# můžete (impersonal form)



## questin

Hi again.
I have been learning some Czech and I am not very sure about how to use impersonal verb forms.
I have seen this "je možné" "možná" "se..."
But I have the feeling that the "vy" form of the verbs may be used as well as an impersonal form.
For example:

"Co zde můžete navštívit?"

Is it correct or it simply means "What can you people visit?"
Thanks again!


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## jazyk

Možná means _maybe, perhaps_ in Czech. Similar words in other Slavic languages (Polish można, Slovak možno) may be used in impersonal constructions, but I've never seen Možná with that meaning in Czech. An impersonal construction there is in Czech is with _lze_, but I think it is fairly formal or bookish.



> Is it correct or it simply means "What can you people visit?"
> Thanks again!


I don't understand this sentence. Does it mean _¿Qué podéis visitar?_ Anyway, that question sounds odd to me even in Spanish.


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## questin

First of all, thanks a lot for your help.

The question is whether a sentence like
"Co zde můžete navštívit?"
may have an impersonal meaning, or it just means
"What can YOU visit?".
The question is whether the second plural form of the verb can be used as an impersonal one. If it is not the case, which form of the verb is used as an impersonal? Third singular?

(It is not the matter now, but ¿Qué podéis visitar? is perfectly correct in Spanish, but not impersonal.)


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## jazyk

> The question is whether a sentence like
> "Co zde můžete navštívit?"
> may have an impersonal meaning, or it just means
> "What can YOU visit?".



It means you (plural). I don't see it as impersonal, but I would need a broader context to exclude that possibility.



> (It is not the matter now, but ¿Qué podéis visitar? is perfectly correct in Spanish, but not impersonal.)


Sé que es correcta gramaticalmente (yo la escribí  ), pero la cuestión es que no consigo imaginar una situación en la que se podría decir eso.


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## jazyk

Now I see it. I hadn't seen that _zde _in the first post, maybe because it was all in one single block. 

_Co zde můžete navštívit? _looks like something you could see in a magazine, a travelog, a brochure, in some sort of published material. In this situation it is speaking directly to the readers and could, in a sense, be regarded as impersonal, since anybody could visit the place described in the article. Anyway, I don't see any difference in meaning between _Co zde můžete navštívit? _and _¿Qué pueden/podéis visitar aquí?_, except that _můžete _can also correspond to ustedeo, but that you already know.



> (It is not the matter now, but ¿Qué podéis visitar? is perfectly correct in Spanish, but not impersonal.)


If by impersonal you mean using _se_ in Spanish, it is not impersonal. Its impersonal version would be _Co se zde může navštívit_?


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## questin

Ok, fantastic.
I am not very interested in that specific sentence, but rather in the Czech impersonal construction. And I see that it might be "se muze", correct?
For example, could I say "Kde se může naobědvat v blizkosti"? but not "Kde se můžete or můžeme..." Is that right?


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## jazyk

> For example, could I say "Kde se může naobědvat v blizkosti"? but not "Kde se můžete or můžeme..." Is that right?


No, because naobědvat se is always reflexive (já se naobvědvám, ty se naobědváš, etc.) It is in like in Spanish. Reflexive verbs don't have an impersonal form: *Se divierte mucho en esta ciudad, which would only be possible if you were talking about a specific person. You could say Kde se tady blízko dá obědvat? using the verb _dát_, a very versatile verb. On the other hand,_ Kde se tady blízko můžeme naobědvat_ would be correct. Certain verbs take the prefix _na_ and become reflexive. This _na _here means something like to store, to add, to have one's fill. Another example is_ napít se_, to drink, to quench one's thirst.



> I am not very interested in that specific sentence, but rather in the Czech impersonal construction.


Again, as I said, not very different from Spanish: En esta ciudad se come bien. = V tomto městě se dobře jí. Aquí se habla inglés. = Tady se mluví anglicky, etc.


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