Czech: An Essential Grammar

by James Naughton, Karen von Kunes

Overview

Czech: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the core structures and features of modern Czech. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Czech in short, readable sections. This new revised edition has been thoroughly updated with examples of current usage, additional morphological explanations and an historical overview of Czech as to why two levels – written and spoken Czech – exist till this day.

Suitable for either independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types, key features include:

• focus on the morphology and syntax of the language
• clear explanations of grammatical terms
• full use of authentic examples
• use of basic twenty-first-century English borrowings
• detailed contents list and index for easy access to information.

With an emphasis on the Czech that native speakers use today, Czech: An Essential Grammar will help students to read, speak and write the language with greater confidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367861841
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/30/2020
Series:	Routledge Essential Grammars
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	354
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

James Naughton was Lecturer at the University of Oxford, UK. He was the author of Colloquial Czech and Colloquial Slovak, both published by Routledge. His published translations include Bohumil Hrabal’s Cutting it Short, The Little Town Where Time Stood Still, Total Fears: Letters to Dubenka and Miroslav Holub’s The Jingle-bell Principle. He also contributed to the Traveller’s Literary Companion to Eastern and Central Europe, and several anthologies.

Karen von Kunes is a Lecturer at Yale University, USA. She is the author of Czech Practical Dictionary: Czech-English/English-Czech and of Beyond the Imaginable: 240 Ways of Looking at Czech. She is the editor-in-chief and coauthor of Barron’s TravelWise Czech, the translator of Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich’s play Svět za mřížemi in Laurence Senelick’s volume Cabaret Performance and the author of introductions to translated novels. She has also published 'Annotated Bibliography on Czech and Slovak Literary Theory' in the series New Literary History: International Bibliography of Literary Theory and Interpretation and has contributed scholarly articles on Czech culture, film and literature in various periodicals. Her most recent publication is Milan Kundera’s Fiction: A Critical Approach to Existential Betrayals, and in 2013 she published her novel Among the Sinners.

Table of Contents

Contents – Obsah

Abbreviations - Zkratky

Chapter 1 Introduction to Czech – Úvod do češtiny

Chapter 2 Pronunciation and Orthography – Výslovnost a pravopis

Chapter 3 Nouns – Podstatná jména

Chapter 4 Adjectives and Adverbs – Přídavná jména a příslovce

Chapter 5 Pronouns – Zájmena

Chapter 6 Numerals and Quantifiers – Číslovky

Chapter 7 Verbs – Slovesa

Chapter 8 Cases and Prepositions – Pády a předložky

Chapter 9 Syntax and Conjunctions – Syntax a spojky

Chapter 10 Word Formation – Tvoření slov

Index

Editorial Reviews

'Karen von Kunes expands on James Naughton’s already outstanding Czech grammar. Her historical outline of the Czech language in the introductory chapter represents a valuable addition to Naughton’s book, which von Kunes elevates to the next level in its content and catapults it to the present time. Her indispensable linguistic comments and examples further clarify the subject matter. This edition is suitable for any student of Czech, ranging from beginners to advanced. It may well be the best Czech grammar currently available to learners of Czech.'

Marie H. Kurfirtova, Scholar at the Davis Center, Harvard University

'Karen von Kunes expands on James Naughton’s already outstanding Czech grammar. Her historical outline of the Czech language in the introductory chapter represents a valuable addition to Naughton’s book, which von Kunes elevates to the next level in its content and catapults it to the present time. Her indispensable linguistic comments and examples further clarify the subject matter. This edition is suitable for any student of Czech, ranging from beginners to advanced. It may well be the best Czech grammar currently available to learners of Czech.'

Marie H. Kurfirtova, Scholar at the Davis Center, Harvard University

 

From the Publisher