# bad, evil



## Jana337

Cześć, 

I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").

Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?

Dziękuję,

Jana


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## BaraniskoDyskoteka

hmmmm..................
we rather not distinguish.....


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## Monica610

That's right, the word "zły" can concern "bad", "evil" and "poorly written" as well . "Zła" can be "książka", "piosenka" and so on. Sometimes it means also "angry", so when I say that "mój tata jest zły" then I don't mean that he is evil


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## Marga H

zła odpowiedż - *wrong *answer
złe czasy -* hard *times
It can be more idiomatic combinations.
Pozdrowienia.


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## Anatoli

In Russian too - злой (zloy) - evil, bad-tempered, angry but плох*о*й (plokhoy) - bad.

In Polish it's more neutral in meaning

źle - badly
zły - bad


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## Thomas1

Jana337 said:


> Cześć,
> 
> I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").
> 
> Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?
> 
> Dziękuję,
> 
> Jana


 
If you want to use _zły_ in these two meanings you're on a good way. If you want to use a word for each of this meaning which is unequivocal you would need to find some synonyms, how about for the 1st meaning: nikczemny, podły, złośliwy; and for the 2nd one kiepski.


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## werrr

Jana337 said:


> Cześć,
> 
> I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").
> 
> Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?
> 
> Dziękuję,
> 
> Jana


I wonder it sounds so unusual to your Czech ears accustomed to Slovak. Slovaks use this word in the same way. 

There's similar shift in meaning in the adjective "lichy". That also means "bad" in Polish.


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## Jana337

werrr said:


> I wonder it sounds so unusual to your Czech ears accustomed to Slovak. Slovaks use this word in the same way.


Yes, that's true, I didn't realize it. 
It might turn out to be a good strategy to confront Polish with what I know about Slovak. I find the two languages similar in many ways.

Ano, to je pravda - neuvědomila jsem si to. 
Možná bude dobré srovnávat polštinu s tím, co vím o slovenštině. Ty dva jazyky mi připadají v mnoha ohledech podobné.

Jana


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