A bloody nag

Welcome to SoundCzech – our Czech language series in which you can learn Czech phrases and idioms through song lyrics. Today, we’ll be learning some expressions that might come in handy when someone gets on your nerves.

We’ll be listening to the song “O blechách a tak” by the famous Czech folk singer Karel Plíhal. He uses the expression “pít krev”, which literally translated means “to drink someone’s blood”, but it’s not as gory as that sounds. Simply put, if someone is getting on your nerves, they are just as annoying as an insect that is biting you, or drinking your blood.

Another expression that will come in handy when you want to say that someone is aggravating you is “jít na nervy”, literally that means “going on someone’s nerves.” If you wanted to say he is getting on my nerves, you would say “On mi jde hrozně na nervy”, maybe instead of the more idiomatic “On mi pije krev.”

Otravovat is another word that means annoy, nag, aggravate. “Ten člověk mě otravuje” means “That person really annoys me.” You could also say: “Už mě s tím neotravuj“ which translates to: “Leave me alone with that already” if someone keeps nagging you about something.

And of course, you could always tell them: “Piješ mi krev!”, “You are drinking my blood!”