Learn Hardcore Czech: Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.

rád + verb
- Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.
  → I like to have a warm tea after work. / I enjoy having a warm tea after work.
Here rád functions like “gladly / with pleasure / I enjoy” and it modifies the verb dávám.
mít rád + noun (or sometimes infinitive)
- Mám rád teplý čaj. – I like warm tea. (the tea itself)
- Mám rád pít čaj. – I like drinking tea. (less common, but possible)

In your sentence, you’re talking about enjoying the activity (having tea after work), so rád + verb is the natural pattern.

If you said:

Po práci si dávám teplý čaj.

this would simply state a habit, without saying whether you like it.
Adding rád explicitly says you enjoy doing it.

Why is it “dávám” and not “dám”? What’s the difference?

Czech verbs come in aspects: imperfective vs perfective.

dávat (si) – imperfective → ongoing, repeated, habitual actions
dát (si) – perfective → one completed action, a single event

In your sentence:

Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.
→ Present tense of dávat si (imperfective) expresses a habit or regular action:
I (generally) like to have a warm tea after work.

If you use dát si:

Po práci si dám teplý čaj.
→ I’ll have a warm tea after work (this time / on this occasion).

So:

dávám si = I (usually / regularly) have
dám si = I will have (once) / I’ll take (one time decision)

What case is “práci” in, and why does it have that ending?

Práci is in the locative singular of the noun práce (work).

Nominative: práce – work
Locative: (o) práci, po práci – about work, after work

The preposition po can govern the locative when it means “after (in time)”:

po práci – after work
po obědě – after lunch
po škole – after school

So práci is locative because the preposition po in the temporal sense requires the locative case: po + locative → “after X” (in time).

Can I change the word order, like “Rád si po práci dávám teplý čaj”? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, Czech word order is quite flexible. These are all possible:

Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.
Po práci rád si dávám teplý čaj. (less natural; clitic issue, see below)
Rád si po práci dávám teplý čaj.
Rád si dávám po práci teplý čaj.

The basic meaning stays the same: you enjoy having warm tea after work.

Two important points:

Clitics (short unstressed words) like “si, se, mi, ti”
They tend to stand in the second position in the clause.
- Po práci si rád dávám… – Po práci counts as the first unit; si nicely comes second.
- Rád si po práci dávám… – Rád is first; si is in the second position. Also fine.
Emphasis
Moving words in Czech often slightly changes what is emphasized, but here the difference is subtle.
- Starting with Rád slightly emphasizes the liking:
  I particularly enjoy having a warm tea after work.

In everyday speech, Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj and Rád si po práci dávám teplý čaj both sound normal and natural.

How would the sentence change if a woman is speaking instead of a man?

The word rád agrees with the gender and number of the subject.

For a man (singular):

Jsem rád. – I am glad.
Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.

For a woman (singular):

Jsem ráda. – I am glad.
Po práci si ráda dávám teplý čaj. – A woman would normally say this.

For plural subjects:

Mixed group or only men: rádi
- Po práci si rádi dáváme teplý čaj. – We (men / mixed group) like to have warm tea after work.
Group of only women: rády
- Po práci si rády dáváme teplý čaj. – We (women) like to have warm tea after work.

So a woman would say: Po práci si ráda dávám teplý čaj.

What’s the difference between “teplý čaj” and “horký čaj”?

Both describe temperature, but the nuance is:

teplý čaj
- Literally: warm tea
- Usually means pleasantly warm, drinkable, sometimes even just warm, not very hot.
horký čaj
- Literally: hot tea
- Clearly hot, often freshly made, you might have to blow on it or wait for it to cool.

In everyday speech:

If you say teplý čaj, people imagine warm, not too hot.
If you say horký čaj, they imagine really hot tea.

So your sentence suggests you like a warm tea after work, not necessarily burning hot.

Could I say “Po práci piju teplý čaj” instead? Is that the same?

You can say it, but there’s a nuance difference.

Po práci piju teplý čaj.
→ Literally: After work I drink warm tea.
This focuses on the drinking itself as a fact or habit.
Po práci si (rád) dávám teplý čaj.
→ After work I (like to) have a warm tea.
This is the most natural way to talk about having a drink or treating yourself to it, especially in the sense of a small ritual or pleasure.

Other possible variants:

Po práci piju čaj. – After work I drink tea. (more neutral)
Po práci si dám čaj. – I’ll have a tea after work (one time / future, perfective dám).

So piju is fine, but dávat si / dát si is the idiomatic pattern for “have a drink/meal” in Czech.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” in “teplý čaj”?

Czech does not have articles like English a/an or the.

So teplý čaj can mean:

a warm tea
the warm tea
sometimes just warm tea (in general)

The exact English translation depends on context, not on any specific word in Czech. In your sentence:

Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj.
→ Most natural English: I like to have *a warm tea after work.*
(But “a nice warm tea” or “some warm tea” could also be correct in context.)

The important point: Czech nouns normally appear without articles, and definiteness is inferred from context.

What is a literal, word‑for‑word breakdown of “Po práci si rád dávám teplý čaj”?

Roughly:

Po – after
práci – work (locative: “after work”)
si – to myself / for myself (reflexive dative)
rád – gladly, with pleasure, (I) like to
dávám – I give / I am giving (here: I regularly “give myself” = I have)
teplý – warm
čaj – tea

So a very literal version would be:

After work, to myself gladly I give warm tea.

Idiomatic English:

After work, I like to have a warm tea.