# telefonovat, zatelefonovat si



## Kwunlam

Ahoj ! I read from the online Tschechische Grammatik that "telefonovat" is both perfective and imperfective. 

So my question that I would like to ask is, what is the difference between "si zatelefonovat" and "telefonovat" ?

Prosím vás, můžu / mohu si zatelefonovat ?

I tried my Lingea CZ/EN and CZ/DE dictionaries, the definitions and explanations are quite similar. But I guess there must be some minor differences, right?

Thank you very much (and have a happy new year) !


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## texpert

Ahoj,

si zatelefonovat = make a telephone call
telefonovat = to telephone & make a telephone call

(first form being only perfective, I think)


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## winpoj

Daring to disagree with the Tschechische Grammatik, I claim that "telefonovat" is imperfective only.


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## texpert

My instincts tell me the same but as long as the grammar's concerned, I can be easily misled by any authoritative claim. Now if there's one more twist in the story, I'm going to turn back to school


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## werrr

I myself use the verb “telefonovat” as imperfective only and “zatelefonovat” as its perfective counterpart, but I tend to tolerate it as a biaspectual verb as the loanwords of this kind (definovat, demolovat, informovat, garantovat, pasovat…) tend to be.

I could be tolerant as long as the verb “telefonovat” is concerned, but not so for other examples from Tschechische Grammatik:

“Zprostředkovat” is clearly perfective, not biaspectual.
There exists aspectual counterpart for “spatřit”.
“Stačit” is biaspectual, not strictly perfective.
“Leknout se” and “bát se” are two verbs of similar, but not identical, meaning, thus not aspectual pair at all.

…and so on.

So, winpoj’s “daring to disagree” is rather mild for this source.


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## Kwunlam

Thank you for all your answers. So I could just pair them up as perfective and imperfective. 

But why in a sentence like this, 

Prosím vás, můžu / mohu si zatelefonovat ?

[taken from: _Tcheque toute de suite_, lesson A8]

the perfective is used ? Well, is it just interchangeable here, no harm ?


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## chorche

Kwunlam said:


> Prosím vás, můžu / mohu si zatelefonovat ?
> 
> the perfective is used ? Well, is it just interchangeable here, no harm ?



Well, not quite, although the difference is very small. If you say
Prosim vas, muzu si zatelefonovat?
you are saying:
Excuse me, can I MAKE A PHONECALL?
Let's say you need to call somebody and you pop into the nearest hotel and you ask the recepcionist this question.

Saying
Prosim vas, muzu telefonovat? or Prosim vas, se muze telefonovat?
you are referring rather to general use of the phone, it´s just as same as to say:
Can I USE the phone?  Let´s say you are doing an exam, and you want to know if it´s allowed to use the phone, so you ask the supervisor this question. This example is not the best, but I hope it´ll do. 

Enjoy studying Czech in the New Year!


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## Kwunlam

Thank you for your reply. 

So, if I have not misunderstood you, you would like to point out that the perfective "si zatelefonovat" means something like "make a phone call" which is an one-time action (once finished, then done), while "telefonovat", being imperfective, does not imply such an one-time-ness and refers to an action in general.


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## chorche

That's right. You resumed it correctly.


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