[https://youtu.be/GBg4xmf-dmU](https://youtu.be/GBg4xmf-dmU)

Dobrý den!

I was studying several examples of well-made ad, and I found this one from České Dráhy.

I can tell that it’s about difference between Czech and Slovakian language, but I cannot understand what they are exactly saying. Can someone translate their words and tell me why this is humorous?

Děkuji předem 🙂

3 comments

  1. I am too young to know slovak well but the policeman comes and tells them they can’t sleep there. The driver tries to get out of it by lying. The policeman gets exasperated and tells them to go “choďte” which can easily be misunderstood in czech as “walk” so they guy starts protesting that they don’t want to walk in this heat but says “[parenica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenica)” instead (“parno” means obnouxiously hot weather).

    The wife joins in trying to hammer the message in and rest is self explanatory.

  2. >Police: Hello good morning. You can’t sleep there.
    >
    >Man: We didn’t sleep there.
    >
    >Woman: Good morning.
    >
    >Man: That’s my wife and those (in the back) are my kids.
    >
    >Police: Go away from there.
    >
    >Man: Go like walk?! But it should be pouring soon, so sorry.
    >
    >Police: You’re making fun of me.
    >
    >Man: We are not.
    >
    >Police: Go. Away. From. There.
    >
    >Man: yea, from there.
    >
    >Woman: You have to drive.
    >
    >Police: Go!
    >
    >Woman: Please, drive!
    >
    >Police: Go, already!
    >
    >Man: I’m going.

  3. The joke is based on the fact that Czech and Slovak languages are really close to one another. Although some words sound similar they may have different meanings, the ad uses these differences to make puns. The driver tries to mimic a Slovakian accent (which he does poorly) and makes up some words to appeal to the policeman. (An analogy: a person who uses American English is trying to get out of some problem in Scotland, so they eyeball a Scottish accent and a few words here and there.) Note that most of the words he comes up with are wrong.

    I’ll try to mark the puns like this: (what he said/what he meant to say/Czech)

    >Policeman: Mno, good morning. You can’t sleep there.
    >
    >Man: We did not sleep there.

    Note the pronunciation attempt: “něňocovali” instead of “nenocovali” Slovak is a softer language).

    >Woman: Good morning.
    >
    >Man: That’s my (moja/moje/moje) wife (ženšica/žena/žena) and those (in the back) are my kids (babátka/deti/děti).
    >
    >Policeman: Go away from there. (“Choďte odtiaľto preč”)

    “Chodit/Choďte” in Czech means “walk”, used like this meaning: “Walk away!”. But in Slovak, the meaning differs: “Drive away!”.

    >Man: Go like walk?! But it is going to be really hot (parenica/horúco/parno) today, like, excuse me (propáčte/prepáčte/promiňte).

    The thing is that he uses the word “parenica”, in Czech “pařenice”/”parno” – really hot, which is a traditional Slovakian cheese [[wiki](https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenica)].

    >Policeman: You’re making fun of me.
    >
    >Man: We are not. (“to nie robíme” with a really bad accent)
    >
    >Policeman: Go. Away. From. Here. (“odtiaľto”)
    >
    >Man: Yeah, from here. (“jojo, oťálto”, he looks really confused, maybe doesn’t know the word)
    >
    >Woman: You have to drive.
    >
    >Policeman: Go!
    >
    >Woman: Please, drive!
    >
    >Policeman: Go, already!
    >
    >Man: I’m going.

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