Learn Hardcore Czech: V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji. - On Saturday and Sunday I want to be with my family, because I work all week.

V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji.

On Saturday and Sunday I want to be with my family, because I work all week.

Breakdown of V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji.

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Questions & Answers about V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji.

Why is it v sobotu a v neděli and not o sobotě a o neděli or something with a different preposition?

For days of the week in the sense of “on Saturday / on Sunday”, Czech normally uses v + day (accusative):

v sobotu – on Saturday
v neděli – on Sunday
v pondělí – on Monday
v úterý – on Tuesday, etc.

The preposition o is also possible with some time expressions, but:

o víkendu – on/at the weekend
o Vánocích – at Christmas

For a normal “on + day of the week”, v is the standard choice. So v sobotu a v neděli is the natural phrasing.

Could I say v sobotu a neděli (with v only once), or do I need v before both days?

Both are possible and correct:

V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou.
V sobotu a neděli chci být s rodinou.

Repeating v is a bit clearer and slightly more careful/neutral. Dropping the second v is very common in speech. Learners are usually safer and more clear if they keep v before both nouns, but you will hear both versions.

Why is it v sobotu and v neděli, not v sobota and v neděle?

Sobota and neděle are declined nouns, and here they are in the accusative singular, used for time expressions with v:

sobota (Saturday)
- nominative: sobota
- accusative: sobotu → v sobotu (on Saturday)
neděle (Sunday)
- nominative: neděle
- accusative: neděli → v neděli (on Sunday)

So the pattern is:

v + accusative for “on [a specific day]”

You cannot use the nominative (sobota, neděle) after v; that would be ungrammatical here.

Why are sobotu and neděli not capitalized like Saturday, Sunday in English?

In Czech, days of the week are written with a small letter, unless they start a sentence or are part of a proper name:

pondělí, úterý, středa, čtvrtek, pátek, sobota, neděle

So:

v sobotu a v neděli = on Saturday and Sunday

Czech does not capitalize days of the week the way English does.

Why is it s rodinou and not se rodinou?

The preposition s (“with”) has two spoken forms:

s – used before most words
se – used before words starting with some consonant clusters or s / z, mainly to make pronunciation smoother

Examples:

s maminkou (with mum)
se sestrou (with [my] sister – s sestrou is hard to say, so we use se)

Rodina starts with a simple consonant r, so there is no problem pronouncing s rodinou.
That’s why we say s rodinou, not se rodinou.

Why is it s rodinou and not something like s rodinu?

The preposition s (“with”) requires the instrumental case in Czech.

rodina (family)
- nominative: rodina
- accusative: rodinu
- instrumental: rodinou

After s (with), you must use the instrumental form:

s kým? s čím? – with whom? with what?
s rodinou – with (my/the) family

So s rodinu is grammatically wrong. It has to be s rodinou.

Why is there no word for “my” in s rodinou? Shouldn’t it be s mojí rodinou?

Czech often omits possessive pronouns like můj / moje (“my”) when the meaning is clear from context, especially with:

family members: máma, táta, manžel, manželka, děti, rodina
body parts: ruka, hlava, noha, etc.

So s rodinou is naturally understood as “with my family” if you are talking about yourself.

You can say s mojí rodinou to emphasize my (for example, to contrast with someone else’s family), but in a neutral sentence like this it sounds a bit heavier and less idiomatic than just s rodinou.

Why is it celý týden, not celou týden?

This is about gender agreement.

týden (week) is masculine inanimate.
- nominative: týden
- accusative: týden

The adjective celý (“whole, entire”) must match the noun in gender, number, and case.

For masculine inanimate singular accusative, the correct form is:

celý týden

Celou is feminine accusative (e.g. celou hodinu – the whole hour), so celou týden would be incorrect. You must say celý týden.

Could I use a different word order, like Protože celý týden pracuji, chci být s rodinou? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, that word order is also correct:

V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji.
Protože celý týden pracuji, chci být v sobotu a v neděli s rodinou.

Both mean the same, but the focus shifts:

Original version ends with pracuji, slightly emphasizing the fact that you work all week as the reason.
Starting with Protože celý týden pracuji… emphasizes the cause first, then the result (chci být s rodinou).

Inside the clause protože celý týden pracuji, you can also say:

protože pracuji celý týden

Both are fine; celý týden can go before or after pracuji; Czech word order is fairly flexible, with nuances of emphasis rather than big meaning changes here.

Why is the verb pracuji in the present tense, if we are talking about something that is generally true (“I work all week”) rather than just right now?

In Czech, the present tense is used for:

Actions happening right now
Habits and general routines (like English present simple)
Planned future actions with some verbs (e.g. zítra pracuji – I’m working tomorrow)

Here, celý týden pracuji means “I work (every) whole week / all week (as my usual routine)”. It is a habitual or regular situation, so the present tense pracuji is correct and completely natural.

You could also say:

Protože celý týden pracuji – because I (normally) work all week.
Protože budu celý týden pracovat – because I will be working all week (this week in particular, more future-specific).

What is the difference between pracuji and pracuju?

Both mean “I work” and are 1st person singular present of pracovat.

pracuji – more formal / standard, typical for writing, careful speech, news, etc.
pracuju – more colloquial / everyday, very common in spoken Czech.

In daily conversation, you will hear pracuju more often. In textbooks and written Czech, pracuji is very common.

In this sentence, either:

… protože celý týden pracuji.
… protože celý týden pracuju.

Both are correct; choose based on how formal you want to sound.

Could I say o víkendu chci být s rodinou instead of v sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou?

Yes, you can.

V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou.
– Literally: On Saturday and Sunday I want to be with (my) family.
O víkendu chci být s rodinou.
– On/at the weekend I want to be with (my) family.

O víkendu is a bit more general (the whole weekend). V sobotu a v neděli explicitly lists the two days. In everyday speech, o víkendu is very common and sounds natural here.

Both sentences are correct and mean almost the same thing in practice.

Why is there a comma before protože?

Protože (“because”) introduces a subordinate clause explaining the reason. In Czech, subordinate clauses are normally separated by a comma.

So we have:

Main clause: V sobotu a v neděli chci být s rodinou
Subordinate clause: protože celý týden pracuji

The rule is: before a conjunction like protože, když, že, aby, jestli, pokud etc., which starts a subordinate clause, you normally put a comma.

Therefore the comma in:

… chci být s rodinou, protože celý týden pracuji.

is required.