Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?

Do you see me, or do you not see me?

Breakdown of Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?

• vidět: to see
• nebo: or
• ty: you
• mě: me

Questions & Answers about Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?

What exactly does vidíš mean, and how is it conjugated?

Vidíš is the 2nd person singular present tense of the verb vidět – “to see.”

• já vidím – I see
• ty vidíš – you see (singular, informal)
• on / ona / ono vidí – he / she / it sees
• my vidíme – we see
• vy vidíte – you see (plural or formal)
• oni vidí – they see

So vidíš on its own simply means “you see.” In the sentence Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?, it’s “Do you see me, or do you not see me?”

Where is the word “you”? Why don’t we say Ty mě vidíš?

Czech usually drops subject pronouns (like já, ty, on), because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• Vidíš mě? = “Do you see me?”
  The ending -íš tells you it’s “you (singular)”.

You only add ty for emphasis or contrast:

• Ty mě vidíš, ale oni mě nevidí.
  “You see me, but they don’t see me.”

So the short form Vidíš mě? is the normal, natural question.

Why is there no word like “do” in the question (“Do you see me?”)?

Czech doesn’t use a separate auxiliary like English “do” to form questions.

• Statement: Ty mě vidíš. – “You see me.”
• Question: Ty mě vidíš? or simply Vidíš mě? – “Do you see me?”

The word order usually stays the same; the difference between statement and question is mostly intonation (rising tone at the end) and the question mark in writing.

So Vidíš mě? covers both “You see me?” and “Do you see me?” depending on intonation.

Why is it mě and not mně?

Both mě and mně are forms of já (“I / me”), but they are different cases and are used in different situations.

• mě (or more formal mne) = accusative (“me” as a direct object)
• mně (or clitic mi) = usually dative / locative (“to me / for me / about me”)

In Vidíš mě:

• “see me” → me is a direct object → accusative → mě (or mne)

Examples:

• Vidíš mě. – You see me. (accusative → mě)
• Pomáháš mi / mně. – You are helping me. (dative → mi / mně)
• Mluvíš o mně. – You are talking about me. (locative → mně)

So in this sentence, mě is the correct form because it is the direct object of vidíš / nevidíš.

Why is mě placed after vidíš and not before it?

Unstressed object pronouns like mě, tě, ho, ji usually come after the first stressed word in the clause. Here, the first stressed word is the verb vidíš, so we get:

• Vidíš mě? – neutral word order
• Not usually Mě vidíš? (that sounds more emphatic or contrastive)

Compare:

• Vidíš mě. – You see me. (neutral)
• Mě vidíš, ale jeho nevidíš. – Me you see, but him you don’t. (emphasis on mě)

So Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš? has the usual, neutral pronoun placement.

Could you also say Vidíš mě, nebo ne? instead of repeating the whole second part?

Yes, and this is very common and very natural:

• Vidíš mě, nebo ne?
  = “Do you see me or not?”

Some variants you might hear:

• Vidíš mě, nebo mě ne? – possible but sounds a bit clumsy; ne usually goes after the verb.
• Vidíš mě, nebo nevidíš? – also fine, a bit more compact than the original sentence.

The original Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš? is fully explicit (you repeat everything), while Vidíš mě, nebo ne? is more colloquial and concise.

Is the comma before nebo necessary: Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?

According to standard Czech punctuation rules, when nebo (“or”) connects two main clauses, you usually don’t write a comma:

• Vidíš mě nebo mě nevidíš?

A comma can appear in real-life texts to mark a pause or emphasis, so you will see sentences like:

• Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš?

However, if you are aiming for strict school‑grammar correctness, prefer no comma here:

• ✅ Vidíš mě nebo mě nevidíš? (normative)
• ◇ Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš? (stylistic pause; often used, but many school grammars would omit the comma)

How would you say this politely or to more than one person?

For formal “you” or plural “you,” you use vy‑forms of the verb:

• Vidíte mě, nebo mě nevidíte?
  “Do you (polite / you all) see me, or do you not see me?”

You still normally omit the pronoun vy, unless you want special emphasis:

• Vy mě vidíte, nebo mě nevidíte? – You (as opposed to someone else) see me, or…

Why is nevidíš written as one word with ne-? Why not *ne vidíš?

In Czech, simple verbal negation is formed by adding the prefix ne- directly to the verb:

• vidíš → nevidíš – you do not see
• vidím → nevidím – I do not see
• chápu → nechápu – I don’t understand

There is no separate auxiliary like English “do not”. The negative prefix ne- is always written together with the verb (except for a few special fixed expressions).

So:

• ✅ nevidíš
• ❌ ne vidíš (wrong)

Could you just say Nevidíš mě? as a question? What would that mean?

Yes:

• Nevidíš mě? literally = “Don’t you see me?”

This is usually:

• a surprised or slightly emotional question
• similar in tone to English “You don’t see me?” / “Can’t you see me?”

Compare:

• Vidíš mě? – neutral “Do you see me?”
• Nevidíš mě? – “You don’t see me?”, often implying surprise, annoyance, or checking a negative assumption.

What’s the difference between vidíš mě and uvidíš mě?

This is about aspect:

• vidět (imperfective) – to see (be seeing, perceive visually)
• uvidět (perfective) – to see / to catch sight of (one‑time event)

So:

• Vidíš mě? – “Do you see me (right now)?” / “Can you see me?”
• Uvidíš mě? – “Will you see me (at some point)?” – future event, like
  
  • Uvidíš mě zítra? – “Will you see me tomorrow?”

You wouldn’t normally use uvidíš mě to ask about current visibility on a video call. For that, stick to Vidíš mě?

Can vidět mean “understand,” like English “I see”?

Most of the time, no. In Czech, vidět is almost always literal seeing with your eyes.

To say “I see” in the sense of “I understand,” you usually use:

• Chápu. – I understand.
• Rozumím. – I understand. / I get it.

There is an expression:

• Vidíš? Já jsem ti to říkal.
  Literally: “See? I told you so.”

Here Vidíš? is more like English “See?” / “You see?” when drawing someone’s attention to a fact, but as a standalone “I understand,” vidím is not natural in Czech.

How does intonation work in Vidíš mě, nebo mě nevidíš??

In spoken Czech:

• The first question Vidíš mě usually has a rising intonation towards the end (on mě).
• After the short pause, nebo mě nevidíš again rises at the end (on -díš), because the whole sentence is a yes/no question.

If you say just:

• Vidíš mě? – your voice normally rises on mě.

So, Czech relies heavily on intonation (plus the question mark in writing) rather than on extra words like English “do.”