bad, evil

[Jana337]

Cześć,

I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").

Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?

Dziękuję,

Jana

 

[BaraniskoDyskoteka]

hmmmm..................
we rather not distinguish.....

 

[Monica610]

That's right, the word "zły" can concern "bad", "evil" and "poorly written" as well . "Zła" can be "książka", "piosenka" and so on. Sometimes it means also "angry", so when I say that "mój tata jest zły" then I don't mean that he is evil

 

[Marga H]

zła odpowiedż - wrong answer
złe czasy - hard times
It can be more idiomatic combinations.
Pozdrowienia.

 

[Anatoli]

In Russian too - злой (zloy) - evil, bad-tempered, angry but плохой (plokhoy) - bad.

In Polish it's more neutral in meaning

źle - badly
zły - bad

 

[Thomas1]

Cześć,

I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").

Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?

Dziękuję,

Jana

If you want to use zły in these two meanings you're on a good way. If you want to use a word for each of this meaning which is unequivocal you would need to find some synonyms, how about for the 1st meaning: nikczemny, podły, złośliwy; and for the 2nd one kiepski.

 

[werrr]

Cześć,

I think I have discovered my first false friend. Listening to the recordings in the book, I heard "zła książka". It sounds funny to my Czech ears because "zlý" can mean "bad" like "evil", "wicked" but not "poorly written" (that would be "špatný").

Do you distinguish between these two shades of "bad", and how?

Dziękuję,

Jana

I wonder it sounds so unusual to your Czech ears accustomed to Slovak. Slovaks use this word in the same way.

There's similar shift in meaning in the adjective "lichy". That also means "bad" in Polish.

 

[Jana337]

I wonder it sounds so unusual to your Czech ears accustomed to Slovak. Slovaks use this word in the same way.

Yes, that's true, I didn't realize it.
It might turn out to be a good strategy to confront Polish with what I know about Slovak. I find the two languages similar in many ways.

Ano, to je pravda - neuvědomila jsem si to.
Možná bude dobré srovnávat polštinu s tím, co vím o slovenštině. Ty dva jazyky mi připadají v mnoha ohledech podobné.

Jana