Czech to Malay: not a teacher and not honest use different negatives
The Czech copula does not prescribe one Malay negative
Czech UD describes být as a copula in clauses identifying something or assigning a quality. A Czech negative with this verb can therefore deny a profession, a property, or another predicate relationship. Its familiar verbal form does not require one uniform Malay counterpart.
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka contrasts Dia bukan guru, not a teacher, with Dia tidak jujur, not honest. Its account associates bukan with noun and prepositional predicates, and tidak with verb and adjective predicates in the basic patterns. Preserve what the Czech source denies before selecting the target negative.
The category being denied matters more than the source word count
Imagine an original Czech correction saying that a visitor is not a teacher, followed by a separate observation that the visitor is not tired. The source can use a similar negative copular frame in both, but the Malay predicates belong to different grammatical categories.
A translation should not be standardized by forcing the same negative into both target clauses. Nor should the absence of an independently translated be automatically be interpreted as a missing predicate. Determine whether the target identifies a person through a noun or attributes a quality through an adjective. The meaning of the complete predicate establishes which documented negative pattern is relevant.
An explicit correction can admit a different pattern
The DBP article qualifies its basic distinction: bukan can also negate a verb or adjective when the sentence explicitly contrasts information. Its examples pair the rejected description with a replacement introduced through tetapi.
A Czech sentence correcting studying to playing makes a different discourse move from a bare report that studying is not happening. The Malay translation should preserve the correction rather than treat bukan before a verb as impossible in every environment. Conversely, adding an explicit replacement that the source never supplies would change a simple denial into a more elaborate correction. Read the whole contrasting structure before editing one negative word in isolation.
Not only adds information instead of rejecting the first item
The Czech Academy explains nejen as introducing an assertion not restricted to the first item, commonly followed by ale i or ale také. DBP separately discusses bukan sahaja ... tetapi juga as a paired construction whose information is compatible rather than contradictory.
For an original Czech invitation saying that not only teachers but also students may attend, the first group remains included. Translating it as teachers cannot attend but students can would reverse part of the invitation. The Malay negative-looking expression must be read with its paired continuation. Likewise, a Czech correction saying students rather than teachers should not become a statement including both. Distinguish replacing one category from extending the invitation to an additional category; the target construction can contain bukan in either kind of discussion, but its surrounding words determine which relationship it expresses.
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