Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Thu, 23 Jul 2026 02:27:30 +0200https://english.radio.cz/unfamiliar-familiar-8589277© 2026 Radio Prague International I have to confess to being somewhat perturbed over the years with the Czech system of addressing people in either the unfamiliar or familiar. The system exists in several languages, though not English – essentially in Czech, one addresses people that one is not familiar with in the plural “zdravím vás” as opposed to “zdravím tě.” As a kid visiting Prague, I would constantly forget myself and refer to people that I didn’t know in the familiar. Then, someone would later say to me “you ‘tykat’ when you should have ‘vykat’” – that is the way the two forms of address are divided. A lot of times, the people that I would accidentally tykat would thankfully find it charming and simply excuse the faux pas. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/tykani.jpg?timestamp=1591348515 https://english.radio.cz/unfamiliar-familiar-8589277 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9