Herec hraje v komedii.

Herec is grammatically masculine and most literally means male actor.

A few useful points:

• herec = actor, male actor
• herečka = actress, female actor

In real usage, masculine forms can sometimes be used more generally, but if you are talking specifically about a woman, you would normally say herečka.

Czech normally does not use articles.

So:

• Herec can mean an actor or the actor
• komedii can mean a comedy or the comedy

Which one is meant depends on context. This is very different from English, where you usually must choose between a and the.

Herec is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence: the person doing the action.

So in Herec hraje v komedii:

• herec = the subject
• hraje = the verb
• v komedii = a prepositional phrase telling us where or in what kind of work he performs

The verb hrát has a wider meaning than English to play.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• to play a game
• to play an instrument
• to act
• to play a role

In this sentence, because the context is v komedii, hraje means something like:

• acts in a comedy
• is performing in a comedy
• plays in a comedy

So yes, it is the same Czech verb, but in English we would usually translate it as acts here.

Hraje is the 3rd person singular present tense form of hrát.

So:

• já hraju / hraji = I play
• ty hraješ = you play
• on / ona / ono hraje = he / she / it plays

In this sentence, hraje matches herec, which is singular.

Czech often drops subject pronouns when they are not needed.

That is because the verb ending already tells you the person and number:

• hraju = I play
• hraješ = you play
• hraje = he/she/it plays

Since the sentence already has the noun herec, adding on would usually be unnecessary.

So Czech prefers:

• Herec hraje v komedii.

rather than:

• On hraje v komedii.

unless you specifically want to emphasize he.

Because the preposition v meaning in usually requires the locative case when it expresses location or setting.

The basic form is:

• komedie = comedy

But after v, it changes to the locative singular:

• v komedii = in a comedy

So the ending changes because Czech nouns change form according to case.

Komedii is in the locative singular.

That is because:

• v
  • location/context normally takes the locative

So:

• komedie = nominative
• v komedii = locative after v

This is a very common pattern in Czech, for example:

• v domě = in the house
• ve škole = in the school
• v komedii = in a comedy

Yes. Czech word order is more flexible than English word order because case endings show what each word is doing.

The neutral order here is:

• Herec hraje v komedii.

But other orders are possible, for example:

• V komedii hraje herec.
• Hraje herec v komedii?

The meaning stays broadly similar, but the focus or emphasis changes.

English relies heavily on word order for grammar. Czech uses word order more for information structure: what is already known, what is new, what is being emphasized.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

• Herec ≈ HE-rets
• hraje ≈ HRA-ye
• v komedii ≈ f ko-ME-di-yi

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• Czech stress is usually on the first syllable
• c is pronounced like ts
• j is pronounced like English y
• v is often pronounced more like f before a voiceless consonant, so v komedii often sounds like f komedii

It can depend on context.

The Czech present tense can cover both ideas that English often separates:

• The actor acts in a comedy / The actor plays in a comedy
• The actor is acting in a comedy

So hraje does not by itself force a distinction between simple present and present progressive the way English does. Context tells you whether it is a general fact, a current performance, or part of a plot summary.