Proverb: Co je doma, to se počítá

This little proverb is a perfect specimen of two structures that English speakers consistently underuse in Czech: the co…to correlative (a free relative clause picked up by a resumptive demonstrative) and the reflexive passive (se turning an ordinary verb into an agentless "is done"). Six short words drill both at once. We'll read it slowly, then pull each thread.

The text

Co je doma, to se počítá.

Naturally translated: "What you've got at home is what counts." Or, more loosely, "Whatever stays in the family counts." It's the kind of thing a Czech says with a small shrug of satisfaction when a benefit — a favour, a few crowns, a job done in-house — doesn't leave the household.

Word by word

• Co — the relative pronoun "what / whatever." It opens a free (headless) relative clause: there's no noun for it to attach to, so co itself supplies the meaning "the thing that…". Inside its own clause it is the subject of je.
• je — "is," third person singular of být "to be."
• doma — the adverb "at home." Crucially this is static location (kde? "where?"), not direction. It is a fixed adverb, not a case form of a noun, and it never changes shape. Contrast domů "homeward" and z domova "from home" below.
• to — the demonstrative pronoun "that / it," neuter singular. It resumes the whole co clause and serves as the subject of the main clause. This is the pivot of the correlative: co gathers up a clause, to hands it on.
• se — the reflexive clitic that, with počítá, builds a reflexive passive. It sits in second position in its clause (right after to).
• počítá — third person singular of počítat "to count, to reckon." With se, it reads "is counted / counts / matters."

Grammar in action

The co…to correlative

Czech loves to build a sentence out of two matched halves: a subordinate clause introduced by a relative word, and a main clause that echoes it with a demonstrative. Here the pair is co … to: co opens the free relative ("what is at home"), and to picks it up as the subject of the main clause ("that counts"). English does this with a single "what" and no echo — "what's at home counts" — so the resumptive to feels redundant to an English ear. In Czech it is not optional flavour; it is how the construction is built.

This pairing comes in a whole family, and proverbs are full of them:

Notice the comma: Czech writes a comma at the seam between the two clauses, where English would not. The resumptive word (to, ten, tam, tak) sits at the front of the main clause, and any clitic — like our se — slots in right behind it.

The fuller story of these resumptive pairs is on the ten…který correlative page, and the choice between co, který, and jenž as relativizers is laid out in choosing a relativizer.

The reflexive passive: počítá se

Počítá se is the everyday way Czech says "is counted / counts." Take a transitive verb — počítat "to count (something)" — bolt on the reflexive clitic se, and you get an agentless passive: the action happens, but nobody is named as doing it. "That counts" / "that is what's reckoned." There's no by-someone in sight, and that's the point.

This matters because English speakers, reaching for a passive, default to the participial type — je počítáno "is counted" — which in Czech sounds stiff, bureaucratic, and wrong for a proverb. The reflexive passive is the natural, idiomatic choice for general statements like this one. You'll meet it everywhere:

Each of these has no stated agent: the language is spoken (by people in general), the thing is not said (by anyone), the goods are sold (somewhere). The clitic se carries the whole passive meaning. There's a satisfying bonus in our proverb: počítat se also has a plain intransitive reading "to matter," so to se počítá lands as both "that is counted" and "that counts/matters" at the same time — the proverb leans on both. The full contrast with the participial passive lives on the reflexive passive page.

doma, domů, z domova — three adverbs, one "home"

The proverb's doma is worth a stop, because English "home" smears together three notions that Czech keeps strictly apart with three different fixed adverbs:

Because the proverb describes a state — what is at home — it must use doma. Swapping in domů would be like saying "what is homeward counts," which is nonsense. English speakers, who use the single word "home" for "I'm home," "I'm going home," and "I left home," routinely reach for the wrong one; Czech forces you to decide whether you mean location, direction, or origin. The three-way system is mapped out on the place: location, direction, origin page.

Usage and culture note

So when does a Czech actually reach for Co je doma, to se počítá? The pragmatic core is valuing what stays within your own circle. If a relative buys something from you rather than from a shop, the money "stays at home," and someone will say it with quiet approval. If you fix the leaky tap yourself instead of paying a plumber, the saving counts. It's the satisfaction of a benefit that doesn't slip away to strangers — a cousin, in spirit, of English "charity begins at home" and "a penny saved is a penny earned," though none of those map onto it exactly.

There's a second, gentler reading too: don't disdain modest gains. A small advantage you actually hold is worth more than a grand one you don't. Either way, the proverb is warm rather than stingy — it celebrates the familiar and the kept, not hoarding. Drop it into conversation after any little in-house win and you'll sound thoroughly Czech.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• co … to is a correlative pair: co opens a free relative clause, to resumes it as the main-clause subject. Czech keeps the echo; English drops it.
• A comma marks the seam between the two clauses, and the clitic se sits in second position behind to.
• počítá se is a reflexive passive — se
  • active verb — the natural, idiomatic alternative to the stiff participial passive for general statements.
• doma (location) is distinct from domů (direction) and z domova (origin); the proverb's state-of-affairs meaning requires doma.
• Pragmatically the saying praises a benefit that stays within the household or family — value what you already keep.