Tato is the feminine singular form of this in standard Czech. It matches the noun stopa, which is feminine.
A very simplified pattern is:
Both ta and tato can mean this/that depending on context, but tato is often clearer and a bit more explicit as this.
So:
A good first clue is the ending. Many Czech nouns ending in -a are feminine, and stopa is one of them.
In the nominative singular:
That is why it takes:
Both words show feminine agreement.
Stopa can mean several related things depending on context, such as:
If the meaning has already been given to the learner, the important grammar point is that Czech uses the same noun for several ideas that English may translate differently. The surrounding context tells you which English word fits best.
For example, in a detective context, stopa often means clue or lead. In a physical context, it could mean track or footprint.
Here je means is.
In the present tense, Czech normally does use the verb být (to be) in sentences like this:
So you generally should not omit it here.
That is different from Russian, for example, where the present tense to be is often omitted. In Czech, je is standard and necessary in this kind of sentence.
Yes, Czech word order is more flexible than English, and Důležitá je tato stopa is possible.
The neutral, straightforward order is:
If you change the order, you often change the emphasis:
So word order can shift, but the most basic version is the original sentence.
A rough pronunciation guide:
A few useful pronunciation notes:
So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:
TAH-to STO-pa ye DOO-leh-zhi-TAH
In modern pronunciation, ů and ú are usually pronounced the same: a long oo sound.
So in důležitá, the ů sounds like long oo.
The difference is mainly historical and spelling-based:
For a learner, the main thing here is: in pronunciation, treat dů- like doo-.
It is in the nominative singular.
Why?
Because stopa is the subject of the sentence:
In Czech, the subject is typically in the nominative case. The demonstrative tato and adjective důležitá also match that nominative feminine singular form.
The dictionary form is usually the masculine singular nominative:
From that base form, Czech changes the ending to match gender, number, and case:
So when you learn adjectives, you will often see them listed in dictionaries as the masculine form, even if the sentence uses a different one.
Czech has no articles like English a/an and the.
That means Czech often expresses definiteness through:
So English might say:
Czech does not use articles for those distinctions in the same way. In your sentence, tato gives the idea of this clearly.
No. The adjective itself means important, but its form changes.
Compare:
So důležitá is just the feminine version of the adjective, not a separate word with a different meaning.