Breakdown of Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku a často ji volá.
Questions & Answers about Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku a často ji volá.
In Czech, mít rád (literally “to have as dear”) is a set expression meaning “to like (a person or thing)”.
- má ráda = she likes (feminine subject)
- mám rád = I like (speaker is male)
- mám ráda = I like (speaker is female)
So in Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku, má is the verb mít (to have), and ráda works like an adjective agreeing with the subject.
Using ráda alone without mít usually means “gladly / with pleasure”, and it modifies another verb:
- Moje dcera ráda volá. – My daughter likes to make phone calls / likes calling.
Here ráda means gladly, not likes someone as an object.
To say someone likes a person or thing, you need mít rád.
The form rád / ráda / rádo / rádi agrees with the gender and number of the subject:
- masculine singular: rád – Jsem rád. (I’m glad – man speaking)
- feminine singular: ráda – Jsem ráda. (I’m glad – woman speaking)
- neuter singular: rádo – less common but exists (e.g. about a child)
- plural (mixed group or all men): rádi
- feminine plural only: rády
In the sentence Moje dcera má ráda…:
- dcera (daughter) is grammatically feminine singular,
- so we use the feminine singular form ráda.
Czech has a special reflexive possessive pronoun svůj/svoje that refers back to the subject of the sentence.
- svůj / svoje / svůj, svou, svoji, své… → one’s own
- její → her (someone else’s), not automatically the subject’s
In Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku:
- subject: Moje dcera
- possessive: svoji → refers back to dcera
- meaning: My daughter likes *her own doctor.*
If you say Moje dcera má ráda její doktorku, it most naturally means:
- My daughter likes *her doctor* (another woman’s doctor, not my daughter’s).
So:
- use svůj/svoje when the owner is the subject
- use její / jeho / jejich for someone else’s possession
Svoji is a form of the reflexive possessive svůj/svoje.
Here it agrees with doktorku:
- doktorka – feminine singular, nominative
- doktorku – feminine singular, accusative
- svoji doktorku – feminine singular, accusative
You will see several variants:
- svoji doktorku – standard
- svou doktorku – also standard, a bit shorter / more formal-sounding
- svojí doktorku – with long í, very common in speech, somewhat colloquial but widely used
All three are widely understood; in careful written Czech, svoji or svou are preferred.
Doktorku is the accusative singular of doktorka (female doctor).
- Nominative (basic form): doktorka
- Accusative (direct object): doktorku
In Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku:
- The verb mít rád takes a direct object in the accusative.
- The thing or person liked is svoji doktorku → so doktorku must be in the accusative.
That is why the ending changes from -a to -u.
Ji is the accusative form of the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun:
- nominative: ona – she
- accusative: ji / ní – her (as an object)
- dative: jí / ní – to her, for her
In a často ji volá:
- ji = her as a direct object,
- it refers back to doktorku (female doctor).
So the sentence literally says: and often calls her (with her as the direct object).
If you wrote a často jí volá with long í, that would be dative (to her). That changes the meaning slightly (see next question).
Yes, for calling someone on the phone, Czech normally uses volat někomu (+ dative):
- volat komu? → volat jí – to call her (on the phone)
So:
- Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku a často jí volá.
= My daughter likes her doctor and often calls her (on the phone).
The form in your sentence:
- a často ji volá (accusative) more naturally means “often calls her (by shouting for her / calling out her name)”, not “phone-calls her”.
So:
- jí volá → phones her (dative, typical for phone calls)
- ji volá → calls her (as a direct object: calls her over, calls her name, etc.)
Czech word order is flexible but has strong clitic rules. Pronouns like ji tend to go in “second position” in the clause.
In a často ji volá:
- a = and
- často = often
- ji = clitic pronoun (her)
- volá = calls
Here, ji is near the beginning of the clause, after the first stressed word (často), which is very natural.
A ji často volá is not ungrammatical, but it sounds marked and unusual. The normal options are:
- A často ji volá. – neutral
- A volá ji často. – slight emphasis on volá or často
- A jí často volá. – if using dative jí for “phones her”
The main thing: clitic pronouns like ji generally avoid the very first position in a clause and try to be as early as possible, usually after the first stressed element.
Both moje dcera and má dcera are grammatically correct. They are just different forms of the same possessive:
- moje = full form
- má = short form (used mainly before the noun)
Nuances:
- Moje dcera – the most neutral and common in everyday speech.
- Má dcera – feels a bit more formal, emphatic or stylistic (it appears more in writing, storytelling, or careful speech).
In ordinary conversation, moje dcera is more typical; in a story, you might see Má dcera byla vždy… etc.
Yes, in the right context you can omit moje:
- Dcera má ráda svoji doktorku.
Czech often omits possessive pronouns with close family members when it is clear whose relative you mean from context (for example, if you are already speaking about yourself and your family).
However:
- If there is any chance of confusion (whose daughter?), keeping Moje dcera is clearer.
- In isolated example sentences, teachers and dictionaries usually keep moje to avoid ambiguity.
No, that would be wrong in standard Czech.
- You cannot directly say ráda někoho to mean “likes someone”.
To express liking a person or thing, you need mít rád
- object:
- Moje dcera má ráda svoji doktorku. – correct.
Without mít, ráda functions like an adverb meaning “gladly / with pleasure”, and it must modify another verb:
- Moje dcera ráda volá svojí doktorku. – My daughter gladly calls her doctor.
(Here ráda modifies volá, not doktorku.)
So to say “likes her doctor”, you must include má: má ráda svoji doktorku.