Questions & Answers about Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
The sentence Nevím, kde je moje peněženka. literally breaks down as:
- nevím – I don’t know
- from vědět = to know (a fact)
- vím = I know, ne‑ makes it negative → I don’t know
- kde – where (used both in direct questions and in indirect questions like this)
- je – is
- 3rd person singular of být = to be
- moje – my
- possessive pronoun, agreeing with a feminine singular noun
- peněženka – wallet, purse (feminine noun)
So structurally it’s: I-don’t-know, where is my wallet.
In Czech, you almost always put a comma between:
- a main clause and
- a subordinate clause introduced by words like kde, kdy, že, protože, etc.
Here:
- Main clause: Nevím (I don’t know)
- Subordinate clause: kde je moje peněženka (where my wallet is)
Because kde introduces a subordinate clause, you mark the boundary with a comma:
Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
Leaving the comma out is common in casual text messages, but it’s considered a mistake in standard written Czech.
Because this is not a direct question; it’s an indirect question embedded inside a statement.
Direct question: Kde je moje peněženka? – Where is my wallet?
→ needs a question mark.Indirect question: Nevím, kde je moje peněženka. – I don’t know where my wallet is.
→ the whole sentence is a statement about what you know, so it ends with a period, not a question mark.
Czech works here exactly like English:
I don’t know where my wallet is. (period, not a question mark)
No, that would be wrong. In Czech:
vědět = to know a fact, information
- vím / nevím = I know / I don’t know (a fact)
- used with kde, kdy, že, etc. → Nevím, kde…
znát = to know, be familiar with (a person, a place, something you “know of”)
- Znám tu restauraci. – I know that restaurant.
- Znám ho. – I know him.
Here you’re talking about information (where the wallet is), so you must use vědět → Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
The neutral, most common order in both direct and indirect questions is:
kde + verb + subject (+ rest)
Kde je moje peněženka?
Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
Kde moje peněženka je is grammatically possible but:
- sounds more emphatic or stylistically marked, and
- is not the normal, neutral order you learn first.
So for everyday Czech, stick with kde je moje peněženka.
Peněženka is in the nominative singular (the dictionary form) because, inside the clause kde je moje peněženka:
- peněženka is the subject of the verb je (is).
- The subject in Czech is normally in the nominative case.
The structure is just like:
- Moje peněženka je tady. – My wallet is here.
→ peněženka is subject → nominative.
You’d use peněženku (accusative) only if wallet were a direct object, e.g.:
- Vidím peněženku. – I see a wallet.
The possessive pronoun has to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies.
- peněženka is feminine singular.
- The matching form of můj (my) for feminine singular nominative is moje.
Basic pattern for můj (my) in the nominative singular:
- můj – with masculine animate/inanimate nouns
- můj bratr – my brother
- můj dům – my house
- moje – with feminine nouns
- moje peněženka – my wallet
- moje sestra – my sister
- moje – also used with plural of all genders
- moje knihy – my books
So můj peněženka is a gender mismatch and therefore incorrect.
Both má peněženka and moje peněženka can mean my wallet, but:
- moje is the normal, neutral, everyday form.
- má is a shorter, more formal or literary variant.
In modern spoken Czech you will overwhelmingly hear moje peněženka.
má peněženka sounds more bookish or stylistically elevated, though it’s common in written language (literature, some journalism, etc.).
In your sentence, the most natural choice is:
Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
No; that’s ungrammatical for two reasons.
The correct reflexive form for a feminine nominative singular noun is svá, not svoje (svoje is accusative or another case). So svoje peněženka is wrong in case/gender agreement.
More importantly, you don’t use the reflexive possessive here at all.
Rule of thumb:
- Use svůj / svoje when the possessor is the same as the subject of that clause.
In kde je moje peněženka:
- Subject of the clause = peněženka (the wallet).
- Possessor = já (I).
- Subject ≠ possessor, so svůj / svoje is not used.
Therefore:
- Correct: Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
- Also fine (different structure): Nevím, kde mám svou peněženku.
- Here the subject is já (I), possessor is also já, so svou is correct.
Both can be translated as I don’t know where my wallet is, but there’s a nuance:
Nevím, kde je moje peněženka.
- More literally: I don’t know where my wallet is.
- Neutral, focusing on the location of the wallet.
Nevím, kde mám peněženku.
- Literally: I don’t know where I have (my) wallet.
- Also very common and natural; slightly stronger feeling of where I’ve put it / where I’m keeping it (it suggests you normally “have” it on you).
In everyday conversation, both are perfectly fine and often interchangeable.
No, you need the verb je (is). Czech still requires a finite verb in that subordinate clause.
- Nevím, kde je moje peněženka. – correct
- Nevím, kde moje peněženka. – incorrect (missing je)
This is similar to English:
You can’t say I don’t know where my wallet; you must say where my wallet is.
Peněženka is pronounced approximately:
- [pe-ɲe-ʒen-ka]
Key points:
- e – like e in pet (short)
- ě after n → palatalizes n to ň (like Spanish ñ) and is pronounced roughly ňe
- So ně sounds like nye (but shorter and not as diphthongy as in English)
- ž – like s in measure or vision
- Stress in Czech is almost always on the first syllable: PE‑ně‑žen‑ka
So you can think of it as: PE-nye-zhen-ka (with the stress on PE).