Slovak Matters: Departures, even when drinking

The last column was dedicated to saying hello; now we go over the last word, whether saying goodbye or taking the customary last shot.

Friends drinking a kapurková shot.Friends drinking a kapurková shot. (Source: Freepik)

Now that you've had plenty of chances of becoming adept at saying hello after the last colum, we'll help you say goodbye.

There's zbohom, for starters, which may be formally rendered as '(go) with God' (as the English 'goodbye' is a contraction of 'God be with you'), but whose usage is rather more casual (equivalent to 'see ya'). Zbohom is still said in all seriousness by priests and the religiously inclined, but is used irreverently by the laic population; a younger brother, on hearing that his elder sibling has just crashed Dad's car, might say "no, zbohom", equivalent to "you're screwed".

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