Word of the Day

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Neviem byť sám

I have just realized, upon listening to the song Neviem byť sám (I can't be alone), that Slovak, unlike other Slavic languages, at least Czech, Russian and Polish, doesn't have the equivalent to the verb umět (Czech), umieć (Polish) and уметь (read as umet', Russian). They use the verb vedieť instead, whose counterpart could not be used with another verb in the infinitive in the other other Slavic languages. In Czech it would be Neumím být sám, in Polish Nie umiem być sam, and in Russian Я не умею быть одним (roughly Ya ne umeyu byt' odnim).

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