novela n.fem. amendment
SME informed us yesterday that Gašparovič opäť nepodpísal protiextrémistickú novelu. This false friend was news to me. My first thought was how strange it was that Gašparovič, the Slovak President, was refusing to sign copies of his anti-extremist novel. Why was he ashamed to be associated with such a novel and who knew that, like the British Prime Ministers Disraeli and Churchill, Gašparovič was a novelist?
But sadly, that was not the case. Novela (which according to my dictionary can also mean "novella"), in this case meant "amendment". As far as I understand the story, the Slovak Parliament has just passed an amendment to the Criminal Code providing for penalties in the case of violence committed with extremist motives and production, dissemination or possession of extremist material, over the President's veto.
The proper word for "novel" in Slovak, by the way, is román.
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
A loan is a loan is a loan?
Not in Slovakia, according to my wife, who is a lawyer (like me - imagine the dinner table conversation!). There is actually a big difference between pôžička and výpožička.
Suppose I borrowed €100 (SKK 3012.60!). I would expect to have to pay the money back, but in whatever notes came to hand at the time - I wouldn't expect to have to hand over the exact same notes I received in the first place. That's pôžička - a loan where you have to return the same type of asset to the same value, but not the exact same physical item.
But if I hired a Škoda Octavia to go for a drive in the Tatras, the car hire company would not be very chuffed if I returned a different car, even if it was also a Škoda Octavia - they would expect the exact same car. This kind of loan is a výpožička.
According to this article in TREND, the Slovak equivalent of the Economist, not many Slovaks know about the difference. So next time you're in Slovakia, you can confidently stride into the nearest autopožičovňa (car hire) place and point out that they should actually be advertising autovypožičovňa.
Suppose I borrowed €100 (SKK 3012.60!). I would expect to have to pay the money back, but in whatever notes came to hand at the time - I wouldn't expect to have to hand over the exact same notes I received in the first place. That's pôžička - a loan where you have to return the same type of asset to the same value, but not the exact same physical item.
But if I hired a Škoda Octavia to go for a drive in the Tatras, the car hire company would not be very chuffed if I returned a different car, even if it was also a Škoda Octavia - they would expect the exact same car. This kind of loan is a výpožička.
According to this article in TREND, the Slovak equivalent of the Economist, not many Slovaks know about the difference. So next time you're in Slovakia, you can confidently stride into the nearest autopožičovňa (car hire) place and point out that they should actually be advertising autovypožičovňa.
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