Marinujte klobásu v marinádě.

Marinujte is the imperative form of marinovat, so it means marinate!

More specifically, it is the 2nd person plural imperative, which Czech also uses for:

• talking to more than one person, or
• speaking politely/formally to one person

So this can mean:

• You all, marinate the sausage in marinade
• or Please marinate the sausage in marinade

The informal singular version would be Marinuj klobásu v marinádě.

In Czech, the subject pronoun is often left out, especially in commands, because the verb ending already shows who is being addressed.

So marinujte already tells you that the speaker is addressing:

• more than one person, or
• one person formally

Including vy would usually be unnecessary unless the speaker wanted special emphasis.

Because it is the direct object of the verb, so it has to be in the accusative case.

The base form is klobása. In this sentence, you are doing something to the sausage, so Czech uses the accusative singular:

• nominative: klobása
• accusative: klobásu

This is very common with feminine nouns ending in -a:

• polévka → polévku
• cuketa → cuketu
• klobása → klobásu

Because it follows the preposition v in the meaning in, and that requires the locative case.

The base form is marináda. After v meaning in/inside, it becomes v marinádě.

So:

• nominative: marináda
• locative: v marinádě

This is a normal pattern for many feminine nouns:

• v polévce
• v omáčce
• v marinádě

V means in or inside. Here it shows that the sausage is being marinated in marinade.

So v marinádě means in the marinade.

A useful contrast is:

• v marinádě = in marinade
• do marinády = into the marinade

If the focus were on putting the sausage into the marinade, Czech would often use a different structure, for example do marinády with a verb like dát or naložit.

It can be both.

The ending -te in the imperative is used for:

• plural: speaking to several people
• formal singular: speaking politely to one person

So without more context, Marinujte klobásu v marinádě. could be addressed to:

• a group of people, or
• one person politely

If you wanted the informal singular, you would say: Marinuj klobásu v marinádě.

Yes. Czech word order is fairly flexible because the case endings show the grammatical roles.

The sentence Marinujte klobásu v marinádě. is a neutral, natural order for an instruction.

But you could also say: Klobásu marinujte v marinádě.

That version puts a little more emphasis on klobásu.

The basic meaning stays the same because:

• klobásu is still accusative
• v marinádě is still locative

So the endings, not just the word order, tell you what each word is doing.

The two main nouns are in different cases:

• klobásu = accusative singular
• marinádě = locative singular

Why?

• klobásu is the thing being marinated, so it is the direct object
• marinádě comes after v meaning in, so it takes the locative

This is a very typical Czech pattern:

• verb + accusative object
• preposition + required case

Marinovat is usually imperfective.

That fits well in instructions, because imperfective verbs often describe the process or activity itself. In recipes and directions, Czech commonly uses this kind of form.

A speaker could choose a different verb if they wanted to focus more on the idea of putting something into marinade or getting it marinated as a completed step, for example with verbs like naložit in the right context.

So in this sentence, marinujte sounds natural as an instruction about the action/process.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

MA-ri-nooy-teh KLO-baa-soo v MA-ri-naa-dyeh

A few useful points:

• Czech stress is usually on the first syllable of each word.
• j is pronounced like English y.
• á is a long vowel.
• dě sounds roughly like dyeh.

So:

• marinujte ≈ MA-ri-nooy-teh
• klobásu ≈ KLO-baa-soo
• marinádě ≈ MA-ri-naa-dyeh