When going to the Czech Republic, in some regions, especially those near the border, We can communicate in Polish without any problems. When driving into the interior of the country, remember that our languages are similar but not the same. Although some words sound similar, they may have completely different meanings.
When speaking Czech, using Polish words or listening to Czech words may lead to major communication problems. Such problematic, treacherous words can be found in almost every vocabulary category.
One of them is months. Hearing from a Czech “May“ naturally we will think about April. It turns out that the word means May. In Czech, April is “duben”. The same is true for July, among our neighbors it is “červenec”, which we associate with June. However, June is very similar to it, because it is “červen”.
We will shock a Czech in conversation when we say that we are looking for a store. This is due to the fact that “shop” means basement in Czech. The shop will be an “obchod”, which has nothing in common with the phonetically similar Polish “obchod”.
The markings also turn out to be treacherous Czech public toilets. Seeing the sign on the door “wow” we will think that it will be a bathroom for women, but we won’t meet any of them there, because there will be one this is the men’s toilet. Women walk through a door with a sign “ladies”.
And how to find a toilet in the Czech Republic? We have to ask about “toilet“because that’s what the word looks like in their language “toilet”. However, if we want to ask about the direction of the world west, we have to ask about “zapad”.
Problems will also arise when talking about home furnishings. Saying that we are looking at ourselves in the mirror will make the Czechs look big because in Czech “lustr” means chandelier. Mirror in Czech is “mirror”. Pretty “divan” is not a carpet, but a sofaand if you want to praise the carpet, you have to say “koberec”.
Some words in Czech can cause laughter when we find out what they mean to our neighbors. This is the case with words, among other things “drugs”. In Polish, the word means a path or something expensive. In Czech it is it means “drug”.
Hearing Czech say “idea“ We may be scared at first, but there is no reason to worry. This word means “idea”. If there is actual talk of an attack, the Czech will say “útok”.
Adverbs in the Czech language will also be confusing and funny for Poles. “Just“it’s not “almost”, but “just”. To say that almost e.g. we have done something, we have to say “almost”. Czech “konečně” will mean finallyand not necessarily associated, which in Czech is “nutně”.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
