Ako povies...

[kwalijkje]

I'm wondering how longer sentences and tenses are used in Slovak.

How would I say...?:

1. I went to the shop, and bought a banana.
2. He had been to the shop, where he bought a banana.
3. She was at the shop, where she bought a banana.

I realise that in Slovak these are probably rendered in very similar ways because the tense system is a lot less complicated than in English.

Also, my boyfriend told me a while ago of a way to use 'aby' that is similar to the past continuous in English. But it has skipped my mind since.

[kotrcka]

1. I went to the shop, and bought a banana.

Išiel som do obchodu a kúpil (som) banán.

2. He had been to the shop, where he bought a banana.

Bol v obchode, kde kúpil banán.

3. She was at the shop, where she bought a banana.

Bola v obchode, kde kúpila banán. (in slovak it is almost the same as sentence 2, but female)

[Mulder-21]

Shouldn't the 2nd verb be reflexive, that is kúpiť si, instead of kúpiť? Or is this not always necessary?

[qwerty]

Shouldn't the 2nd verb be reflexive, that is kúpiť si, instead of kúpiť? Or is this not always necessary?

Oba tvary sú správne, ale ak použiješ "kúpiť si", zdôrazňuješ tým, že ten banán kúpil sám pre seba. Takže nie, v prípade tohto slovesa nie je nutné vždy používať zvratný tvar.

Both are correct, but using the reflexive form ("kúpiť si") you emphasize the fact that he bought the banana FOR HIMSELF, while "kúpiť" just states what happened. So - no, it is not necessary to always use "kúpiť si".

[Mulder-21]

To som si tiež myslel.

That's what I thought.

[kwalijkje]

D'akjuem kotrcka.

__________________________________________________________________________________

1. "Chcem ísť do supermarketu, aby som kúpil(a) ovocie a zeleninu."

2. "Tam som poslusne pocuvala a po narocnom dni som si znova sadla do autobusu, rychlostou svetla som bola naspat doma, aby som mohla umyt, ..."

Nasiel som tieto na google. Maju 'aby' s minulom casom. Co to znamena? Prelozim ich ako...
I found these on Goodle. The have aby with the past tense. What does it mean? I translate it like this...

1. I want to go to the supermarket, in order to buy fruit and veg.

2. I listened closely there, and after a hard day I once more sat on the bus, rushing home in order to wash...

Tak, kedy pouzi 'aby' s minulom casom, vzdy to znamena 'in order to'?
So, when you use aby and the past tense it always means 'in order to'?

Mozem sa zacinat' vetu taky?
Can I begin a sentence like this?

Ako, 'Aby som banan kupil, isiel som do obchodu.'

[pittmirg]

So, when you use aby and the past tense it always means 'in order to'?

From a diachronic perspective, the "past tense" here is actually an "incomplete" conditional mood where the conditional particle by attached to a clause-initial subordinator and then became fused with it. Many other Slavic languages are similar in this respect, though the old conjunction to which by was attached may be different: Polish żeby, aby, Russian чтобы. In the conditional (and related structures like this), tense distinctions tend to disappear altogether, at least that's the situation in my native language (strictly speaking there used to be a separate past conditional in Polish but it's fallen out of use together with the pluperfect/past anterior and sounds old-fashioned these days - moreover, I doubt most people would even understand the difference).

I think it would usually have a purposive meaning, though I've never learned Slovak so you have to take this with a grain of salt.*

I find it interesting how an inflected verb form is used in the 1st example after aby - Polish uses an infinitive if both subjects are the same and restricts the pseudo-past tense to situations when they aren't coreferential.

*There are other, less important uses of analogical structures in Polish than strictly purposive: optative, monitive, "subjunctive" after a negated main verb.