Tricky Words in this week‘s OVI

There are adjectives in English (and in Slovak of course) which change their meaning depending on the preposition following them. If you are pleased with someone, they have made you happy by satisfying your expectations. Sports trainers are pleased with their protégés (zverenci) when they win a competition. If you are pleased for someone, you share their happiness vicariously, separately, without being personally involved in their achievement, for example if a friend gets a new job. Similarly if you are afraid for someone, you are worried that something bad could happen to them, without you being involved in what they're doing. But if you're afraid of someone, then you're scared of them personally and worried about what they might do to you. Parents may well be afraid for their children, but only a few should be afraid of them.

Andy’s Wordshop

Chief. This is actually (pravdupovediac) more like a tricky word, because it is so similar to the Slovak „šéf“. In fact both English and Slovak forms are based on the French word „chef“ (say /šef/), which itself comes from the Latin „caput“ meaning head. The English form “chef” (say /šef/) means „šéfkuchár“, and that's all. As for “chief”, it's better first to remember that it means „náčelník“, i.e. Sitting Bull or Winnetou, and second that it's mostly used in combinations of words in English, especially in titles like “chief of police” or “fire chief” (other kinds of „náčelník“ in fact), or in the sense of “head” („hlavný/á“ in Slovak) in other titles like “chief engineer”, “chief accountant”, or “editor-in-chief”. In the colloquial (hovorový) sense of „Bacha, ide šéf!“, you'd best say “Watch it, the boss is coming!”