Sotva přišel režisér, promítačka začala promítat film.

Here sotva means as soon as or hardly had ... when. It shows that the second action happened almost immediately after the first one.

So the structure is:

• first event: Sotva přišel režisér
• second event: promítačka začala promítat film

A more neutral Czech alternative would often be jakmile. Sotva can sound a little more literary or dramatic.

Because Sotva přišel režisér is a subordinate clause, and promítačka začala promítat film is the main clause.

Czech normally separates subordinate and main clauses with a comma, whether the subordinate clause comes first or second.

In Czech, the past tense uses an auxiliary only in the 1st and 2nd person, not in the 3rd person.

For example:

• přišel jsem = I came
• přišel jsi = you came
• přišel = he came

So přišel by itself is a normal 3rd-person past-tense form.

The same thing happens in začala: it already means she/it began.

The infinitive is přijít, which is a perfective verb.

přišel is:

• past tense
• masculine singular
• perfective

Perfective aspect is used because the sentence refers to one completed arrival: the director arrived, and then the next action followed.

If you used an imperfective verb such as přicházel, the meaning would be different: it would suggest the director was arriving / was coming in, focusing on the process rather than the completed arrival.

Because Czech word order is much more flexible than English word order.

Both of these are possible:

• Sotva přišel režisér, ...
• Sotva režisér přišel, ...

The version with přišel režisér sounds very natural in narration. It puts the event přišel first and then names the subject. Czech often arranges words according to emphasis and flow, not just fixed subject-verb-object order.

Promítačka is a feminine noun. Depending on context, it can mean:

• a female projectionist
• sometimes, in colloquial usage, a projector

If the meaning has already been given to the learner, that context decides which one is intended here.

If it means projectionist, then it is specifically feminine. The masculine form would be promítač.

Because it agrees with the subject promítačka, which is a feminine noun.

In the Czech past tense, the verb shows gender in the singular:

• začal = masculine
• začala = feminine
• začalo = neuter

So promítačka začala means the subject is grammatically feminine.

After začít (to begin/start), Czech normally uses an infinitive.

So:

• začala promítat = she/it began to show/project

This is the same pattern as:

• začal mluvit = he began to speak
• začala psát = she began to write

You do not use two past-tense forms together here.

Also, the aspects are working together in a very natural way:

• začala is perfective: it marks the starting point
• promítat is imperfective: it names the ongoing activity that started

Here film is in the accusative singular, because it is the direct object of promítat.

The dictionary form is also film, and for many masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: film
• accusative: film

That is completely normal.

Because Czech has no articles.

English must choose between a director and the director, but Czech does not have separate words for that. Definiteness is understood from context, word order, and the situation.

So režisér can mean the director or a director, depending on context. The same is true for promítačka and film.