W for weather
Yes, another week has passed and it's time for a new letter in our Czech language programme in which we follow the alphabet. It's "w" this time, so let's talk about the weather. The word for weather is poèasí. It comes from the word èas, which means time. The weather is a very important part of our life and that's why at the end of every Radio Prague news bulletin you can find a weather forecast - pøedpovìï poèasí.
It being November, the weather these days is not very pleasant. This year we had little chance to enjoy the warm sun of an Indian summer, which in Czech is called babí léto - the old woman's summer. The winter is approaching and with it frost - mráz and snow - sníh. The skies are overcast - je zata¾eno and it is cold - je zima. When the weather is really bad in winter we talk about psí poèasí - literally dog's weather. I doubt that dogs enjoy that kind of weather any more than people do - the expression most likely comes from another idiom: Je poèasí, ¾e by psa nevyhnal. It means the weather is so bad that one wouldn't turn a dog out. But after every winter comes the spring and summer and warm weather - teplé poèasí. Who minds the occasional rain - dé¹» or wind - vítr when most of the time the sun is shining - svítí slunce and the day is long? Summer thunderstorms - letní bouøky - are a pleasant break, only if you're not afraid of lightning bolts - blesky - and thunder - hrom, or if hail - kroupy - doesn't damage your windows.
Well, we'll have to wait some time for summer thunderstorms, I'm afraid. But in the meantime, on those long winter evenings, you can practice your Czech vocabulary or look up the ABC of Czech on our website, www.radio.cz/English, where you will find all the previous scripts as well as programmes in sound. And of course, tune in again next time if you can. Until then, na shledanou, bye-bye.
