Learn Hardcore Czech: Můj soused je mladý učitel a bydlí vedle naší rodiny. - My neighbor is a young teacher and lives next to our family.

In Můj soused je mladý učitel a bydlí vedle naší rodiny, the subject můj soused (my neighbor) is stated once at the beginning. The verb bydlí is in the 3rd person singular, so it clearly refers back to můj soused. Repeating on (he) would sound unnecessary unless you want to emphasize he specifically:

Můj soused je mladý učitel a (on) bydlí vedle naší rodiny.
– My neighbor is a young teacher and (he) lives next to our family.
(Here on would add emphasis, like “he lives next to our family (not someone else)”.)

Why is it můj soused and not moje soused?

The form of “my” changes according to the gender of the noun:

můj – with masculine singular nouns (e.g. můj soused – my male neighbor)
moje (or má) – with feminine singular and neuter singular nouns (e.g. moje sousedka – my female neighbor, moje auto – my car)

Soused is a masculine noun (a male neighbor), so you must use můj:

Můj soused = my (male) neighbor
If it were a female neighbor, you’d say:
Moje sousedka = my (female) neighbor

What exactly does soused mean? Is it gendered?

Yes, soused is specifically a male neighbor.

Czech usually has separate masculine and feminine forms for people:

soused – male neighbor
sousedka – female neighbor

In your sentence, Můj soused je mladý učitel…, we’re clearly talking about a man. If it were a woman, the whole phrase would change:

Moje sousedka je mladá učitelka…
– My (female) neighbor is a young (female) teacher…

How can mladý učitel mean “a young teacher” if there’s no word for a/the?

Czech has no articles (no direct equivalents of a/an or the). The phrase mladý učitel literally just means young teacher. Whether you translate it as a young teacher or the young teacher in English depends on context.

So:

Můj soused je mladý učitel.
can be:
- My neighbor is a young teacher.
- My neighbor is the young teacher.
  The English translation changes depending on what you’re talking about, not the Czech grammar.

Why is it mladý učitel and not učitel mladý?

In Czech, adjectives usually stand before the noun they describe and must agree with it in gender, number, and case.

mladý – masculine singular adjective, nominative
učitel – masculine singular noun, nominative

So the natural order is:

mladý učitel – a young teacher

Putting the adjective after the noun (učitel mladý) is possible in poetry, stylized language, or for special emphasis, but in everyday speech mladý učitel is the normal, neutral word order.

Could I also say Můj soused je mladým učitelem instead of je mladý učitel?

Yes, both are grammatically correct, but they use different cases and feel slightly different:

Můj soused je mladý učitel.
- Predicate noun učitel is in nominative.
- Very common, especially with professions in modern Czech.
- Feels neutral: My neighbor is a young teacher.
Můj soused je mladým učitelem.
- Predicate noun učitelem is in instrumental.
- Also correct and still common.
- Often feels a bit more formal or can emphasize the role/occupation.

For everyday use introducing someone’s job, je mladý učitel is fully natural and very common.

Why is it just je and not je to (like “to je učitel”)?

In Czech you have two common patterns:

X je Y.
- Můj soused je mladý učitel.
- My neighbor is a young teacher.
To je Y.
- To je učitel. – That’s a teacher / He’s a teacher.

You normally use „To je…“ when:

You’re identifying someone or something not yet named:
- Kdo je ten muž? – To je můj soused.
  Who is that man? – That’s my neighbor.

In your sentence, the subject Můj soused is already explicitly there, so you just use je:

Můj soused je mladý učitel.
Not: Můj soused je to mladý učitel. (That would sound odd here.)

What does bydlí mean exactly, and how is it different from žije?

Both can translate as “lives”, but they’re used differently:

bydlet – bydlí
- Means to reside, to live somewhere (as an address).
- Used for where you live / stay / have your home:
  - Bydlím v Praze. – I live in Prague.
  - Můj soused bydlí vedle naší rodiny. – My neighbor lives next to our family.
žít – žije
- Means to live in the sense of to be alive, or to live a certain kind of life:
  - Žije zdravě. – He lives healthily.
  - Žije ještě tvůj dědeček? – Is your grandfather still alive?
- It can also be used for place (Žije v Praze), but for address-type “lives”, bydlet is more precise and common.

So bydlí is exactly right here because we’re talking about where he lives (his home).

Why is it bydlí for “he lives”? It looks the same as “they live”.

The verb bydlet in present tense has:

já bydlím – I live
ty bydlíš – you (sg) live
on / ona / ono bydlí – he / she / it lives
my bydlíme – we live
vy bydlíte – you (pl/formal) live
oni bydlí – they live

So bydlí is used for he, she, it, they in the 3rd person.
You know it’s he in this sentence because the subject můj soused is singular and masculine.

What does vedle mean, and why does it need naší rodiny?

Vedle means next to / beside. As a preposition, it always takes the genitive case:

vedle koho? čeho? – next to whom? / what? (genitive)

Naše rodina (our family) in nominative becomes naší rodiny in genitive:

Nominative: naše rodina – our family (subject form)
Genitive: bez naší rodiny, vedle naší rodiny – without our family, next to our family

So:

vedle naší rodiny = next to our family
(vedle
- naší rodiny in genitive)

Is rodiny in naší rodiny singular or plural?

Here rodiny is singular, not plural.

The noun rodina (family) declines like this (singular only):

Nominative: rodina – (who/what?) family
Genitive: rodiny – (of whom/what?) of the family
Dative: rodině
Accusative: rodinu
Locative: rodině
Instrumental: rodinou

So in vedle naší rodiny, it’s genitive singular: next to our family.
The fact that the ending is -y does not automatically mean plural in Czech; it depends on the case pattern.

Why is it naší rodiny and not naše rodina?

Because the preposition vedle requires the genitive case.

naše rodina – nominative (subject form), our family
naší rodiny – genitive, of our family / our family’s

Compare:

Naše rodina bydlí tady. – Our family lives here. (subject → nominative)
Můj soused bydlí vedle naší rodiny. – My neighbor lives next to our family.
(after vedle → genitive)

The possessive also changes:

Nominative fem. sg: naše rodina
Genitive fem. sg: naší rodiny

So vedle naší rodiny is the correct form after vedle.

Is vedle naší rodiny the most natural way to say “next to us”? Could I say vedle nás?

You can say vedle naší rodiny, and it’s grammatically correct. It sounds a bit like “next to our family (as a unit)”, e.g. in a description of several families living on the street.

In everyday speech, if you simply mean “our neighbor next door”, people very often say:

Můj soused bydlí vedle nás. – My neighbor lives next to us.

Here:

vedle still takes genitive
nás is genitive of my (we)

Both are correct, but:

vedle nás is shorter and feels more idiomatic in conversation.
vedle naší rodiny sounds slightly more formal or descriptive, emphasizing “our family” as a group.

Should there be a comma before a in …mladý učitel a bydlí vedle naší rodiny?

No comma is needed here in standard Czech.

Rule of thumb: you don’t put a comma before a, i, ani, nebo when they link two verbs sharing the same subject in one sentence:

Můj soused je mladý učitel a bydlí vedle naší rodiny.
– Subject můj soused applies to je and bydlí, so no comma.

You do use a comma if the clauses have separate subjects:

Můj soused je mladý učitel, a jeho bratr je lékař.
– My neighbor is a young teacher, and his brother is a doctor.
(Two subjects: můj soused and jeho bratr → comma)

How would the sentence change if the neighbor were a woman?

You’d need to change the words to their feminine forms so everything agrees in gender:

Moje sousedka je mladá učitelka a bydlí vedle naší rodiny.

Changes:

můj soused → moje sousedka
- masculine → feminine
mladý učitel → mladá učitelka
- masculine adjective & noun → feminine adjective & noun
bydlí vedle naší rodiny stays the same, because rodina (family) is still feminine and not affected by who the neighbor is.

So you adjust the parts that refer to the neighbor, but naší rodiny remains unchanged.