Shoes for All Weather
Ahoj! Hello and welcome to this week's ABC of Czech. Today we're continuing our study of Czech shoes - ceske boty paying close attention to which shoes are worn in which weather!
Ahoj! Hello and welcome to this week's ABC of Czech. Today we're continuing our study of Czech shoes - èeské boty paying close attention to which shoes are worn in which weather!
When it's raining in the Czech Republic some people wear holínky and others wear gumáky or gumovky. They wear rubber boots, rain boots or galoshes, depending on your preference! Just like English, Czech has different ways of referring to boots worn when it's wet out. Holínky is the older word referring to boots that cover your shins - holenì but today holínky are just rain boots. Gumáky is the newer word and refers to the material that the shoes are made of rubber or guma in Czech. The word gumovky is also used and is obviously related to gumáky.
While there doesn't tend to be a lot of snow - sníh in Prague, it does snow - snì¾í on the countryside and in the mountains. When it's snowing Czechs wear snìhule - snow boots derived from the word for snow. And by the way, the Czech for the fairytale character Snow White is Snìhurka.
Both rain shoes and snowshoes traditionally would be called overshoes - pøezùvky, which comes from the verb pøezout se - to change one kind of shoes into another. Today however this word for overshoes - pøezùvky can be used to refer to sports shoes as well, which certainly makes sense because how often do we wear rain shoes or snow shoes as overshoes anymore.
A lot of people have taken to tenisky - trainers, running shoes, runners, tennis shoes or sneakers, depending where you're from! And here and there you may find people wearing pohorky - walking or hiking shoes because in the Czech Republic pohorky are usually worn when walking in the mountains - po horách.
That's all for today! I hope you've learned some more about Czech shoes and especially, which shoes to ask for in which weather. Until next time! Na shledanou! Bye-bye! Èau Èau!!
See also Living Czech.
