# Would you like to visit my house and play with me?



## mknz

Hello

I hope I am posting this in the right place. I've looked for Czech language forums online and this one seems to be the most active.

My 10 year old son has been asked by the school principal to befriend two Czech children at school who have just immigrated to our country (New Zealand). They don't know any English and my son knows Slovenian and Croatian (which is probably why he was asked to do this as the languages are somewhat similar to Czech). I have found Czech phrases online and have written them down for him so he can communicate some basic things.

In addition to this I am wondering how he can say the following in Czech: Would you like to visit my house and play with me?

Thank you very much in advance.


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## Hrdlodus

Precise translate this sencence is: "Nechtěl bys navštívit můj dům a hrát si se mnou?" (singular) "Nechtěli byste..." (plural)
Common using may be:
"Nepůjdem si ke mně domů hrát?" (Will we go to play to my house? (I have bad english, so this translate sounds so weird.))
How to say it: http://translate.google.cz/?q=Nepůjdem si ke mně domů hrát?&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=cs&sa=N&tab=wT
(Click the button with picture of speaker.)


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## morior_invictus

Hi mknz,
welcome to the forums. 
Hrdlodus` translations are very good, I`ll just correct him a tad:


Hrdlodus said:


> "Nechtěl bys navštívit můj dům a hrát si se mnou?" (singular) "Nechtěli byste..." (plural)  _It`s a literal translation but a very good one and commonly used._
> Common using may be:
> "Nepůjdem si ke mně domů hrát?" = I would translate this to "_Don`t you want to play around my house_?" or  "_What about playing around my house?_" what could also be translated to  "_A co byste řekli na to, kdybychom se šli hrát ke mně domů?_ "


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## bibax

"Nechtěl bys navštívit můj dům a hrát si se mnou?" sounds too formal.

Less formally:

Nechceš jít k nám a hrát si se mnou? = Do you want to go to us (= to our house) and [to] play with me?


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## mknz

Thank you so much for the translations, Hrdlodus. This is really great and helps a lot. I really appreciate it.


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## Enquiring Mind

bibax said:


> Nechceš jít k nám a hrát si se mnou? = Do you want to ....


  Bibax has correctly noted an excellent point here.

In Czech a polite request, suggestion or enquiry is initiated by *negating* the verb, but you don't negate it in English.
Nechceš na Skype? Do you want to Skype? Do you fancy Skyping? Would you like to Skype? Shall we Skype?
Nechceš na pivo? Do you fancy a beer?  Shall we go for a beer?  Shall we go and have a beer?  
Nechceš otevřit okno?  Shall we open the window?  Would you mind opening the window?
Nemáš hlad?  Are you hungry?  Shall we have something to eat?  Do you want something to eat? 

But:
Don't you want to Skype?  Opravdu nechceš ... ?  Jak to, že nechceš ...?
Don't you want to go for a beer? Opravdu nechceš ... ?  Jak to, že nechceš ...?

For "Nepůjdem si ke mně domů hrát?", I'd suggest: "Shall we go round to my/our house/flat/place and play"? "How about coming round to my/our house/flat/place and playing?" "Would you like to come round to my/our house/flat/place and play?"  "Shall we go and play round/at my/our house/flat/place?"

PS mknz: not only is this "the most active" Czech forum, it's far and away the best! 

And by the way, there's an excellent site for your son here at speakenglish.co.uk. It's actually the Czech version of the site for English-learners, but there are a whole range of phrases there for many different situations, and you can use it to find suitable phrases in Czech.


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## mknz

Thanks everybody for their help and input. It's so interesting and hopefully my son will be able to communicate with the Czech children. He went to school today with a piece of paper full of Czech phrases after practising them last night. I am not sure about his pronunciation, though! The principal is delighted anyway. 

I decided to include the less formal phrase "nechceš jít k nám a hrát si se mnou?". I am sure all of your suggestions would be fine, though.

Enquiring Mind - It's very interesting about the negation when suggesting something. I thought about it a bit and actually, some of the Czech phrases you used as examples are completely understandable/identical in Croatian. However, they come across as a bit hostile and the person being spoken to might feel a bit defensive, like they are being told off!  Thank you for the link at speakenglish.co.uk. I'm sure that it will be very handy for him.


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## Hrdlodus

"Nechceš jít k nám a hrát si se mnou?" is question to one person.
If you want ask both children, use: "Nechcete jít k nám a hrát si se mnou?"


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