# Nemám čas



## _RosS_

"Nemam cas", this is Czech, yes? And what this means?
Thanks a lot


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## sokol

No, it is Slavic and would be nearly the correct form in quite a number of Slavic languages.
However, in any one of them the meaning would be that you haven't got time (intransitive): in Slovene, nimam časa; Croatian, nemam časa.

As for the ending -a: this is genitive, needed in Slovene, probably not needed in some other Slavic languages, I'm not quite sure about that one.
[EDIT: no, in Croatian it's 'sat', not 'čas', isn't it?]


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## winpoj

It might be nearly correct in many Slavic languages but it is exactly correct in Czech (and Slovak, I suppose).


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## Jana337

sokol said:


> No, it is Slavic


You probably mean Slovak, but it might as well be Czech.
Correct orthography in both languages - nemám čas.


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## sokol

Jana337 said:


> You probably mean Slovak, but it might as well be Czech.
> Correct orthography in both languages - nemám čas.



No, I really meant Slavic - I just didn't realize that (obviously) in Czech and Slovak casus genitivus is not required.
Thanks!


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## Hal1fax

sokol said:


> No, I really meant Slavic - I just didn't realize that (obviously) in Czech and Slovak casus genitivus is not required.
> Thanks!



Czech is Slavic
and in Polish it would be nie mam czas*u*, with no 'a'


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## Orreaga

I haven't yet seen the exact translation given in this thread.  It doesn't mean "you haven't got time" as posted earlier.  "*Nemám čas*" means "*I haven't got time.*"


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## dudasd

sokol said:


> [EDIT: no, in Croatian it's 'sat', not 'čas', isn't it?]


 
Depends on what you mean, in Croatian "čas" means "hour", and "sat" usually means "lesson". In Serbian, both "čas" and "sat" mean "hour"; "čas" means "lesson" and "moment". Without the genitive suffix, this sentence could have sense only in Serbian ("I don't have the lesson"), but hardly in Croatian.


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## Athaulf

dudasd said:


> Depends on what you mean, in Croatian "čas" means "hour", and "sat" usually means "lesson". In Serbian, both "čas" and "sat" mean "hour"; "čas" means "lesson" and "moment".



Actually, in Croatian _čas_ means "moment", and _sat_ is used for both "hour" and "lesson" (and "watch" and "clock" as well). Using _čas _with any meaning other than "moment" sounds very, very Serbian to my ear. 



> Without the genitive suffix, this sentence could have sense only in Serbian ("I don't have the lesson"), but hardly in Croatian.


I guess in Croatian one could say _"nemam ni časa"_, which would mean "I don't even have a moment" (i.e. I'm busy, in a hurry, etc.). However, this is not a commonly used idiomatic expression, although it would likely be understood in this sense.


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

sokol said:


> [EDIT: no, in Croatian it's 'sat', not 'čas', isn't it?]


Actually it is "vrijeme", if you mean 'time' in general.


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## parolearruffate

It means: Non ho tempo.


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## dudasd

Athaulf said:


> Actually, in Croatian _čas_ means "moment", and _sat_ is used for both "hour" and "lesson" (and "watch" and "clock" as well). Using _čas _with any meaning other than "moment" sounds very, very Serbian to my ear.


 
Oooops, then it varies from radio to radio and from writer to writer.  I really met examples like "sat klavira" ("piano lesson") so many times in Croatian literature, and on Croatian radio I usually hear "čas" meaning "hour". (Things do change here, that's for sure; in Sebia we also had a great dispute about use of "čas" and "hour" in radio broadcasts, because "sat" sounded "too Turkish" and čas "too Croatian".) My apologizes.  Anyway, then we agree that both in Croatian "Nemam čas" can't mean anything else than "I don't have the lesson".


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## Athaulf

dudasd said:


> Oooops, then it varies from radio to radio and from writer to writer.  I really met examples like "sat klavira" ("piano lesson") so many times in Croatian literature,



There seems to be a small confusion here -- this _is _the normal Croatian usage, as I wrote above. 

To put it in a more systematic way (the Serbian part might need some correction):

    English -- Croatian -- Serbian:
    ---------------------------------_
    hour -- sat -- sat/čas
    moment -- čas/moment -- čas/moment
    lesson -- sat -- čas
    clock -- sat/ura _(archaic)_ -- sat/časovnik_



> and on Croatian radio I usually hear "čas" meaning "hour".


Are you really sure?   For example, here is a sample program schedule of the Croatian national radio, and as you can see, they are using _sat_ exclusively. I remember that even when I lived in Bosnia as a kid, using _čas _for "hour" sounded to me like specifically Serbian usage (though we used it for "lesson"), and to the best of my recollection, it sounds definitely Serbian in Croatia.


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## dudasd

Athaulf said:


> There seems to be a small confusion here -- this _is _the normal Croatian usage, as I wrote above.


 
My heedless reading. 



Athaulf said:


> Are you really sure?  For example, here is a sample program schedule of the Croatian national radio, and as you can see, they are using _sat_ exclusively. I remember that even when I lived in Bosnia as a kid, using _čas _for "hour" sounded to me like specifically Serbian usage (though we used it for "lesson"), and to the best of my recollection, it sounds definitely Serbian in Croatia.


 
In Bosnia I hear "sat" on almost all of their radio stations (be they Serbian, Croatian or Moslem), so I can only agree concerning that part. But the "čas/sat" issue was very alive in 1990's, and I happened to get a job in radio broadcast just then, so I remember it very well (that was the time when we had to say "sat" instead of "čas" in Serbia... I don't have to explain, and it would be off-topic, but we know what it was about.) Now "čas" and "sat" are used equally here in the meaning of "hour" ("sat" even prevails again, the same with "sat/časovnik"). But I wonder what happened with Croatian "čas", it was really a feature of TV and radio speakers.  I promise to make a small research (a sample of 20-30 Croatian radio stations available online, that should be enough, I think, and it will be a pleasant and interesting work). 

If our admins decide that this is too much off-topic, I hope this part won't be deleted but separated to another thread.


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