# Právě o tom, že (...), se spekuluje



## Odriski

Hi everyone, haven't been here for a long time!

This time I have very little to describe the question, so I will use English to describe my question.

In novinky.cz, I've read a news, where I found a sentence as below:

"Právě o tom, že Sobotka nemusel mít u své e-mailové schránky provozované serverem Seznam.cz příliš bezpečné heslo se spekuluje"

So what confuse me is that, in this sentence, it seems that there are 2 declensions, and they are not in coordinate relation, and the word "se" is not in the second position. So I am wondering, if this sentence is wrong? And the correct order should be "Spekuluje se právě o tom, že Sobotka nemusel mít u své e-mailové schránky provozované serverem Seznam.cz příliš bezpečné heslo"?

Please help to analyze, if it is not wrong, then what kind of the grammatical phenomenom it is?

Here is the original news for your reference
Po průšvihu se Sobotkovým e-mailem nabízí NBÚ Úřadu vlády pomoc se zabezpečením

Thanks!


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## Mori.cze

Hi Odriski,

it confuses me too. I had to re-read it to understand. Your suggestion fixes it just fine.

I would not say that it is strictly wrong, though, just awkward, at least after the missing comma after the subordinate clause is added: "Právě o tom, že Sobotka nemusel mít u své e-mailové schránky provozované serverem Seznam.cz příliš bezpečné heslo*,* se spekuluje"

The subordinate clause is way too long to work inside the main one, but with a much shorter one the construction would be quite OK (even though IMHO still less natural than your fix): "Právě o tom, že neměl bezpečné heslo*,* se spekuluje"¨

As for the grammar terms and rules someone else surely will be better qualified, but I believe that from the practical point of view "se" is indeed on the second position, the first term being "o tom" with somehow dangling parts of "právě" and of the subordinate clause.


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## Enquiring Mind

Hi Odriski, just to add to Mori.cze's answer, the necessary comma after "heslo"* is* there in the link, you seem to have omitted it. Yes, the sentence is a little awkward, but certainly not grammatically wrong. When we *speak* English or Czech, we can convey emphasis by our intonation and the words we stress. In the *written* word, there is obviously no intonation or word stress to be heard, so we can convey emphasis by changing the word order, both in English and Czech. But word order in Czech is much freer than in English.

The clause ("Právě o tom, že Sobotka nemusel mít u své e-mailové schránky provozované serverem Seznam.cz příliš bezpečné heslo,...") which is the subject of the reflexive verb here, is indeed long and could be improved by being shortened, but that's an issue of style, not grammar.

There is a paper here (source: lexiconista.com) about the differences in word order in Czech and English, and the problems these can pose for the translator. Look, in particular, at the section called "*the end-weight principle*" on page 4 of that pdf file. It says _"This principle is observed in English and dictates that long or circumstantial information prefers to be placed at the end of a clause, regardless of whether it is given or new....* Czech, however, does not know this principle. Long stretches of circumstantial information, even if it constitutes given information, can freely be placed at the beginning of a clause without looking awkward." *_

This is what we see in your example: the "long stretch of circumstantial information" - _Právě o tom, že Sobotka nemusel mít u své e-mailové schránky provozované serverem Seznam.cz příliš bezpečné heslo, _- at the beginning, which is perfectly ok in Czech. This whole chunk of text makes up the first "element" or "position" in the sentence, and the second element or position is the reflexive pronoun "se", which is in its right place.


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## Odriski

Hi Thank you, it is quite strange, when I first read this news, it didn't have the comma yet, even I copied that sentence and pasted in the thread, the comma not appeared yet, but now I can see the comma, too. Maybe the editor realized the mistake and has added the comma in this sentence, thanks for your analyze



Mori.cze said:


> Hi Odriski,
> 
> it confuses me too. I had to re-read it to understand. Your suggestion fixes it just fine.


Thanks, yes, you think the same as I do


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