Tento tah je dobrý.

Both can occur, but tento is the more explicit form of this.

• tento tah = this move
• ten tah can sometimes also mean that move, or in context it can function more loosely like the move / that one

For learners, it is useful to think of tento as the clearest basic way to say this before a masculine singular noun in the nominative.

Grammatically, tento agrees with tah in:

• gender: masculine inanimate
• number: singular
• case: nominative

So the form tento is chosen because it matches tah.

Tah is in the nominative singular.

Why?

Because tah is the subject of the sentence:

• Tento tah = the thing being talked about
• je dobrý = is good

In Czech, the subject of a sentence is normally in the nominative case.

So:

• tento = nominative singular masculine
• tah = nominative singular masculine inanimate

Tah is masculine inanimate.

That matters because words that describe or point to the noun have to agree with it. In this sentence, both of these agree with tah:

• tento
• dobrý

Because tah is masculine singular, you get:

• tento tah
• dobrý

If the noun were feminine or neuter, the forms would change. For example:

• Tato hra je dobrá.
• Toto auto je dobré.

So the gender of tah controls the form of the demonstrative and the adjective.

The ending -ý shows that dobrý agrees with a masculine singular noun in the nominative.

Since tah is masculine singular, the adjective must match it:

• dobrý tah
• Tento tah je dobrý.

This is part of Czech adjective agreement.

Compare:

• masculine singular: dobrý
• feminine singular: dobrá
• neuter singular: dobré
• plural: dobré / dobří, depending on the type of noun

Here, dobrý is in the predicate after je, but it still agrees with the subject.

In the present tense, Czech normally does use the verb být (to be) in sentences like this.

So:

• Tento tah je dobrý. = correct

You generally cannot drop je here in standard Czech.

That is different from some languages where the present-tense to be can be omitted. In Czech, for a sentence like This move is good, the verb is normally required.

The basic neutral word order here is:

• Tento tah je dobrý.

But Czech word order is fairly flexible, and changes can affect emphasis.

Possible variations include:

• Tento tah je dobrý. = neutral
• Dobrý je tento tah. = stronger focus on good
• Je tento tah dobrý? = question: Is this move good?

Because Czech uses case endings, word order does not do as much grammatical work as in English. However, word order still matters for style, focus, and emphasis.

So the original sentence is the most natural neutral statement.

Czech has no articles like English a/an and the.

So tah can mean:

• a move
• the move
• just move

The exact interpretation depends on context.

In this sentence, tento already makes the noun specific:

• tento tah = this move

Because Czech does not use articles, you should not look for a separate word corresponding to English the here.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide is:

• Tento ≈ TEN-to
• tah ≈ tah with a clear a like in father
• je ≈ ye
• dobrý ≈ DOB-ree

A few useful notes:

• j in Czech is pronounced like English y in yes
• h is always pronounced
• ý is a long vowel, so the last syllable of dobrý is held a little longer than a short i/y

A rough full approximation:

• TEN-to tah ye DOB-ree

They use the same adjective, but in two different sentence patterns.

1. dobrý tah
   This is a noun phrase: a good move / good move

2. Tento tah je dobrý.
   This is a full sentence: This move is good.

So:

• dobrý before the noun = directly describes the noun inside a phrase
• dobrý after je = part of the predicate of a full sentence

In both cases, dobrý still agrees with tah.

Yes. Tah is a word with several related meanings depending on context.

It can refer to things like:

• a move in a game
• a pull
• a stroke
• a draft / draw / drag, in some contexts

This is very normal in Czech: one noun can have several meanings, and the surrounding context tells you which one is intended.

So even if you already know the meaning here, it is useful to remember that tah is a broader word, not one limited to only one English translation.

You negate the verb je by changing it to není:

• Tento tah není dobrý. = This move is not good.

That is the standard way to make the sentence negative.

So:

• je = is
• není = is not

The rest of the sentence stays the same.

You would change all the agreeing words into the plural:

• Tyto tahy jsou dobré.

Here is what changed:

• tento → tyto = these
• tah → tahy = plural of move
• je → jsou = are
• dobrý → dobré = plural adjective form here

This is a good example of how Czech changes several words in the sentence to match number.

It is a demonstrative pronoun, but in this sentence it is being used with a noun, so from an English-learning perspective it behaves a lot like an adjective determiner.

In practice, the important thing is this:

• it points to a noun: this move
• it changes form to agree with the noun

So even if grammar books call it a pronoun, you can safely think of tento here as the Czech word that functions like this before a noun.

What matters most for learners is agreement:

• tento with masculine singular nouns
• other forms with other genders/cases/numbers