Breakdown of Dnes je moje sestra šťastná, protože problém není velký.
Questions & Answers about Dnes je moje sestra šťastná, protože problém není velký.
Both are correct; Czech word order is quite flexible.
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná. – Starts with dnes (today), so it emphasizes when she is happy.
- Moje sestra je dnes šťastná. – Starts with moje sestra, emphasizing who is happy.
In neutral speech, Moje sestra je dnes šťastná is slightly more common, but the original sentence is perfectly fine and natural, just focusing on “today” more strongly.
In Czech, you almost always put a comma before protože (“because”).
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná, protože problém není velký.
Protože introduces a subordinate clause (protože problém není velký), and Czech punctuation rules require a comma before such conjunctions, even when English often doesn’t use one (e.g. She is happy because the problem is small – no comma in English, but comma in Czech).
Adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe.
- sestra = feminine singular
- So the adjective must also be feminine singular: šťastná (fem. sg.)
- šťastný is masculine singular (for bratr – brother, for example).
So:
- Moje sestra je šťastná. – My sister is happy.
- Můj bratr je šťastný. – My brother is happy.
Here, velký is a predicate adjective (it comes after the verb and describes the subject):
- Problém není velký. – Literally “The problem is not big.”
In this construction, the normal neutral order is:
subject – verb – adjective
→ problém – není – velký
If you say velký problém není, that changes the structure and emphasis to something like:
- Velký problém to není. – “It’s not a big problem.” (emphasis on “big problem” as a phrase)
So problém není velký is the normal pattern with an adjective after the verb “to be”.
Both moje sestra and problém are in the nominative case.
The nominative is used for:
The subject of the sentence:
- (Moje) sestra je šťastná. – sestra is the subject.
- Problém není velký. – problém is the subject in the second clause.
The predicate noun/adjective:
- sestra je šťastná – šťastná (fem. sg. nominative) agrees with sestra.
- problém není velký – velký (masc. sg. nominative) agrees with problém.
So: subject + je/není + adjective → everything in nominative.
Czech forms negation of verbs by adding ne- in front of the verb, and then usually fusing it into one word.
- je (is) → ne + je → není (is not)
So:
- je = “is”
- není = “is not”
You do not say:
- je ne – wrong
- neje – wrong (as a standard form)
The same pattern works with other persons:
- jsem → nejsem (I am not)
- jsi → nejsi / nejsi (you are not)
- jsme → nejsme (we are not)
- jste → nejste (you pl. are not)
Czech has no articles (no “a/an/the”).
- problém can mean “a problem” or “the problem”, depending on context.
- In this sentence, from context, it corresponds to “the problem” in English.
If you want to make it more specific, you can add a demonstrative:
- ten problém – “that/the problem (that we’ve been talking about)”
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná, protože ten problém není velký.
Both moje sestra and má sestra are grammatically correct.
- moje = “my” (full/long form)
- má = “my” (short form, often a bit more formal or literary before a noun)
Usage tendencies:
- Before a noun, especially in everyday speech, má sestra is quite common.
- moje sestra is also fine and neutral; some speakers prefer it.
- When the pronoun stands alone (without a noun), you more often use moje:
- Je to moje. – “It’s mine.”
So you can say:
- Dnes je má sestra šťastná.
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná.
Both are acceptable; moje sestra sounds slightly more neutral/conversational to many learners.
In standard Czech, you cannot normally drop je in this kind of sentence.
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná. – correct.
- Dnes moje sestra šťastná. – wrong in normal speech (it might appear only in headlines, notes, or poetry).
Czech does allow omitting the subject pronoun (já, ty, on…), but not the present-tense form of být (“to be”) in ordinary sentences.
Yes, you can use dneska here:
- Dnes je moje sestra šťastná.
- Dneska je moje sestra šťastná.
dnes and dneska both mean “today”:
- dnes – slightly more neutral or formal.
- dneska – more colloquial/spoken.
In everyday speech, dneska is very common. In writing, especially formal writing, you’ll more often see dnes.
Both are possible; they’re just slightly different in style and focus.
protože problém není velký
– literally “because the problem is not big.”
– Focuses on the quality of this specific “problem”.protože to není velký problém
– literally “because it is not a big problem.”
– Very common spoken pattern; to works like “it/this.” – Slightly more idiomatic in everyday speech.
Meaning is almost the same; protože to není velký problém may sound a bit more natural in casual conversation, but the original sentence is perfectly correct and normal.
Czech stress is almost always on the first syllable:
- ŠŤAST-ná
- PRO-to-že
Pronunciation tips:
- š – like English “sh” in she.
- ť – a soft “t”, tongue closer to the front of the mouth; a bit like “t” in British “tune” [tyoon], but softer.
- á – a long “a”, held a bit longer than a short a.
- protože – each e is pronounced clearly; ž is like the “s” in “measure”.
So roughly:
- šťastná ≈ “shtyas-tnaa” (with long final “a”)
- protože ≈ “PRO-to-zhe”
Yes. Word order helps mark questions in Czech when there is no question word.
- Moje sestra je dnes šťastná. – statement.
- Je moje sestra dnes šťastná? – yes/no question: “Is my sister happy today?”
Raising your intonation at the end also signals a question, but changing the word order (moving je to the start) is a very common way to form yes/no questions.