Správce poplatku může vymáhat místní poplatek ze psů.

Czech does not have articles. So nouns like správce, poplatek, and psů can mean the, a, or just a general noun depending on context.

So Správce poplatku může vymáhat místní poplatek ze psů can be understood as something like:

• The fee administrator can enforce the local dog fee
• A fee administrator may enforce a local fee on dogs

The exact English article depends on the context, not on a separate Czech word.

Yes. Správce is a masculine animate noun.

That may feel surprising, because English speakers often expect Czech masculine nouns to end in a consonant. But many masculine animate nouns end in -ce, especially words for people, such as:

• správce = administrator, manager
• soudce = judge
• poradce = adviser

Here správce is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

Because poplatku is in the genitive case. After a noun like správce when you mean administrator of something, Czech normally uses the genitive.

So:

• správce = administrator
• poplatku = of the fee

Together, správce poplatku means administrator of the fee or fee administrator.

This is a very common pattern in Czech:

• ředitel školy = director of a school / school principal
• majitel domu = owner of the house
• správce budovy = administrator of the building

Může is the 3rd person singular present form of moci, meaning can, is able to, or sometimes may.

So:

• já mohu / můžu = I can
• on/ona může = he/she/it can

In this sentence, může means can or may, depending on the legal context. In official or legal language, it often has the sense of is allowed to or has the authority to.

Because Czech modal verbs like moci are followed by an infinitive.

So the structure is:

• může vymáhat = can enforce / may collect

This is very similar to English:

• can enforce
• may collect

You do not conjugate the second verb here; only může is conjugated.

Not quite. Vymáhat usually means to enforce payment, to recover, or to collect by legal or official pressure.

So it is stronger and more formal than ordinary collect. It suggests that the money is owed and the authority can demand it, possibly through legal means.

A useful contrast is:

• vybírat poplatek = to collect a fee in the ordinary sense
• vymáhat poplatek = to enforce payment of a fee, especially if it has not been paid

So this sentence is not just about accepting payment; it is about enforcing the payment of the fee.

Because místní poplatek is the direct object of vymáhat, so it is in the accusative case.

However, poplatek is a masculine inanimate noun, and in the singular its accusative form is the same as its nominative form:

• nominative: místní poplatek
• accusative: místní poplatek

So the form does not change, even though the grammatical case does.

The adjective místní agrees with poplatek, so it also stays in the matching accusative singular form.

Místní poplatek means local fee. This is the general legal category.

Ze psů then specifies which local fee it is: the one on dogs.

So the sentence contains both:

• the broad category: místní poplatek
• the specific type: ze psů

In effect, místní poplatek ze psů means the local dog fee or the local fee on dogs.

Psů is genitive plural of pes = dog.

It is genitive because the preposition z / ze requires the genitive.

So:

• pes = dog
• psi = dogs
• psů = of dogs / from dogs

In this phrase, ze psů is part of the set expression poplatek ze psů, meaning a fee on dogs.

Ze is just a pronunciation variant of z.

Czech often uses ze instead of z before difficult consonant clusters, to make pronunciation easier. Since psů begins with ps-, ze psů is easier to say than z psů.

This is the same idea as:

• ze školy
• ze stolu
• ze dveří

So the meaning does not change; it is mainly about pronunciation and standard usage.

Literally, z / ze often means from or out of, yes. But here you should not interpret it too literally.

In the legal phrase poplatek ze psů, it means a fee on dogs or a dog fee. In other words, it is a fee connected with dog ownership, not something physically taken from dogs.

This is one of those cases where the Czech prepositional phrase sounds more natural in Czech than a word-for-word English translation would.

It belongs with poplatek.

The phrase is really místní poplatek ze psů = the local fee on dogs.

So the structure is:

• Správce poplatku = subject
• může vymáhat = verbal part
• místní poplatek ze psů = object phrase

That is why ze psů is best understood as specifying the kind of fee, not the manner of enforcing it.

Czech word order is more flexible than English word order because the cases show the grammatical roles.

The given sentence is a neutral, natural order for formal written Czech:

• Správce poplatku = subject first
• může vymáhat = verb phrase
• místní poplatek ze psů = object phrase

You could change the order for emphasis, but the original sounds standard and official. For example, moving místní poplatek ze psů earlier would put more focus on the fee itself.

So the word order is not absolutely fixed, but this version is the most straightforward.

The accents mostly show vowel length.

• ů in psů is pronounced like a long ú
• í in místní is a long i
• á in správce is a long a

In může, the mark on ů again shows a long vowel, and ž is a separate consonant sound, like the s in measure.

So the accents are important: they are not optional, and they can distinguish different words or forms.