Chci poznat toto město.

Chci is the 1st person singular present form of chtít (to want).

So:

• chci = I want
• chceš = you want
• chce = he/she/it wants

Czech often leaves out the subject pronoun, so já (I) is not necessary here. The verb ending already shows who the subject is.

So Chci poznat toto město. naturally means I want to get to know this city or I want to discover this city without needing já.

This is a very common learner question.

• znát usually means to know, to be familiar with
• poznat usually means to get to know, to come to know, to recognize, or to discover/experience

In this sentence, poznat fits because the idea is not I already know this city, but rather I want to become familiar with it.

Compare:

• Znám toto město. = I know this city.
• Chci poznat toto město. = I want to get to know this city.

So poznat expresses a process or achievement of becoming familiar with something.

Yes, it matters.

Poznat is a perfective verb. It refers to reaching a result: getting to know, coming to recognize, discovering.

Its imperfective partner is usually poznávat.

Compare:

• Chci poznat toto město. = I want to get to know this city (focus on achieving familiarity)
• Poznávám toto město. = I am getting to know this city (focus on the ongoing process)

After chtít (to want), both perfective and imperfective infinitives are possible in Czech, depending on meaning. Here, perfective poznat sounds natural because the speaker wants the result of becoming familiar with the city.

Yes. Město here is in the accusative singular because it is the direct object of poznat.

However, město is a neuter inanimate noun, and for many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative forms are the same.

So:

• nominative: město
• accusative: město

That is why the word does not visibly change.

Toto is the neuter singular form of the demonstrative pronoun ten / ta / to when used in a more explicit or emphatic form meaning this.

Because město is neuter singular, the demonstrative must match it:

• masculine: tento
• feminine: tato
• neuter: toto

So:

• toto město = this city

The agreement is grammatical: the demonstrative must match the noun in gender, number, and case.

Yes, absolutely.

• toto město sounds a bit more neutral, careful, or written
• tohle město is very common in everyday spoken Czech

Both mean this city.

So these are both natural:

• Chci poznat toto město.
• Chci poznat tohle město.

In conversation, many speakers would prefer tohle město. In writing or more formal contexts, toto město is also very normal.

The basic order here is:

Chci + poznat + toto město
= I want + to get to know + this city

This is a very natural neutral word order in Czech.

Because Czech word order is flexible, you can change it for emphasis, but not every version sounds equally neutral.

For example:

• Chci poznat toto město. = neutral
• Toto město chci poznat. = emphasizes this city
• Poznat toto město chci. = more marked, often contrastive or poetic/stylized

So learners should usually stick with Chci poznat toto město. unless they specifically want to emphasize something.

In Czech, infinitives do not use a separate particle like English to.

So:

• English: I want to know / to get to know
• Czech: Chci poznat

The infinitive is simply the dictionary form of the verb:

• poznat = to get to know
• vidět = to see
• jít = to go

So after chci, you just put the infinitive directly.

It is not completely impossible, but it is not the most natural choice for this meaning.

Znát usually describes an existing state of knowledge or familiarity, not the process of acquiring it. So Chci znát toto město can sound less natural than Chci poznat toto město.

A Czech speaker would normally say:

• Chci poznat toto město.

because the idea is I want to become familiar with it.

So for learners, the safest distinction is:

• znát = to know
• poznat = to get to know

Yes:

• Já chci poznat toto město.

This is grammatically correct. But in most situations, já is unnecessary because chci already means I want.

Adding já usually gives extra emphasis, for example:

• Já chci poznat toto město, ne tvoje vesnice.
  = I want to get to know this city, not your village.

So the version without já is more neutral and more typical.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

KH-tsi poznat to-to myes-to

A few helpful points:

• ch in chci is like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach
• c is pronounced ts
• mě sounds roughly like mye
• stress in Czech normally falls on the first syllable of each word:
  • CHci
  • POZnat
  • TOto
  • MĚsto

A more careful rough guide:

[kh-tsi poz-naht to-to mye-sto]

Toto is in the accusative singular neuter, because it goes with město, which is the direct object.

For neuter singular, the nominative and accusative forms are often the same, so:

• nominative: toto město
• accusative: toto město

That means the phrase looks unchanged, even though grammatically it is functioning as the object.

Yes, it is natural and correct.

It sounds like something a person might say when visiting a place and wanting to explore it or become familiar with it.

Depending on context, native speakers might also say:

• Chci poznat tohle město. = more conversational
• Chci lépe poznat toto město. = I want to get to know this city better
• Chtěl bych poznat toto město. = I’d like to get to know this city (more polite/softer)

But the original sentence is perfectly good Czech.