Breakdown of Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dnes s námi na procházku.
Questions & Answers about Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dnes s námi na procházku.
Kdyby introduces a hypothetical or unreal condition, similar to English “if (she) were …, (she) would …”.
- Kdyby = if (but specifically for unreal / hypothetical “would” situations)
- Kdy on its own usually means “when” (time question word).
- Jestli means “if” but is normally used for real or possible conditions, like:
- Jestli přijde, půjdeme ven. = If he comes, we’ll go out.
In your sentence:
Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dnes s námi na procházku.
If my grandmother weren’t ill, she would go for a walk with us today.
this is clearly a situation that is not true (she is ill), so Czech uses kdyby, not jestli.
This is one of the trickier things for English speakers.
- Není = is not (present tense, indicative)
- Ne byla (here as one word nebyla) is the past tense form of být (to be), feminine: she was not
- But with kdyby, this past form is used to build a present unreal conditional, just like English uses past forms in If she were not ill, she would go…
So:
- Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná…
literally: If my grandmother was not ill…
meaning: If my grandmother *weren’t ill…*
You might expect something like nebyla by, but in Czech the conditional particle -by is already attached to kdy in kdyby, so you don’t add another by to nebyla here.
Structure:
- kdy
- by → kdyby (conditional “if”)
- nebyla (past form of být, feminine)
Together they create that unreal “If she weren’t…” meaning.
The particle by marks the conditional mood (“would”).
- šla = she went (past tense of jít, feminine singular)
- šla by = she would go
So by turns a past form into a conditional:
- šla – she went
- šla by – she would go
- udělala – she did/made
- udělala by – she would do/make
Placement:
- by is a clitic – it likes to be in the second position in the clause. In short sentences it usually comes right after the first stressed word, but in simple learners’ sentences, you mostly just learn it directly after the verb like here: šla by.
- Other correct options (showing second‑position behavior) include:
- Dnes by šla s námi na procházku.
- S námi by dnes šla na procházku.
For now, for clarity, verb + by (like šla by) is a safe pattern to remember.
Czech past forms agree with the gender and number of the subject.
- babička (grandmother) is grammatically feminine singular.
- Therefore the past (and conditional) form of jít must be šla (feminine singular), not šel (masculine singular).
Examples:
- Maminka šla domů. – Mother went home. (fem. sg.)
- Táta šel domů. – Dad went home. (masc. sg.)
- Děti šly domů. – The children went home. (plural; here grammatically feminine or generic plural)
If the subject were a grandfather (dědeček), the sentence would be:
Kdyby můj dědeček nebyl nemocný, šel by dnes s námi na procházku.
(If my grandfather weren’t ill, he would go for a walk with us today.)
Note: nemocný (masc.) instead of nemocná (fem.), and šel instead of šla.
After the preposition s (with), Czech uses the instrumental case.
The personal pronouns change their form depending on case. For “we / us”:
- Nominative (subject): my – we
- Instrumental (after s): s námi – with us
So:
- s námi = with us
- s tebou = with you (informal singular)
- s ním = with him/it
- s ní = with her/it
Using s my would be wrong because my is the nominative, not instrumental.
The preposition na can take different cases depending on whether you are talking about:
- movement towards a place / activity → accusative
- location at / on a place → locative
In your sentence, your grandmother would go (movement) for a walk, so Czech uses na + accusative:
- na procházku (accusative) = for a walk (literally: onto a walk)
If you were just describing being on a walk (location), you’d use na + locative:
- na procházce (locative) = on a walk / while on a walk
Compare:
- Jdu na procházku. – I’m going for a walk. (movement, accusative)
- Jsem na procházce. – I’m (out) on a walk. (location, locative)
The word order in Czech is fairly flexible, especially for adverbs like dnes (today) and phrases like s námi (with us).
Your sentence:
Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dnes s námi na procházku.
Possible variations (all grammatical, slightly different emphasis):
- Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, dnes by šla s námi na procházku.
- Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by s námi dnes na procházku.
- Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by na procházku dnes s námi.
You can also put the conditional clause second:
- Šla by dnes s námi na procházku, kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná.
Nuances are mostly about emphasis and information structure (what is new vs. known), not about changing the basic meaning. For a learner, your original word order is very natural and clear.
Czech distinguishes single / one‑time actions vs. repeated / habitual actions with different verb stems:
- jít / jít si → one specific movement, one time (to go (once))
- past: šel / šla / šlo / šli / šly
- conditional: šel by / šla by…
- chodit → repeated, habitual or unspecified repeated movement (to go (regularly))
- past: chodil / chodila…
- conditional: chodil by / chodila by…
In your sentence, she would go this one time today, so šla by (from jít) is the natural choice.
If you said:
Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, chodila by s námi na procházky.
that would mean:
If my grandmother weren’t ill, she *would go (regularly) for walks with us.*
So šla by = one specific walk today,
chodila by = a general habit of walking with us.
Yes, you can say just babička, and it will often still be understood as “my grandmother” from context, especially in conversation within a family:
- Kdyby babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dnes s námi na procházku.
The possessive pronoun moje makes it explicit that you mean my grandmother. In many everyday contexts, people skip moje when it’s obvious whose grandmother it is. Both versions are grammatically fine.
Note also:
- moje babička – my grandmother (feminine)
- můj dědeček – my grandfather (masculine)
The adjective nemocný / nemocná (ill, sick) agrees with the noun’s gender and number:
- babička is feminine singular.
- Therefore the predicate adjective must also be feminine singular: nemocná.
Examples:
- Babička je nemocná. – Grandma is ill. (fem. sg.)
- Dědeček je nemocný. – Grandpa is ill. (masc. sg.)
- Děti jsou nemocné. – The children are ill. (plural; form depends on gender mix)
So in the sentence:
Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná…
both babička and nemocná are feminine singular, and nebyla is also in the feminine singular past form, all matching each other.
Not naturally, no.
- Kdyby is used for unreal, hypothetical conditions – situations that are contrary to fact.
- Jestli / pokud introduce real or possible conditions.
Your sentence describes something that is clearly not true right now (the grandmother is ill), so Czech prefers kdyby.
Using jestli here:
Jestli moje babička není nemocná, půjde dnes s námi na procházku.
would mean:
If my grandmother is not ill, she will go for a walk with us today.
This sounds like you don’t know yet if she is ill – it’s a real condition, not a hypothetical one. So it changes the meaning and is not a simple equivalent.
Yes, dneska is a very common colloquial form of dnes (today), especially in speech.
Your sentence in a very natural spoken style could be:
Kdyby moje babička nebyla nemocná, šla by dneska s námi na procházku.
- dnes – a bit more neutral/formal
- dneska – very common in everyday speech, slightly more colloquial
Both are correct; it’s mainly about style, not grammar.