Kůlna je za skleníkem.

• Kůlna = shed. It is the subject of the sentence and is in the nominative singular.
• je = is. This is the 3rd person singular present tense of být (to be).
• za = behind in this sentence.
• skleníkem = greenhouse, but in a changed form. It is the noun skleník in the instrumental singular.

So structurally, it is:

• Kůlna = the shed
• je = is
• za skleníkem = behind the greenhouse

Because the preposition za requires a different case here.

In Kůlna je za skleníkem, za expresses location (behind something, with no movement), so Czech uses the instrumental case.

• dictionary form: skleník
• instrumental singular: skleníkem

So:

• za skleníkem = behind the greenhouse

This is a very common Czech pattern: the noun changes form depending on its role in the sentence and the preposition used with it.

No. Za can take two different cases, depending on the meaning:

• instrumental for location
• accusative for movement toward a position

Compare:

• Kůlna je za skleníkem. = The shed is behind the greenhouse.

  • static location
  • instrumental

• Jdu za skleník. = I am going behind the greenhouse.

  • movement to that place
  • accusative

This is a very important Czech pattern with some prepositions.

Je is the 3rd person singular present tense of být (to be).

So it means:

• he/she/it is

In this sentence, the subject is kůlna (shed), which is singular, so je is the correct form.

A few present-tense forms of být are:

• jsem = I am
• jsi = you are
• je = he/she/it is
• jsme = we are
• jste = you are
• jsou = they are

Kůlna is a feminine noun.

Yes, gender matters in Czech because it affects things like:

• adjective endings
• pronouns
• sometimes past tense forms

In this sentence, the noun is in the nominative singular as the subject:

• kůlna

You can often recognize many feminine nouns by the ending -a, though this is not a perfect rule for every noun in Czech.

Czech does not use articles like English a / an / the.

So Kůlna je za skleníkem can mean:

• The shed is behind the greenhouse
• or, depending on context, A shed is behind a greenhouse

Usually, the context tells you which meaning is intended.

This is normal in Czech and often takes some getting used to for English speakers.

No, Czech word order is more flexible than English word order because case endings show grammatical relationships.

The neutral version is:

• Kůlna je za skleníkem.

But you can also say:

• Za skleníkem je kůlna.

Both are grammatical. The difference is mainly emphasis or information structure:

• Kůlna je za skleníkem.
  A neutral statement about where the shed is.

• Za skleníkem je kůlna.
  More like Behind the greenhouse, there is a shed or emphasizing the location first.

So unlike English, changing the order does not automatically make the sentence ungrammatical.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker:

• kůlna ≈ KOOL-nah
• je ≈ yeh
• za ≈ zah
• skleníkem ≈ SKLEH-nee-kem

A few helpful points:

• ů is pronounced like a long oo sound, similar to food
• í is also long, so -ník- has a longer ee sound
• Czech stress is usually on the first syllable of each word:
  • KŮL-na
  • SKLE-ní-kem

So the whole sentence is roughly:

• KOOL-nah yeh zah SKLEH-nee-kem

The dictionary form is skleník.

That is the nominative singular form, the form you would usually find in a vocabulary list or dictionary.

Here is the relationship:

• skleník = greenhouse
• skleníkem = with/by/behind the greenhouse, depending on the preposition and context; here specifically behind the greenhouse

So when learning vocabulary, it is useful to recognize that skleníkem is not a different word, just a different case form of skleník.

Normally, in the present tense, Czech usually keeps the verb být in sentences like this:

• Kůlna je za skleníkem.

So you would not normally say:

• Kůlna za skleníkem.

That sounds incomplete in standard Czech.

This is different from some languages where to be can be dropped in the present tense. In Czech, in a normal sentence like this, je is needed.