# Rozhodovali se o rozdělení peněz



## Bathsabee

Hello, could you help me to translate this sentence in French or English ?
"Rozhodovali se o rozdělení peněz"
if I say "They decided to share the money" it is  : "Rozhodli se o rozdělení peněz"
So , what do you suggest ? I understand very well the meaning but cannot find a good counterpart. Thanks


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## Enquiring Mind

Comme tu as bien remarqué, Bathsabee, le verbe dans la phrase "_rozhodovali_ se o rozdělení peněz" est imperfectif, donc ils n'ont pas encore décidé la chose. Donc c'est: "ils essayaient de décider comment partager l'argent", ou bien "ils étaient en train de décider ..." 

As you noted, Bathsabee, the verb in the phrase "_rozhodovali_ se o rozdělení peněz" is imperfective, so they haven't yet made the decision. So the translation is "they were trying to decide how to share out the money" or "they were in the process of deciding how to ....." or "they were talking about how to share out the money" ... (there are other possible translations too) 

Cf: kdo tady rozhoduje? - Who makes the decisions here?


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## Bathsabee

Hi, Enquiring Mind, thank you for your reply. Your Czech seems pretty good, and your French as well !! (you are English, aren't you ?)
Actually, the translation you made is not far from the translation I made myself in French : Ils mettaient du temps à se décider à partager l'argent...
The problem is : the style is very clumsy (in French) and I cannot find anything smoother. If I had to translate that for a book, I just dont know what I would write. It is smooth in Czech but not in French (and not in English either, is it ?). Thanks anyway.


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## Enquiring Mind

Thank you Bathsabee, you are too kind .  Your translation is good as well, but the thing to remember about imperfective verbs in the past tense is simply that the action of the verb hasn't been completed yet - either because they are taking a long time (as in your translation) to do it, or they are (or were) still _in the process of_ doing it, or they were _trying to _do it, but hadn't yet succeeded in completing the action. Often, you don't need to use the verb "decide" to translate "rozhodovat" at all. 

Here are some examples:
"Poslanci rozhodovali v pozdních hodinách o důvěře  novému kabinetu. Čekalo se, že ji podpoří jen těsným rozdílem." (from Hospodářské noviny) 
"The deputies argued late into the night about whether to back the new cabinet. They were expected to vote in favour by a narrow margin." (At that stage, they still hadn't reached a decision.) 

"Experti rozhodovali, kdo dostane vakcínu proti chřipce" (from Vitalia.cz) .
"The experts have been discussing who should get the flu vaccine."  (They still haven't reached a decision.)

"Irové rozhodovali o osudu Evropské unie" (from aktuálně.cz)
"The Irish have been voting on the fate of the European Union."

(And there are, of course, several other reasons why the imperfective form of a verb might be used.)


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## bibax

I am sorry, the given Czech sentence is not smooth at all. The problem is with the reflexive pronoun _se_. There is a slight difference between _rozhodovat_ (to make decisions) and _rozhodovat se_ (to make one's mind).

1)_* Rozhodovali o rozdělení peněz.*_
2) _*Rozhodovali se, jak rozdělí peníze.*_


> ... the thing to remember about imperfective verbs is simply that the action of the verb hasn't been completed yet ...


Not always.

_*V Římské říši o rozdělení peněz rozhodoval senát. *_


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## Enquiring Mind

That's true, bibax.  In the example you gave it's because it was an action that happened several times or repeatedly, not just once. The Senate _used to make the decisions_ or _used to decide_ or _decided_ (each time a decision had to be made).  As I said at the end of my post, there are several other reasons why the imperfective form might be used ...


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## bibax

Yes, I read _(past tense)_ it. 

Another reason for the imperfective aspect is that the result is not important at all.

Investigator: _*"Co jste dělal včera odpoledne?"*_
Inquired person: _*"Celé odpoledne jsem opravoval střechu."*_


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## Bathsabee

Thank you to both of you. 
Enquiring mind : thank you for telling me that I dont need to use the verb "to decide". it's going to make things easier...
Bibax : thank you for telling that the result is not at all important (in some cases). The Czech language is very subtil. 
Good night !


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## werrr

Enquiring Mind said:


> That's true, bibax.  In the example you gave it's because it was an action that happened several times or repeatedly, not just once. The Senate _used to make the decisions_ or _used to decide_ or _decided_ (each time a decision had to be made).


Well, the action needn't happen at all. The sentence could be interpreted also as "_the Senate was entitled/authorized to make (or to not to make) the decisions_".



> As I said at the end of my post, there are several other reasons why the imperfective form might be used ...


In fact, there is only one reason to use the imperfective aspect which is the unfitness of the perfective aspect. 

Perfective aspect implies finite action while imperfective form doesn't imply anything about finiteness of the action.


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