Reading poetry and older prose: postponed adjectives (lásko má), genitive before noun, and archaic verb-final order
I can read poetic and terminological postposition correctly and use inversion for deliberate effect.
Guarda questi esempi. Riesci a individuare lo schema grammaticale?
Byl lásky čas, jak praví Mácha v Máji.
It was the time of love, as Mácha says in May.
V atlase najdete vlka obecného i kočku domácí.
In the atlas you will find the grey wolf and the domestic cat.
Presta attenzione alle parti evidenziate. Cosa hanno in comune?
Neutral Czech puts an adjective or possessive before its noun and a genitive after it: má láska, čas lásky. Poetry, hymns and older prose turn this around, and the inverted order signals high style at once. Every Czech knows two examples by heart.
The national anthem, a song from J. K. Tyl's 1834 play Fidlovačka, opens Kde domov můj, with the possessive after the noun, and later sings v sadě skví se jara květ, zemský ráj to na pohled, with the genitive jara in front of its noun. Karel Hynek Mácha's Máj (1836), the poem behind the 1 May custom of laying flowers at Mácha's statue on Petřín and kissing under a blossoming tree, begins:
Byl pozdní večer - první máj -
večerní máj - byl lásky čas.
Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas,
kde borový zaváněl háj.
Lásky čas puts the genitive first. In Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas the possessive hrdliččin (the turtle-dove's) is separated from its noun hlas by the whole verb phrase, and borový ... háj is split the same way. Prose would say hlas hrdličky zval k lásce and kde voněl borový háj.
| Inversion | Literary | Neutral |
|---|---|---|
| possessive or adjective after the noun | domov můj, lásko má, Otče náš | můj domov, má lásko |
| genitive before the noun | lásky čas, jara květ, života běh | čas lásky, květ jara, běh života |
| split noun phrase | Hrdliččin zval ku lásce hlas | Hlas hrdličky zval k lásce. |
| finite verb last | ..., jenž se v dáli ztrácel | ..., který se ztrácel v dáli |
Prayers keep the old order as their neutral form: Otče náš is the Lord's Prayer, not a poetic flourish.
In one area the "poetic" order is perfectly neutral: the names of species, chemicals and rulers. Kočka domácí, vlk obecný, lípa srdčitá (the small-leaved lime, the Czech national tree), kyselina sírová, chlorid sodný, Karel Čtvrtý. English has the same island of postposition in attorney general, court martial, time immemorial.
English puts its possessive genitive in front: Prague's castle, love's labour. Carried into Czech, Prahy hrad or lásky čas sounds like Mácha, not like a guidebook; the guidebook says Pražský hrad. Use the neutral order unless you are writing verse or deliberate pastiche, and read inversions as a signal of style, not of a different meaning.
Applica questa grammatica negli esercizi del corso C2
Esercizi di praticaByl lásky čas, jak praví Mácha v Máji.
It was the time of love, as Mácha says in May.
The most famous Czech inversion, from the national poem.
V atlase najdete vlka obecného i kočku domácí.
In the atlas you will find the grey wolf and the domestic cat.
Taxonomic postposition: neutral, not poetic.
La verifica per questo argomento è ancora in preparazione
Pratica nel corso
Applica questa grammatica negli esercizi del corso C2