Pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát.

Pokud introduces a condition, so it means if in the sense of provided that / on condition that.

In this sentence, pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují sets up the condition for the result in the main clause.

Comparison:

• pokud = conditional if
• jestli = also often if / whether, common in everyday speech
• když = usually when, though in some contexts it can overlap with if

So:

• Pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát. = a clear conditional statement
• Jestli spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát. = also possible, a bit more conversational
• Když spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát. = can sound more like when cooperation and strategy work

For a textbook-style conditional sentence, pokud is a very natural choice.

Because spolupráce a strategie together form a compound subject: cooperation and strategy.

Each noun is singular by itself:

• spolupráce = singular
• strategie = singular

But when they are joined by a (and), the verb agrees with both together, so it becomes plural:

• spolupráce funguje = cooperation works
• strategie funguje = strategy works
• spolupráce a strategie fungují = cooperation and strategy work

So the plural verb fungují is there because the subject is grammatically plural as a whole.

They are in the nominative case, because they are the subject of the clause.

In the clause spolupráce a strategie fungují, the things doing the action are cooperation and strategy, so Czech uses the nominative.

This is why the sentence does not use forms like:

• spolupráci
• strategii

Those would be different cases, typically used for objects, not subjects.

A useful point here is that strategie can look the same in more than one case in some contexts, but here its role is clearly nominative because it is part of the subject.

Because Czech uses a comma to separate a subordinate clause from the main clause.

Here the sentence begins with the subordinate conditional clause:

• Pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují = subordinate clause
• můžeme vyhrát = main clause

So the comma is required:

• Pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát.

This is very normal in Czech. In English, you also often use a comma when the if clause comes first:

• If cooperation and strategy work, we can win.

Můžeme is the 1st person plural present tense form of moci (to be able to / can).

So:

• mohu / můžu = I can
• můžeš = you can
• může = he/she/it can
• můžeme = we can
• můžete = you can
• mohou / můžou = they can

In this sentence, můžeme means we can.

It is a modal verb, so it is followed by an infinitive:

• můžeme vyhrát = we can win

Because after the modal verb moci, Czech normally uses the infinitive.

So:

• můžeme vyhrát = we can win

Not:

• můžeme vyhrajeme ✘

That would be ungrammatical, because můžeme already carries the tense and person information, and the next verb stays in the infinitive.

This works like English:

• we can win not
• we can we will win

Vyhrát is a perfective verb, and here that makes good sense because it refers to achieving a result: to win.

In Czech aspect:

• vyhrát = perfective, win successfully, achieve victory
• vyhrávat = imperfective, be winning / win repeatedly / keep winning

In this sentence, the meaning is about the possibility of a successful outcome, so vyhrát is the natural choice:

• můžeme vyhrát = we can win

Using vyhrávat would suggest repeated or ongoing winning, which does not fit as well here.

Because fungovat is used here to describe a general state or condition: whether cooperation and strategy are working / function.

In a conditional sentence like this, Czech often uses the imperfective for the condition itself, especially when talking about how things operate in general.

So:

• fungují = they work / are working / function

This fits the idea: if cooperation and strategy are functioning properly, then we can win.

A perfective alternative would change the meaning and usually sound more like a single completed success of starting to work or working once, which is not what this sentence is focusing on.

Yes. Czech word order is flexible, although the neutral version here is very natural:

• Pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují, můžeme vyhrát.

You could also say:

• Můžeme vyhrát, pokud spolupráce a strategie fungují.

Both are correct. The difference is mainly in emphasis and information flow:

• starting with Pokud... foregrounds the condition
• starting with Můžeme vyhrát... foregrounds the result

Czech word order often depends on what the speaker wants to emphasize, not only on strict syntactic rules.

Because Czech does not have articles.

So nouns like spolupráce and strategie can mean:

• cooperation
• the cooperation
• a strategy
• the strategy

The exact interpretation depends on context.

In this sentence, English might need something like if cooperation and strategy work, but Czech simply uses the bare nouns:

• spolupráce
• strategie

That is completely normal.

A few helpful pronunciation points:

• ů in můžeme is pronounced like a long ú
• ž sounds like the s in measure
• j in Czech sounds like English y
• í is a long ee sound

So roughly:

• můžeme ≈ MOO-zheh-meh
• fungují ≈ foon-goo-yee

And:

• spolupráce ≈ spo-loo-praa-tseh
• strategie ≈ stra-teh-gee-eh
• vyhrát ≈ vih-hraat

These are only rough English-based guides, but they can help you get close.