Have no fear!

Welcome to SoundCzech, a mini-series where we teach you Czech words and phrases with the help of Czech musicians. This week we will talk about fear and how to handle it, and we will listen to a part of a song Vyvolený, by the punk-rock group Jaksi Taksi.

Photo: Barbora Kmentová

The Jaksi Taksi front man Radek sings “žadné strachy” - have no fear - though in this case, Czech uses the plural of the word for fear, so instead of strach it’s strachy. Another way of comforting someone is to say “neboj se”, which literally means don’t be scared. If someone is afraid, “bojí se”, you can say “klepe se strachem”, meaning he or she is shaking with fear.

A slightly more crude way of saying that someone is scared is “má bobky”, literally meaning that he or she has droppings. There is actually a whole range of expressions linked to bowel movements that have to do with fear and being scared, but we won’t delve into it right now.

The song sarcastically talks about how ambitious our world today is, how everyone is 'in' and has a fancy job. Jaksi Taksi tell us that you shouldn’t be afraid, because it will work out for you too. Interestingly enough, in Czech, one of the ways of saying that something will work out actually uses the verb to fall ‘padnout’. When you reassure someone “dopadne to dobře”, you are literally saying that it will fall in well, although what you mean is that it will be just fine. You can also say “dostaneš se z toho”, or you will get out of the situation somehow.

If the problems you are facing are quite tough, but you conquered them anyway, you can say “vyhrabal jsem se z toho”, or literally I dug myself out of it. And once you've come out on top, you can say a simple, but very useful Czech word “hotovo!”, meaning done!

So, whatever problems may be ailing you today, žádné strachy, dopadne to dobře.