Questions & Answers about Rodina sedí kolem stolu.
Why is rodina treated as singular when a family has several people?
Because rodina means family as a single unit, so grammatically it is a singular noun in Czech.
That is why the verb is singular too:
- rodina sedí = the family is sitting
If you wanted to focus on the individual people, you could use a plural noun instead, for example:
- Členové rodiny sedí kolem stolu. = The family members are sitting around the table.
What form is sedí?
Sedí is the present tense form of the verb sedět (to sit, to be sitting).
In this sentence, it means:
- sits
- or more naturally in English, is sitting
Czech present tense often covers both simple present and present continuous meanings that English separates:
- Rodina sedí kolem stolu. = The family sits around the table / The family is sitting around the table
In real translation, is sitting is usually the better choice here.
Why is it kolem stolu and not kolem stůl?
Because kolem is a preposition that requires the genitive case.
So:
- dictionary form: stůl = table
- after kolem: stolu = of the table / around the table
This is a very common thing in Czech: the preposition determines the case of the noun after it.