Czech by Numbers - Sport

Hello and welcome to Czech by Numbers - Radio Prague's Czech language course in which we look at the different uses of numbers in the Czech language. This is the last lesson in this course and today's topic is numbers in sport.

Photo: Marco Cecchini, stock.XCHNG

Naturally, numbers are very important in sport and different sports use different counting of results and scores. It's important who comes first první, second, druhý and third, třetí. I'm afraid Czech seems to be less imaginative in expressing the meaning of zero. The word nula stands for all the English synonyms, including nil and love, as we are talking about numbers in sports today.

The word čtvrtka meaning one quarter is a colloquial expression for a 400 metre sprint race. Likewise půlka - a half - is a slang term for 800 metres. Another word, patnáctka - "number fifteen" means 1,500 metres. Halftime in football is poločas. Periods in ice hockey are called třetiny - thirds.

In colloquial language, number ten or desítka is a penalty kick in football. Jedenáctka - "number eleven" is a colloquial term for a football team with its eleven players.

Osma or osmiveslice is an eight, that is an eight-oar. Pentathlon in Czech is pětiboj, literally "the five fight". Decathlon is then desetiboj. Another compound word is trojskok - a triple jump. The word šestidenní can stand on its own or be part of the expression motocyklová šestidenní - meaning a six day motorcycle racing event.

That is all for today's lesson which closes our series dedicated to numbers and numerals in the Czech language. We hope you've enjoyed it and learnt some useful expressions, or at least had the chance to see how similar or different Czech idioms are compared to English. For now, thanks for listening and good bye, na shledanou.