What's in a Prague street name

U družstva Život was built in 1934.

Another day, another case where a construction cooperative built the homes in the street: its name, ‘Život’, translates as ‘life’.

Which makes it pretty damn unsearchable, but at least we can compensate today with some phrases.

‘Posmrtný život’ is ‘life after death’, or the afterlife; a ‘příběh ze života’ is a ‘real-life story’ (Czech leaves out the ‘real’, correctly realising this should be implicit); something that has a ‘jepičí život’ is short-lived – literally, it has a ‘mayfly life’.

Meanwhile, ‘život nadoraz’ is ‘life in the fast lane’, and, if you’re ‘životem protřelý’, you’re worldly-wise.

‘Životaschopný’ means ‘viable’, and ‘životopis’ has created no end of confusion for me at work before, as it’s not only a CV, but also the brief biography you might find for people on their company’s website. Meaning that the question ‘Can you provide me your CV?’ is never quite as straightforward as I’d once imagined.