Lost in Translation

Ztraceno v překladu is "lost in translation" and that's how I feel at times trying to learn Czech. 

It's not like there is a 100% perfect translation for every word between English and Czech.  I'm not even talking about nejneobhospodařovávatelnějšímu. 

Here are a few words that take bit of explaining.

Czech use ty and vy as the familiar and formal forms of "you".  So tykat is the verb meaning "to use the informal form of address" while vykat means "to use the polite form of address".

ráčkovat - this is a verb that means "to pronounce one's R's incorrectly at the back of one's mouth"

umilovat se - another Czech verb.  This one means to wearo yourself out having sex

nedovtipa - this is a noun for "somene who can't take a hint"

vybafnout - this verb means to jump out and say boo!  I can't believe that there's a verb for this.  

Vybafnuju = I jump out and say boo!  

otužilec - this noun is "a hardy person, someone who doesn't feel the cold"

otrnout - is a verb meaning "to be naughty again after having already been told off"

ukýchat se - the verb for "to sneeze one's self to death"

lítost was coined by Czech writer Milan Kundera and it is "a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery.

I'm sure that as I keep working on my Czech that I'll come across more.  However, one of my favourite Czech words is the verb proznovnit.

proznovni - the verb means "to initiate a phone call, let it ring once and hang up so that the recipient knows to call you back so that you don't have to pay for the call" 

In the USA, if you use your mobile phone then it eats in to your phone credit.  It doesn't matter who calls whom.  Over in Euroland, you don't use phone credit when someone calls you.  You only use credit when you are the caller.