?  I don´t know if this is correct, but would it be like saying, "Ahojte, _všeci_"?
> 
> In any event, I am finally taking a Slovak class at my university and next week I´ll ask my professor, who is a native of Bratislava, what the best form to use is.



_Všeci _not, but _všetci _could be ok!
That's great that you're starting with classes, now we're have a good source of information (your professor)!


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## mateo19

Yesterday in class I asked pán profesor xxx about ahoj/ahojte and čau/čaute.  He said that according to the "Style Guide (slovenského jazyka)", this is not recommended use.  He continued on to explain that the plural forms are "highly colloquial" but that it is ok to use them and that many people use the plural forms without even thinking about it.  It is second nature to them and is just part of their speech.    Now I have my answer.

Dovidenia, ľudia!


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## slavic_one

mateo19 said:


> Yesterday in class I asked pán profesor xxx about ahoj/ahojte and čau/čaute.  He said that according to the "Style Guide (slovenského jazyka)", this is not recommended use.  He continued on to explain that the plural forms are "highly colloquial" but that it is ok to use them and that many people use the plural forms without even thinking about it.  It is second nature to them and is just part of their speech.    Now I have my answer.
> 
> Dovidenia, ľudia!



I know it's english, but that "pán profesor" just caught my eye.. so just for the record, it would be "(opytal som sa) pána profesora". 
Ok now we all have the answer. I think noone even said it is literaly correct, but in everyday speech/writing it's allright!


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## mateo19

I liked your comment, Slavic One.  That is why it caught your eye, because I wrote, "pán profesor" amidst an English sentence with no case marking.  You are correct, I should have used the dative case, but I usually ignore case when using an inflected form from another language in English.  Thank you for being ever vigilant!


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