Learn Hardcore Czech: Naše sousedka je mladá doktorka a má malého psa. - Our female neighbor is a young lady doctor and has a small dog.

sousedka (neighbor, female) is feminine singular.
The feminine singular form of our in the nominative case is naše.
Náš is masculine singular (for masculine animate or inanimate nouns), e.g. náš soused (our [male] neighbor).

So:

Naše sousedka = our (female) neighbor
Náš soused = our (male) neighbor

What’s the difference between soused and sousedka?

Both come from the same root soused (neighbor):

soused = neighbor (male)
sousedka = neighbor (female)

The ending -ka is a common way to form a feminine noun from a masculine one in Czech, especially for people:

učitel → učitelka (teacher m → f)
student → studentka (student m → f)

So sousedka tells you explicitly that the neighbor is a woman.

Why is there no word for a in mladá doktorka (“a young doctor”)?

Czech has no articles at all—no a/an and no the.

Whether English would use a or the is understood from context, not from a separate word. So:

mladá doktorka can mean:
- a young doctor
- the young doctor
- our young doctor (if context makes it clear you’re talking about someone known)

The sentence relies on context, not on an article word.

Why is it mladá doktorka and not mladý doktorka?

Both the adjective mladá (young) and the noun doktorka (female doctor) are:

feminine
singular
in the nominative case (the basic dictionary form, used for the subject)

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

mladá doktorka: feminine singular nominative (correct)
mladý doktor: masculine singular nominative

So:

mladá doktorka = young (female) doctor
mladý doktor = young (male) doctor

Why is it doktorka and not doktor in this sentence?

The word doktorka is the feminine form of doktor:

doktor = doctor (male)
doktorka = doctor (female)

Because sousedka is clearly female, the profession also takes the feminine form:
Naše sousedka je mladá doktorka… → Our neighbor is a young (female) doctor.

Is doktorka informal or disrespectful compared to doktor or lékařka?

In everyday Czech:

doktorka is normal and neutral for a female medical doctor, especially in speech.
doktor can be:
- a male medical doctor
- someone with a doctoral degree (PhD, etc.)
lékař / lékařka is a more formal and specifically medical word (used in official contexts, hospital signs, documents).

In this casual sentence about a neighbor, doktorka is perfectly natural and not rude.

Why do we say je mladá doktorka and not include a separate word for “she”?

Czech is a pro-drop language, which means subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.) are often omitted when they’re clear from context and from the verb form.

je = is
The subject “she” is understood from:
- previous noun Naše sousedka (our neighbor, female)
- context of the sentence

You could say Ona je mladá doktorka, but that usually sounds like you’re emphasizing she (e.g. She is a young doctor, not someone else). The neutral, normal version is without ona.

What does má mean here, and how is it related to mít?

mít is the infinitive: to have
má is the 3rd person singular present tense: he/she/it has

So má malého psa means (she) has a small dog.

The subject is still Naše sousedka (our neighbor), even though it is not repeated:

Naše sousedka je mladá doktorka a má malého psa.
→ Our neighbor is a young doctor and (she) has a small dog.

Why is it malého psa and not malý pes?

This is about case and animacy.

malý pes = small dog in the nominative case (used for the subject)
In the sentence, the dog is the object of má (has), so it must be in the accusative case (object).

For masculine animate nouns (like pes, dog), the accusative singular looks like the genitive:

Nominative: malý pes (a small dog) – subject
Accusative: malého psa (a small dog) – object

So:

Pes štěká. = The dog barks. (subject → pes)
Má psa. = (She) has a dog. (object → psa)
Má malého psa. = (She) has a small dog. (adjective follows the same pattern: malý → malého).

Is pes always masculine animate? How can I tell?

Yes, pes (dog) is masculine animate in Czech.

Clues:

The basic form ends in a consonant → often masculine.
It refers to a living male being (or at least counted as animate grammatically).

Many animals are grammatically animate masculine, especially common pets and higher animals:

kocour (tomcat), kůň (horse), medvěd (bear) etc.

Because pes is masculine animate:

Nominative: ten pes (that dog)
Accusative: toho psa / malého psa (that/small dog – as an object)

What does the a in the middle mean, and could it be i instead?

Here, a is the normal conjunction meaning and:

…je mladá doktorka a má malého psa.
→ …is a young doctor and has a small dog.

You could use i in some contexts to mean also / as well as, but a is the default neutral and linking two separate statements.

a = and (neutral connector)
i = and/also (often adds a nuance of “as well”, “even”)

In this simple description, a is the natural choice.

Could I swap the clauses and say Má malého psa a je mladá doktorka?

Yes, grammatically that is fine:

Naše sousedka má malého psa a je mladá doktorka.

Both orders are possible. The difference is mostly in information flow / emphasis:

Original: je mladá doktorka a má malého psa
→ first you describe who she is (a young doctor), then add what she has.
Swapped: má malého psa a je mladá doktorka
→ starts with what she has (a small dog), then says what she is.

In everyday conversation, both are acceptable; you just choose what you want to highlight first.

How would the sentence change if the neighbor were male?

You would change the possessive, the noun for neighbor, and the adjective/profession to masculine forms:

Náš soused je mladý doktor a má malého psa.

Changes:

Naše → Náš (our, masculine singular)
sousedka → soused (female neighbor → male neighbor)
mladá doktorka → mladý doktor (young female doctor → young male doctor)
malého psa stays the same, because pes is still masculine animate as the object.

How do I pronounce Naše sousedka je mladá doktorka a má malého psa? What do the accents mean?

Key pronunciation points:

š = like sh in “shoe” → Naše = NA-she
ou = like “oh” (as in go) → sousedka ≈ SOU-sed-ka
á = long aa sound; the accent (čárka) marks length, not stress:
- mladá ≈ MLA-daah
- má ≈ maa
e / o / a without an accent are short vowels.
Stress in Czech is almost always on the first syllable of each word:
- NÁ-še SOU-sed-ka JE MLA-dá DOK-tor-ka A MÁ MA-lé-ho PSA

So the accents (á) tell you to hold the vowel longer, but the stress is still at the beginning of each word.