Learn Hardcore Czech: Ráno mám malou snídani a piji čaj bez cukru. - In the morning I have a small breakfast and I drink tea without sugar.

You can say „V ráno“, but it sounds wrong/unnatural in this meaning. The normal, idiomatic way is just Ráno mám… = “In the morning I have…”.

Why is there no word for “I” in the sentence?

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

mám = I have (1st person singular)
piji = I drink (1st person singular)

So „Ráno mám malou snídani…“ automatically means “In the morning I have a small breakfast…”.
You only say „Já mám…“ if you want to emphasize “I” (for contrast), e.g. Já mám čaj, ale on má kávu. – I have tea, but he has coffee.

Why is it „mám malou snídani“ (“I have a small breakfast”) and not something like „snídám“ (“I breakfast”)?

Both are possible, but they feel a bit different:

Mám malou snídani. – literally “I have a small breakfast.”
- Very natural, common way to talk about what kind of breakfast you have (small, big, healthy, etc.).
Snídám. – “I eat breakfast.”
- Focuses more on the activity (having breakfast) than on its type/size.

If you want to specify the breakfast more, „mám snídani“ is more flexible:

Ráno mám malou snídani. – In the morning I have a small breakfast.
Ráno snídám. – I have breakfast in the morning (no detail about what kind).

Both are correct; in this sentence we care that the breakfast is small, so mám malou snídani is very natural.

Why is it „malou snídani“ and not „malá snídaně“?

Because snídani is the direct object of mám, and direct objects in Czech are usually in the accusative case.

Dictionary forms:
- malá snídaně – small breakfast (nominative, basic form)
In the sentence:
- mám malou snídani – I have a small breakfast (accusative)

The adjective and noun must agree in gender, number, and case:

malá snídaně (Nom. sg. fem.) – subject
malou snídani (Acc. sg. fem.) – object

So „malou snídani“ is the correct form after mám.

Why does „snídaně“ become „snídani“ here?

Snídaně is a feminine noun with this pattern:

Nominative singular: snídaně (dictionary form)
Accusative singular (direct object): snídani

This is a common feminine declension:

kavárna → kavárnu (café → I see a café)
učebnice → učebnici (textbook → I have a textbook)
snídaně → snídani (breakfast → I have a breakfast)

So after mám, you use snídani, because it’s the accusative form.

What is the difference between „piji“ and „piju“?

Both mean “I drink” (1st person singular present of pít).

piji – more formal / bookish / careful standard form
piju – very common in everyday spoken Czech, also accepted in standard language

So in normal conversation you’ll almost always hear:

Ráno mám malou snídani a piju čaj bez cukru.

In writing or more formal style, piji is OK and correct, but sounds a bit more careful or literary.

Why is the verb pít (piji/piju) used here and not something like vypít?

Czech distinguishes imperfective and perfective verbs:

pít (piji/piju) – imperfective: “to drink” (process, habit, repeated action)
vypít – perfective: “to drink up, finish drinking” (one completed act)

In this sentence we talk about a habit:

Ráno … piji čaj bez cukru. – In the morning I (usually) drink tea without sugar.

So the imperfective verb pít is correct.
If you described a single, completed action, you’d use vypít, e.g.:

Vypil jsem čaj bez cukru. – I drank up (finished) the tea without sugar.

Why is it „bez cukru“ and not „bez cukr“?

Because the preposition bez (“without”) always takes the genitive case in Czech.

Dictionary form: cukr (sugar) – nominative
Genitive singular: cukru

Some common prepositions that require genitive:

bez – without → bez cukru (without sugar)
od – from, away from
do – to, into
u – at, by

So the correct form is bez cukru.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in malou snídani and čaj?

Czech has no articles (no equivalent of English a/an or the).

Whether you mean a small breakfast or the small breakfast is understood from context, not from a separate word. So:

mám malou snídani can mean:
- I have a small breakfast.
- I have the small breakfast. (if it’s clear from context)

Similarly, piji čaj can be “I drink tea”, “I drink a tea”, or “I am drinking the tea”, depending on the situation.

Can I change the word order, for example to „Mám ráno malou snídani a piji čaj bez cukru“?

Yes, Czech word order is quite flexible. Both are grammatical:

Ráno mám malou snídani a piji čaj bez cukru. (original)
Mám ráno malou snídani a piji čaj bez cukru.

The first one (Ráno mám…) puts a bit more emphasis on “in the morning” as the time frame.
The second (Mám ráno…) is also natural; the difference is small and often just about rhythm or what you want to highlight.

What you shouldn’t normally do is separate closely connected parts too much, e.g.:

❌ Ráno mám snídani malou… – sounds odd.

Does the present tense here mean a habit, like in English “I usually do X”?

Yes. In Czech, the present tense of an imperfective verb often expresses:

a habit or regular action
a general truth

So:

Ráno mám malou snídani a piji čaj bez cukru.
= In the morning I (usually) have a small breakfast and drink tea without sugar.

It doesn’t describe a one-time event; it describes what you typically do.

How important are the accents and special letters, like á in ráno and č in čaj?

They are very important, because they often change:

pronunciation
meaning

Examples:

ráno (with á) – “morning”
- rano (without accent) is technically incorrect spelling.
čaj – “tea”
- caj – this is not standard Czech; č and c are different sounds.

Pay attention to:

á, é, í, ó, ú, ů – long vowels
č, š, ž, ň, ť, ď, ě, ř – consonants with diacritics

Writing them correctly is part of spelling the word correctly.