Bývalý ředitel má zkušenosti.

Bývalý means former or ex-.

So bývalý ředitel = former director / ex-director.

It does not mean old in the sense of age. It tells us that the person used to be a director, but is not one now.

For example:

• bývalý učitel = former teacher
• bývalá manželka = ex-wife

Because bývalý is an adjective, and it has to agree with ředitel.

Here, ředitel is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative (because it is the subject)

So the adjective also takes the matching form:

• bývalý ředitel

If the noun changed, the adjective would change too:

• bývalá ředitelka = former female director
• bývalí ředitelé = former directors

Ředitel is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence — the person who has the experience.

So in:

• Bývalý ředitel má zkušenosti.

the subject is bývalý ředitel.

Zkušenosti is in the accusative case, because it is the direct object of má (has).

The verb mít usually takes an accusative object:

• má auto = he/she has a car
• má čas = he/she has time
• má zkušenosti = he/she has experience

A useful detail: the form zkušenosti is also the nominative plural form, so here the accusative plural looks the same.

This is a very common learner question.

In Czech, mít zkušenosti is the normal way to say to have experience. Even though English often uses singular experience, Czech usually uses the plural noun zkušenosti in this meaning.

So:

• má zkušenosti = he/she has experience

Singular zkušenost usually means:

• an experience
• one particular experience

Compare:

• Má zkušenosti. = He has experience.
• To byla zajímavá zkušenost. = That was an interesting experience.

Because Czech commonly expresses this idea with the verb mít (to have):

• mít zkušenosti = to have experience

There is also an adjective:

• zkušený = experienced

So you could also say:

• Bývalý ředitel je zkušený. = The former director is experienced.

Both are possible, but they are not exactly identical in feel:

• má zkušenosti focuses on having experience
• je zkušený describes the person as experienced

A few pronunciation points matter here:

• ý in bývalý is a long vowel, roughly like a long ee sound.
• ř in ředitel is the famous Czech sound that does not exist in English. It is something like a mix of r and zh. Learners usually need time to master it.
• š in zkušenosti is pronounced like sh in shoe.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation guide:

• bývalý ≈ BEE-va-lee
• ředitel ≈ difficult to approximate, something like rzhedi-tel
• zkušenosti ≈ zkoo-she-no-sti

The stress in Czech is usually on the first syllable:

• BÝvalý
• ŘEditel
• ZKUšenosti

Because Czech has no articles like English a/an/the.

So:

• Bývalý ředitel má zkušenosti.

could mean:

• The former director has experience
• A former director has experience

Which one sounds best depends on context. Czech leaves that unstated unless something else makes it clear.

Yes. Czech word order is much more flexible than English because the endings help show the grammatical roles.

The neutral order here is:

• Bývalý ředitel má zkušenosti.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Zkušenosti má bývalý ředitel.
• Bývalý ředitel zkušenosti má.

These do not all sound equally neutral. The original sentence is the most straightforward and natural in ordinary context.

Not always in exactly the same way English uses director.

Ředitel can mean:

• director
• headmaster / principal
• manager / head of an institution or company

The exact translation depends on context.

For example:

• ředitel školy = school principal / headmaster
• ředitel firmy = company director / manager

So the sentence could refer to different kinds of director/head depending on the situation.

You would usually use the feminine noun ředitelka and make the adjective agree with it:

• Bývalá ředitelka má zkušenosti.

Here:

• bývalá = feminine singular
• ředitelka = female director/principal
• má zkušenosti stays the same

So the adjective changes, but the rest of the sentence does not need to.