# ty jsi ale velkej parchant



## martinemussies

Nazdar !! 

A friend of mine (who's also named Martine!) is half-Czech and has
this sentence in her MSN-name:

ty jsi ale velkej parchant 
Should I worry? Not sure what it means exactely.... :s

Love, Martine.


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## Ralf

martinemussies said:
			
		

> Nazdar !!
> 
> A friend of mine (who's also named Martine!) is half-Czech and has
> this sentence in her MSN-name:
> 
> ty jsi ale velkej parchant
> Should I worry? Not sure what it means exactely.... :s
> 
> Love, Martine.


I don't want to anticipate Jana's answer and I'm not sure at all, but I would go for "you are (really) a big rascal/urchin/(snotty) brat". I have no idea if it is something to worry about. It could be meant ironically, cheekily or slightly forwarding.

Ralf


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## Whodunit

Ralf said:
			
		

> I don't want to anticipate Jana's answer and I'm not sure at all, but I would go for "you are (really) a big rascal/urchin/(snotty) brat". I have no idea if it is something to worry about. It could be meant ironically, cheekily or slightly forwarding.
> 
> Ralf


 
I'd say "You are indeed a big bitch/bastard" and it doesn't sound that harmless.


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## Jana337

I concur with Ralf - in this context, it sounds rather cheeky.
You are really a big brat - my choice.

Jana


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## martinemussies

Thanx for your help, guys. I was a bit worried, 'coz I thought it might mean something like "you are a big ***hole" and that someone has hurt her. But it turned out to be a joke, more meant to be like the "brat"-translation above. Thanks a lot!


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## Petusek

"Ty jsi ale velkej parchant!" is a funny way to express how shocked your friend is about your size. I must have heard this sentence in a film, but I can't remember which one...

Anyway, I think the best translation would be:

"What a big bastard you are!"


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## Jana337

Petusek said:
			
		

> "Ty jsi ale velkej parchant!" is a funny way to express how shocked your friend is about your size. I must have heard this sentence in a film, but I can't remember which one...
> 
> Anyway, I think the best translation would be:
> 
> "What a big bastard you are!"


 If it is from a movie, it can well refer to the size of a person (don't know, haven't seen such a movie) but without context, I would definitely lean toward the figurative meaning of "velký", i.e. not to the stature of a person.

Welcome! 

Jana


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## Petusek

It must have been derogatory, we both agree, but I still think it expresses the size of a creature (I now think it was an animal - a beast, perhaps).

Compare these sentences - how was there meaning changed? As you have correctly mentioned, it all depends on the context, but think about semantic redundancy, for instance:

1. Ty jsi parchant!
2. Ty jsi ale parchant!
3. Ty jsi velkej parchant!
4. Ty jsi ale velkej parchant!
5. Ty jsi mi ale velkej parchant!

Best,

Petusek


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## Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

1. _You're a bastard!_ A simple informative sentence.
2. _What a bastard you are!_ "Ale" has a kind of amplifying function here.
3. _You're a big bastard!_
4. _What a big bastard you are!_
5. Now this is interesting. "Mi" means literally "to me" or "for me", but that's not what it means here. It makes the sentence feel as if the speaker were pondering to himself an interesting fact he just learned; something I'm hard pressed to find a way to express in English. "_My, what a big bastard you are!_" is probably the closest I can get, but it's not quite it.


Other than that, I think "Ty jsi ale velkej parchant" does indeed express the size of a creature because it's a quote from either Alien or Predator, and this use of "parchant" is actually not very common in Czech (at least as far as I know, but the people I associate with generally don't use the word at all so I might easily be wrong). At any rate, I think the sentence arose through a rather clumsy translation from (American) English which had "bastard" in it.


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