Word of the Day

Monday, August 31, 2009

Do Alberta

In Czech you normally use the preposition k and the dative case with people's names to refer to their place of residence or work (Jdu k Markovi, k zubaři, k doktorovi, k Janě, I'm going to Mark's, to the dentist, to the doctor, to Jana's) and the preposition do and the genitive case when you go to a city, country or into a place (Jdu do obchodu, do Německa, do Prahy, do divadla, I'm going to the store, to Germany, to Prague, to the theater). There's a chain of supermarkets in the Czech Republic called Albert and, even though Albert is a person's name, I guess most people say Jdu do Alberta rather than Jdu k Albertovi because the latter would imply that they are going to visit someone called Albert rather than to the store.

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