Questions & Answers about Vidím ho v parku.
Literally:
- Vidím = I see
- from the verb vidět (to see), 1st person singular present.
- ho = him
- unstressed object pronoun, accusative of on (he).
- v = in
- parku = (the) park
- locative case of park (park).
So Vidím ho v parku is literally I-see him in park.
Czech word order is more flexible than English; subject pronouns (like já, I) are often omitted because the verb ending (-ím) already shows who is doing the action.
Czech usually omits subject pronouns when they’re obvious from the verb ending.
- Vidím already contains the information I
- see (1st person singular).
- You can say Já ho vidím v parku for emphasis (like English I see him in the park as opposed to someone else), but in neutral sentences you normally just say Vidím ho v parku.
So já is not wrong, just unnecessary in most contexts.
Both ho and jeho are forms of on (he), but:
- ho is the usual unstressed object form in everyday speech.
- jeho can be:
- a stressed object form (for emphasis), or
- a possessive form meaning his (e.g. jeho kniha = his book).
In your sentence, the natural everyday version is:
- Vidím ho v parku. = I see him in the park.
You might hear Vidím jeho v parku, but that sounds more emphatic, like I see him (and not someone else) in the park, and even then many native speakers would more likely change the word order instead (e.g. Jeho vidím v parku).
Ho is in the accusative case.
- The accusative is mainly used for direct objects (the thing/person directly affected by the verb).
- In Vidím ho v parku, the verb is vidím (I see), and the direct object is ho (whom do I see? him).
For the pronoun on (he), some common forms are:
- Nominative (subject): on = he
- Accusative (object): ho / jej = him
- Genitive (also used as accusative sometimes): jeho = him / his
Here, vidět takes the accusative, so you use ho as the object.
Ho normally refers to a masculine animate noun, usually a male person or a male animal that you treat as animate.
- Vidím ho v parku.
- Most naturally: I see him in the park.
If you want to refer to a thing, you normally use:
- ho only if the noun is masculine animate (like pes – dog, student – student).
ho is not used for feminine or neuter objects. For those, you’d use other pronouns:
- Feminine (e.g. žena – woman): Vidím ji v parku. = I see her in the park.
- Neuter (e.g. auto – car): Vidím ho. = I see it.
- Here ho is from ono (it), but the form happens to be the same; the gender comes from context.
No. You cannot drop the object pronoun in the same way you drop the subject pronoun.
- Vidím already encodes I, so já is optional.
But nothing in vidím encodes whom you see.
Vidím v parku. on its own just means I see in the park, which is incomplete in most contexts (the listener will expect what or who you see).
So you must keep ho (or another object):
- Vidím ho v parku. – I see him in the park.
- Vidím psa v parku. – I see a dog in the park.
Yes, you can change the word order, and the basic meaning (I see him in the park) stays the same, but the focus/emphasis changes.
Typical neutral order:
- Vidím ho v parku.
- Neutral: I see him in the park.
Other possible orders:
- V parku ho vidím.
- Puts v parku (in the park) first, maybe as context: As for the park, that’s where I see him.
- Ho vidím v parku.
- Sounds a bit unusual at the very beginning of a sentence in standard style, but in spoken language you might hear Jeho vidím v parku, emphasizing him: He is the one I see in the park.
Czech uses word order mainly for information structure (what’s already known vs new/important), not for basic grammar like English does.
You change the tense (and sometimes the aspect):
Present:
- Vidím ho v parku. – I see him / I am seeing him in the park.
Future (perfective aspect, single event):
- Uvidím ho v parku. – I will see him in the park.
- uvidět is the perfective partner of vidět, used for a one-time future event.
- Uvidím ho v parku. – I will see him in the park.
Past:
- Viděl jsem ho v parku. – I saw him in the park. (speaker is male)
- Viděla jsem ho v parku. – I saw him in the park. (speaker is female)
Czech doesn’t use a continuous form; Vidím ho v parku can mean either I see him (now) or I see him (there regularly), depending on context. For habitual actions, you can also use Vídám ho v parku (I see him there repeatedly/now and then).
They’re all related to seeing, but with different aspects/nuances:
vidím – present tense of vidět (imperfective)
- Vidím ho v parku. – I see him in the park / I am seeing him in the park.
uvidím – future tense of uvidět (perfective)
- Uvidím ho v parku. – I will see him in the park (at some point, a specific event).
vídám – present of vídat (habitual imperfective)
- Vídám ho v parku. – I see him in the park (repeatedly, from time to time, as a habit or regular occurrence).
So in a very rough simplification:
- vidím – seeing now / general present
- uvidím – will see (one time)
- vídám – (I) tend to see him / I see him regularly
Because park must change its form to match the preposition and its grammatical role:
- With v meaning in a location (where something is), Czech uses the locative case.
- The noun park in the locative singular is v parku.
Patterns:
- Nominative (basic form): park – the park (subject)
- Locative singular (after v, na for location): v parku, na parku (in the park, on the park—though na parku is unusual in meaning)
So v park is ungrammatical. It must be v parku when you mean in the park.
Both v and ve mean in, but ve is used to make pronunciation easier before some consonant clusters or certain words.
General idea:
Use v before words that are easy to pronounce after v:
- v parku, v autě, v domě, v práci.
Use ve:
- before words starting with v- or f-:
- ve Vídni (in Vienna), ve Francii (in France).
- before some difficult consonant clusters, especially v + st-/sk-/zd-, etc.:
- ve středu (on Wednesday / in the middle), ve škole is also very common in everyday speech.
- before words starting with v- or f-:
In your sentence, v parku is easy to pronounce, so v (not ve) is used.
You just change the object pronoun:
- Vidím ho v parku. – I see him in the park.
- Vidím je v parku. – I see them in the park.
Je is the usual accusative plural pronoun for them (people or things), in neutral style.
Approximate pronunciation (IPA):
Vidím – [ˈvɪɟiːm]
- vi like vi in village,
- dím like deem but with a palatalized ď ([ɟ]) and a long í.
ho – [ɦo]
- like English ho in hope, but the h is more breathy/voiced.
v – [f] before a voiceless consonant
- In v parku, v is pronounced [f].
parku – [ˈparkʊ]
- par like park without the final k sound,
- ku like koo (short).
Connected, it sounds roughly like:
- [ˈvɪɟiːm ɦof ˈparkʊ]
Note that v in v parku is devoiced to [f] because it stands before p (a voiceless consonant).
The sentence itself is neutral; it doesn’t contain any formal or informal 2nd-person forms, so you can use it with anyone:
- with friends, family, colleagues: Vidím ho v parku.
- in formal contexts as a simple statement: Vidím ho v parku.
Formality in Czech usually shows up in how you say “you” (e.g. ty vs vy) and in verb endings, not in this kind of simple declarative sentence. Here you’re not addressing the person you see; you’re just describing what you see.