# Role



## Tagarela

Ahoj,

I'd like to know what is word is the most common to role. 

My doubt comes from a dialogue from my textbook, it is about two people discussing what they would do if they won a lot of money, one person says:

"_Ale peníze nehrají v mém životě až tak velkou *roli*_"

Is there any good option instead of _role_ in this case?

Děkuji předem

Nazdar.:


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## andrejkaita

--- A money is not so important to me ----

You can substitute a "hrat roli" with "byt dulezity" : Penize pro mě nejsou tak důležité.


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## Tagarela

Ahoj,

Děkuji, Andreji!

How about _úloha_? _Hrat *úlohu*_? 

Nazdar.:


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## Jana337

I don't like "úloha".

Other options:
Peníze pro mne nemají žádný velký význam.
Penězům nepřikládám moc velkou důležitost / velký význam.


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## werrr

Tagarela said:


> How about _úloha_? _Hrát *úlohu*_?


“Hrát roli” or “mít úlohu”. “Hrát úlohu” is nonsensical mix of the previous inconsistent with the basic meaning of “úloha”. But some people use it.



Jana337 said:


> I don't like "úloha".


For this idiomatic usage, I agree.



> Other options:
> Peníze pro mne nemají žádný velký význam.
> Penězům nepřikládám moc velkou důležitost / velký význam.


other option:

_  o peníze (mi) nejde_


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## winpoj

> “Hrát úlohu” is nonsensical mix of the previous inconsistent with the basic meaning of “úloha”.



I don't understand why that would be the case. Could you elaborate?

Personally, I also prefer "role" over "úloha" in Tagarela's sentence but only because "úloha" would sound too formal there in my view.


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## werrr

winpoj said:


> I don't understand why that would be the case. Could you elaborate?
> 
> Personally, I also prefer "role" over "úloha" in Tagarela's sentence but only because "úloha" would sound too formal there in my view.



Both the idioms come from stage terminology. The original Czech terminology is that one with “úloha”.

“Mít úlohu” means “to have an assignment/duty”. For the stage terminology it was adopted for the meaning “to be assigned to play a character”. This means that the expression “hrát úlohu” means actually “to play to be assigned to play a character”. In other words, if the phrase “mít úlohu” has the idiomatic meaning “to take a part”, the phrase “hrát úlohu” should mean “to pretend to take a part”.

The word “role” has similar etymology, but it comes from French. It refers to the roll of paper with one actor’s lines. This was the base for the expression “to play a role in…” in many languages including English and German. The Czech word “role” is loanword from German “die Rolle” and the Czech idiom “hrát roli” is a calque from German “eine Rolle spielen”.

The latter expression was formerly considered substandard for its German origin, but nowadays it is the more common expression.


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