# What a shock!



## artimedoros49

Hello, 

How would I say the above?
Here's the context and my try, which is the best I can come up with. Any improvements would be appreciated.

Teplota byla 40°C když odešla z Austrálie. V Praze byla méně než 0°C. *Bylo by to hrozný šok.
*
Thank you


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## Enquiring Mind

Hi arti, just addressing the part of the sentence you're asking about, the use of "šok" is ok, as in the four examples in _brown italic_ further down this post, but as you've used "by", you've made it a conditional - i_t *would* be a big shock_. Also, the dummy/impersonal/non-subject "it" ("*it* was") doesn't always seem to work with a neuter verb form (byl*o*) in Czech when the subject is grammatically masculine (šok) or feminine (zima).

Compare: (1) byl*o* velký šok   (2) byl velký šok  (3) byl*o* velká zima   (4) byla velká zima .  I don't like (1) and (3), but I defer to the opinion of the natives on this point.*

_Byl to hrozný šok, v té době jsem ani nevěděla, že jsem adoptovaná. 
"Byl to hrozný šok," vysvětluje. "Náhlá ztráta zraku člověku naprosto změní život..." 
Na nemoc se přišlo až ve fázi metastáz a byl to hrozný šok. 
Byl to hrozný šok. Vůbec jsem nevěděl, proč se to stalo._

You may also want to reconsider "odešla". Although _odejít_, particularly in its idiomatic (not verb-of-motion) meanings, doesn't always carry the notion of "walking" (on foot), "ode*jít* z Austrálie" sounds odd to me. Let's put it like this: my sat nav can't find the road there . So I would go with "od*jela*" or "odletěla", and maybe "teplota v Austrálii ..... když odjela...." (tying the temperature to Australia).

*Karel Tahal, in his 'A Grammar of Czech as a Foreign Language' (FACTUM CZ, s.r.o., 2010) here (page 147) allows
_Je zima. It´s cold. Byl*o* / byl*a* zima. 
Je tma. It´s dark. Byl*o* / byl*a* tma._
But that's just _tma_ and _zima_ (I think they're "special-case" weather conditions, while šok isn't an "adverbial"-type weather condition) _*without*_ a qualifying adjective. Once you add a qualifier e.g. "velký", "hrozný" the grammar seems to require the gender agreement.


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## artimedoros49

I really appreciate your feedback Enquiring Mind (as always).
There's just one thing I'd like to follow up on. *Byl velký šok *seems (to me) to simply make a statement : "It was a big shock." Which is why I used the conditional to convey the thought "It would have/must have been a shock to her" or "What a shock!". 

I have found a couple of examples on Lingea.cz after looking for "What a..." - which I didn't think to do initially.
(1) To je ale překvapení! What a surprise! (2) To je ale škoda! What a pity!

So would "To je ale šok!" work for "What a shock!"?

Thank you again.


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## Enquiring Mind

Ok, thanks for clarifying the intended meaning. In the first post, the context shows that the action _*did*_ take place - she left Australia, arrived in Prague, and was (surely, in the speaker's opinion, looking back on the event) shocked by the temperature difference, so the conditional construction - _*byl by* to hrozný šok, it *would be* a huge shock (if such and such happened) - _doesn't work here, in my opinion.

The sense is the speaker's *presumption* (because the speaker wasn't there at the time to witness it) that it was a shock - _it *must/would have been* a (huge/great etc.) shock, _and this would normally be rendered in one of two ways:

(1) Past tense of _muset:_
_Musel to být velký šok, zjistit, že jste těhotná. _(aktualne.cz) _It must/would have been a big shock, finding out that you were pregnant.
Musel to být velký šok, když najednou přijelo více než 1 000 autobusů ... (postapo.cz) It must/would have been a big shock when over 1,000 buses turned up ... 
Musel to být šok. JS totiž v nemocnici zjistil, že je mrtvý. Tedy papírově. _(blesk.cz) _What a shock that must have been! JS went into hospital only to find out that he was dead. At least on paper._

(2) Past tense of šokovat, překvapit, zaskočit etc. with "určitě" (or "snad", "asi", "tuším", etc.)
_Ten pořad lidi určitě šokoval a znechutil._ _This programme must/would have left people shocked and disgusted._
_Konec druhé epizody některé určitě šokoval_ .. (edna.cz) .... _must/would have been a shock to some viewers_
_Návštěvníky plesu určitě překvapil nově zabudovaný barový pult _(jkp-olesna.cz).. _must have been (_or _"will surely have been") surprised by ...
Všechny určitě zaskočil Froome, od kterého to nikdo nečekal. _(supercycling.cz)  ..  _Froome must have shocked them all (or "taken them all by surprise")_


> would "To je ale šok!" work for "What a shock!"?


 Yes. It translates as "what a shock (that is)!" in the present sense, and can also be understood in the present tense iterative (repeated/habitual) sense _what a shock it is when that kind of thing happens. _As we know from the context that this surprising thing (huge temperature difference) _*did*_ happen on that occasion, then _to je ale šok!_ can transfer back in time to be understood (both in Czech and English) as "what a shock (that was)!", or "what a shock (that must/would have been)!", so as a short exclamation, it neatly and idiomatically avoids having to worry about past tenses in a more complex construction such as "musel to být šok", "určitě ji to zaskočilo/překvapilo", "musela být vykulená/vyděšená", "určitě jí to vyrazilo dech", etc. But these suggestions are ok too.


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## ilocas2

V Austrálii bylo 40°C, když nastupovala do letadla. V Praze bylo méně než 0°C. Byl to pro ni hrozný šok.


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## artimedoros49

Thank you so much, both of you. Enquiring Mind, I'm going to go with your suggestion "_Musel to být velký(anebo hrozný) šok", _because that seems to convey that element of not knowing if indeed it was a shock to her, i.e., I imagine that it was a big shock, but I don't really know.


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## ilocas2

I think that the sentence _Musel to být hrozný šok_ sounds much better with _pro ni_ (for her) than without it. I can't explain why but plain _Musel to být hrozný šok_ or _Byl to hrozný šok_ sounds either too colloquially or like something is missing, in that context.


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## artimedoros49

Thank you


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