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  5. "To jsou jiná zvířata!"

"To jsou jiná zvířata!"

Translation:They are different animals!

September 5, 2017



"Those are other animals!"?


When you understand everything correctly about a sentence except that it's plural! That "To" is really messing with my brain...


Don't worry about it, I think you'll understand really quickly. I think it depends on the subject of the sentence - either the subject can be "they" or "animals" (the meaning of both sentences is a little different):

  • "They are different animals." - "To jsou jiná zvířata." In this case, the subject is "they", so it doesn't matter if "animals" is a plural and neuter, in Czech you always use either "to je/to jsou" (single/plural), "to" it's just general demonstrative pronoun.

  • "The animals are different" - "Ta zvířata jsou jiná." In this case, the subject is "animals", so the definite article "ten/ta/to" for single masculine/feminine/neuter and "ti/ty/ta" for plural masculine animate/feminine or masculine inanimate/neuter must agree with the subject.


Thank you! In theory, I shouldn't have an issue with this, as it's similar-ish to other Slavic languages I've studied, but in practice... I think in part it's because there are so many demonstratives in Czech (at least, it certainly feels like a lot...) and trying to keep track of all those, I just managed to entirely ignore the jsou! (And I haven't got my brain around the plural nouns yet, either.)

It probably also doesn't help that my main focuses are two languages that don't use "to be" in the present tense, so I have this very bad habit of just forgetting that in most languages, it doesn't work to just leave a gap and assume that "to be" is understood 8-o


What's the differnce between this phrase and "oni/e jsou jiná zvířata"? Is the second one even correct?


Firstly - there's no "one". Oni/ony/ona.

And "Oni jsou jiná zvířata"... Well grammatically it's correct but I just can't of a situation, where would I use it. Generally one would use "To jsou..."

I personally have the feeling that the phrase accuses some group of men of misbehaving. "jiný" would in this case have other (a bit of slang) meaning - big. And it would also be stressed. You know what, scratch that and just use "to jsou". And when you are a B2, come back, we'll talk. ;-)


I'm gonna remember that, don't freak out when I come knocking on your door. (: Thanks!


Why is the 3rd per plural demonstrative "to" in this case?


Same thing as in German: "Das sind andere Tiere." In this case it's not a definite article (note that the English translation includes an indefinite form), it's just a general demonstrative pronoun.


these are another animals


Your suggestion is not valid English. In English you could say 'these are other [not 'another'] animals'. However, as DL points out elsewhere, 'those' or 'they' are better here than 'these'.


OK, I did not get it... "To jsou" it is "Those are" OR "They are"? What would be the difference in case of "Tato zvířata jsou jiná ! "


Tato zvířata jsou jiná = These animals are different


Does this statement work in Czech as an idiom the same way it does in the US to describe two contrasting sets of circumstances?


Once i saw an example here with an adjective ending with é before zvířata. So i thought it's a masculine form not neutral. Was that a mistake?

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