Learn Hardcore Czech: Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu a večeře je dlouhá. - On Thursday and Friday the whole family usually sits at the table and dinner is long.

Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu a večeře je dlouhá.

On Thursday and Friday the whole family usually sits at the table and dinner is long.

Breakdown of Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu a večeře je dlouhá.

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Questions & Answers about Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu a večeře je dlouhá.

Why do we say ve čtvrtek but v pátek? When do we use v vs ve?

Czech has two forms of the preposition: v and ve. They mean the same thing; ve is just used to make pronunciation easier.

You normally use ve when v + the next word would create a hard-to-pronounce consonant cluster, especially before words starting with:

v, f (e.g. ve Vídni, ve Francii)
certain consonant clusters like stř, št, čt, šk (e.g. ve středu, ve škole, ve čtvrtek)

Saying v čtvrtek would give you a very awkward včt cluster, so Czechs say ve čtvrtek.

With pátek, there is no such problem, so the basic form v pátek is fine. You would not normally say ve pátek.

What case are čtvrtek and pátek in here, and why?

In ve čtvrtek and v pátek, the days are in the accusative singular.

For days of the week, Czech normally uses v/ve + accusative to answer Kdy? (When?):

v pondělí
v úterý
ve středu
ve čtvrtek
v pátek
v sobotu
v neděli

For example, čtvrtek declines (simplified):

nominative: čtvrtek
accusative: čtvrtek
locative: čtvrtku

We say ve čtvrtek, not ve čtvrtku, so this is the accusative form used for a point in time (“on Thursday”).

Does ve čtvrtek a v pátek mean on those specific days once, or habitually every Thursday and Friday?

By itself, ve čtvrtek a v pátek can mean either:

one specific Thursday and Friday (e.g. this week), or
a regular pattern (“on Thursdays and Fridays in general”).

Here, it’s followed by obvykle (usually), which clearly gives it a habitual meaning:

Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle…
On Thursdays and Fridays we usually…

If you really needed to stress “every week”, you could also say:

Každý čtvrtek a pátek… – every Thursday and Friday
Ve čtvrtky a pátky… – on Thursdays and Fridays (plural; less common in everyday speech, but possible).

Could I move obvykle to another position, like Obvykle ve čtvrtek a v pátek…? How flexible is its placement?

Yes, obvykle is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically fine; the difference is mainly in emphasis:

Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme…
Neutral: “On Thursdays and Fridays we usually sit…”
Obvykle ve čtvrtek a v pátek sedíme…
Emphasises that this is our usual schedule on those days.
Ve čtvrtek a v pátek sedíme obvykle celá rodina u stolu…
Slightly highlights sedíme (the activity) as something usual.

General rule: adverbs like obvykle, často, někdy can go before or after the subject or before the verb. Czech word order is flexible; changing the position tweaks what feels highlighted, but doesn’t change the basic meaning here.

Why is the verb sedíme (we sit) but the noun rodina (family) is singular? Shouldn’t it be sedí?

In this sentence, the real subject is the implied pronoun my (we), which is encoded in the verb ending -me:

(My) sedíme… – We sit…

The phrase celá rodina is in the nominative and functions as an apposition / complement to my:

(My,) celá rodina, sedíme u stolu.
“We, the whole family, sit at the table.”

So the verb agrees with we, not with rodina.

If you wanted rodina to be the grammatical subject, you would change the verb:

Celá rodina sedí u stolu. – The whole family sits at the table.

Both are correct, but they express the perspective differently:

sedíme celá rodina – spoken from inside the family (“we all together”).
celá rodina sedí – spoken from outside (“the whole family sits”).

Why is it sedíme celá rodina and not sedíme celou rodinu?

Because sedět (to sit) is intransitive – it does not take a direct object. So the noun after it cannot be in the accusative as an object.

celá rodina here is in nominative, describing who we are as we sit:
- (My) sedíme celá rodina u stolu.
  “We sit, (being) the whole family, at the table.”

If you said sedíme celou rodinu, that would make celou rodinu accusative, suggesting a direct object of to sit someone, which doesn’t make sense in Czech.

So:

celá rodina = nominative, complement to my
celou rodinu = accusative object (wrong here, because sedět doesn’t take such an object)

What exactly does celá rodina express here? Is it the subject?

Functionally, celá rodina answers “who all is included in that we?” It’s:

in the nominative, and
in apposition / as a predicative complement to the implied my.

A fuller version would be:

(My,) celá rodina, obvykle sedíme u stolu.

So:

Subject: (my) – we
Complement describing the subject: celá rodina – the whole family

It emphasizes that everyone in the family participates, not just some members.

Compare:

Obvykle sedíme u stolu. – We usually sit at the table.
Obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu. – We usually sit at the table as a whole family.

Why is it u stolu and not na stole or something else? What does u mean with places like this?

The preposition u basically means “by / next to / at (near something)”.

u stolu = at the table, beside the table (typically sitting around it)
na stole = on the table (physically on its surface)

So:

sedíme u stolu – natural for people sitting at the table.
talíře jsou na stole – “the plates are on the table.”

You could also hear při stole in some styles, meaning roughly “at the table”, but u stolu is the most common everyday way to express “sitting at the table” when eating, talking, etc.

What case is stolu, and how does u affect it?

Stolu is genitive singular of stůl (table).

The preposition u always governs the genitive:

u stolu – by / at the table
u okna – by the window
u babičky – at Grandma’s (place)
u lékaře – at the doctor’s

The declension of stůl (simplified):

nominative: stůl
genitive: stolu
dative: stolu
accusative: stůl
locative: stole
instrumental: stolem

So u stolu is u + genitive “by the table”.

What gender is večeře, and why is the adjective dlouhá in that form?

Večeře (dinner) is feminine.

It belongs to the declension type like růže (a rose). In the nominative singular it ends in -e, but it’s still feminine:

ta večeře – the dinner (feminine)
dlouhá večeře – a long dinner

In the sentence, večeře is the subject of je dlouhá, so the adjective dlouhá must agree with it in:

gender: feminine
number: singular
case: nominative

That’s why we have dlouhá (fem. sg. nom.), not dlouhý (masc.) or dlouhé (neuter/other).

Could we also say večeře trvá dlouho instead of večeře je dlouhá? Is there any difference?

Yes, both are correct, but there is a small nuance:

Večeře je dlouhá.
Literally: “Dinner is long.”
Treats “long” as a property of the dinner.
Večeře trvá dlouho.
Literally: “Dinner lasts a long time.”
Focuses more explicitly on duration as an event.

In everyday speech, they’re very close in meaning. Večeře trvá dlouho makes the idea of time passing a bit more explicit, but both describe a dinner that takes a long time.

Why is there no comma before a večeře je dlouhá?

In Czech, you typically do not put a comma before a when it simply joins two clauses in a straightforward way.

Here we have two main clauses:

Ve čtvrtek a v pátek obvykle sedíme celá rodina u stolu
večeře je dlouhá

They are joined by a to form a smooth sequence:

…u stolu a večeře je dlouhá.

Because a here just links two related statements (no strong contrast, no special pause intended), the standard rule is: no comma.

You could add a comma (…u stolu, a večeře je dlouhá) for a special stylistic pause, but in normal, neutral writing the version without a comma is the norm.