Learn Hardcore Czech: V neděli plánuji být doma s rodinou. - On Sunday I plan to be at home with my family.

The preposition v (in, on – for time) usually takes the locative case when talking about time.
The base form (nominative) is neděle (Sunday).
The locative singular of neděle is neděli.

So:

Nominative: neděle (Sunday – subject form)
Locative: neděli (after v when talking about time)

Therefore you must say v neděli, not v neděle.

Why is neděli written with a small n? In English we write Sunday with a capital letter.

In Czech, names of days and months are not capitalized, unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence or are part of a proper name.

So you write:

v neděli (on Sunday)
v pondělí (on Monday)
v lednu (in January)

All lowercase. This is normal and correct in Czech.

Could I move v neděli to another position in the sentence? For example: Plánuji být v neděli doma s rodinou?

Yes. Czech word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:

V neděli plánuji být doma s rodinou.
Plánuji být v neděli doma s rodinou.
Plánuji být doma s rodinou v neděli.

The difference is mainly in emphasis:

Starting with V neděli slightly emphasizes the time (on Sunday in particular).
Putting v neděli after the verb or at the end makes the time information feel more neutral or secondary.

All are perfectly natural in everyday speech.

Why is it plánuji and not plánuju? Are both correct?

Both plánuji and plánuju are correct forms of the 1st person singular present of the verb plánovat (to plan).

plánuji – more formal, more common in writing, standard.
plánuju – more colloquial / spoken, very common in everyday conversation.

You can use either, but if you’re writing something formal (email to a stranger, official text), plánuji is safer. In normal speech people very often say plánuju.

Why is the present tense plánuji used for the future? Why not budu plánovat?

Czech often uses the present tense to talk about planned future events, just like English does with “I’m meeting him tomorrow” or “I’m going home on Sunday.”

V neděli plánuji být doma…
= I plan / I’m planning to be at home on Sunday.

If you say budu plánovat, it literally means “I will be planning”, focusing on the activity of planning itself, not on your actual plan. It sounds odd here.

For simple statements about arrangements, Czech normally uses the present:
Zítra jedu do Prahy. (I’m going to Prague tomorrow.)

Why is it být doma and not something like být v domu?

In Czech, doma is an adverb meaning “at home”, not a noun. You don’t need a preposition or a case ending after být:

být doma – to be at home
jsem doma – I’m at home

If you said v domě, that would literally mean “in the house”, more physical and specific:

být v domě – be inside the house (as a building), not outside.

For the general idea of just being at home, you almost always use doma.

Why do we say s rodinou and not s rodina?

The preposition s (with) normally requires the instrumental case.

Base (nominative) form: rodina (family)
Instrumental singular: rodinou

So after s you must use rodinou:

s rodinou – with (my/the) family
s kamarádem – with a (male) friend
s mámou – with (my) mom

s rodina is grammatically wrong; the case must change.

Do I need to say s mojí rodinou or se svou rodinou to mean “with my family”?

You can, but you don’t have to.

Czech often leaves out possessive pronouns (můj, moje, svůj) when the possessor is obvious from context, especially with close family:

Jsem doma s rodinou.
→ In practice, this is usually understood as “I’m at home with my family.”

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

s mojí rodinou / s mou rodinou – with my family
se svou rodinou – with my own family (reflexive, emphasizes that it’s your family, not someone else’s)

In this sentence, s rodinou alone is perfectly natural.

Why is it s rodinou and not se rodinou?

The preposition has two forms: s and se.

s is the basic form.
se is used mainly for easier pronunciation, often before words starting with s-, z-, š-, ž-, or certain consonant clusters (like s sebou, se mnou).

Here, rodinou starts with r, so s rodinou is easy to pronounce and completely standard.
se rodinou is not standard and sounds odd.

Could I say V neděli budu doma s rodinou instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, V neděli budu doma s rodinou is also correct and very natural.

Nuance:

V neděli plánuji být doma s rodinou.
– Emphasizes the plan/decision. You’re talking about your intention.
V neděli budu doma s rodinou.
– Emphasizes the fact that on Sunday you will be at home. It sounds more like a statement of what will happen, rather than explicitly mentioning the “planning” process.

Both are commonly used; choose based on whether you want to highlight the planning or just the future situation.

Why is there no “I” (já) in the Czech sentence?

Czech generally omits subject pronouns (like já, ty, on) when the subject is clear from the verb ending.

plánuji already tells you it’s 1st person singular (“I plan”).
Therefore já is normally not needed:
V neděli plánuji být doma s rodinou.

You can add Já for emphasis or contrast:

Já v neděli plánuji být doma.
– I plan to be at home on Sunday (maybe others don’t).

But in neutral statements, dropping the pronoun is more natural.

How do you pronounce neděli and what is the stress pattern in this sentence?

Pronunciation (approximate):

V neděli plánuji být doma s rodinou.
[v NE-dye-lee PLAH-noo-yi beet DOH-ma s RO-di-noo]

Key points:

Stress in Czech is almost always on the first syllable of each word:
- V NE-dě-li PLÁ-nu-ji BÝT DO-ma S RO-di-nou
ě in neděli sounds like “ye”: dě = “dye”.
á in plánuji is long (hold it slightly longer).
ý in být is also long.
Final -ou in rodinou is like “oh-oo” blended, roughly “roh” with a bit of u at the end.

The rhythm is fairly even; just keep the stress on the first syllable of each word.