Learn Hardcore Czech: Další kolegyně, která nás poslouchá, se jen směje a nic neříká. - Another female colleague who is listening to us just laughs and says nothing.

Další kolegyně, která nás poslouchá, se jen směje a nic neříká.
Another/one more colleague (female), who is listening to us, is just laughing and not saying anything.

Here další kolegyně means another (one) female colleague / one more female colleague, i.e. in addition to someone already mentioned.
It does not mean the next colleague in line (like in a queue); that would need a clear sequential context.

Why is kolegyně in this form? How do I know it’s the subject and not plural?

Kolegyně is a bit tricky because it can look the same in several cases and numbers.

In this sentence, it is:

gender: feminine
number: singular
case: nominative (subject of the sentence)

We know it’s singular nominative because:

It is modified by další, which agrees in singular feminine.
The verb se (jen) směje is 3rd person singular, not plural (plural would be smějí / smějou).
The overall meaning is clearly one colleague, not many.

Plural nominative would also be kolegyně, but then we would expect:

Další kolegyně se jen smějí a nic neříkají.
(Other / additional female colleagues are just laughing and not saying anything.)

Why is it která and not kdo for who?

In Czech, relative clauses use relative pronouns that agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.

kolegyně – feminine singular
So we use která (feminine singular form of který)

Kdo is a general interrogative/relative pronoun for “who” (mostly for people) but it doesn’t agree in gender and number and is not used to directly refer back to a specific feminine noun like kolegyně in this kind of relative clause.

So:

Kolegyně, která nás poslouchá… – The colleague who is listening to us… (correct)
Kolegyně, kdo nás poslouchá… – ungrammatical in standard Czech.

Why is it nás and not my for us?

My means we (subject form).
Nás is the accusative / genitive form and is used for “us” as an object.

The verb poslouchat (to listen (to)) takes a direct object in the accusative:

poslouchat koho/co? – to listen to whom/what?

Therefore:

kdo nás poslouchá? – who is listening to us?
Here nás is the object (accusative), so my would be wrong.

Why is the verb poslouchá used without any preposition, unlike English listen to?

In Czech, poslouchat already includes the idea of “listening to (someone/something)” and takes a direct object (accusative):

poslouchat hudbu – listen to music
poslouchat učitele – listen to the teacher
poslouchat nás – listen to us

You do not add a preposition like na or k here.
So poslouchá nás is literally “listens us” in structure, but translates as “is listening to us.”

What is the function of se in se jen směje? Is smát se always reflexive?

Yes, smát se is a reflexive verb meaning “to laugh.” The reflexive pronoun se is an essential part of the verb; you cannot drop it.

infinitive: smát se
3rd person singular: (on/ona/ono) se směje
1st person singular: (já) se směju / směji

So se here is:

not a separate meaning like “oneself” in English
simply a part of the dictionary form of the verb smát se

Without se, smát has a different meaning (“to make someone laugh / to mock” in some contexts), so směje alone would not mean “laughs” in standard usage.

Why does se come before the verb (se jen směje) and not after it?

Se is a clitic (an unstressed “short word”) and Czech has relatively strict rules about clitic placement:

clitics usually go in second position in the clause
they typically follow the first stressed element (often the subject or some other first word)

In Další kolegyně, která nás poslouchá, se jen směje…:

Inside the main clause after the comma, the first element is (Další) kolegyně (understood subject).
The clitic se therefore comes after the subject and before adverbs like jen and the verb směje.

So:

Kolegyně se jen směje. – natural
Kolegyně jen se směje. – sounds wrong
Kolegyně směje se. – ungrammatical in standard Czech

What does jen add here, and how is it different from pouze or jenom?

Jen means “only/just/merely.”

In se jen směje, it emphasizes that all she does is laugh – she doesn’t do anything else (like talking).

Comparison:

jen – very common, colloquial and neutral
jenom – very similar to jen, slightly more emphatic, also very common in speech
pouze – more formal, often written style or more “serious” tone

You could say:

…se jen směje…
…se jenom směje…
…se pouze směje… (sounds more formal / bookish)

The meaning is basically the same, but jen / jenom is most natural here.

Why is the word order se jen směje a nic neříká and not se nic neříká a jen směje?

There are two things:

Word order and given/new information:
Czech word order is flexible and used to structure emphasis. A natural progression here is:
- what she does: se jen směje
- what she does not do: a nic neříká
This order feels more natural in terms of rhythm and contrast: she just laughs, and (on top of that) she doesn’t say anything.
Verb association with adverbs:
Jen clearly modifies směje (she just laughs), while nic clearly belongs with neříká (says nothing). Grouping jen together with směje and nic together with neříká makes the sentence clearer and more idiomatic.

You could theoretically permute some parts, but many alternatives would sound unnatural or odd in standard Czech.

What is going on with nic neříká? Why is there a double negative?

In Czech, double negation is standard and required, not a mistake.

nic = “nothing”
neříká = “does not say”

Together:

nic neříká literally = “not-says nothing”
Idiomatic English = “doesn’t say anything” or “says nothing”

Using nic without ne- on the verb is ungrammatical:

nic říká – wrong in standard Czech
Correct: nic neříká, nikdo nepřišel, nikdy nic neudělám, etc.

So the pattern is: negative pronoun + negative verb for a single negative meaning.

Why is it neříká and not neřekne? What’s the aspect difference?

Both come from the verb říct / říkat (“to say / tell”), but:

říkat – imperfective (ongoing, repeated, or habitual action)
říct – perfective (completed, one-time action)

Here we have neříká (present tense of říkat), which expresses a general, ongoing state:

…se jen směje a nic neříká.
She is (just) laughing and (generally) not saying anything (at this moment / in this situation).

If you said nic neřekne (from říct), it would usually mean she will not say anything (at all / in the future) or sometimes a single completed event (“she won’t say a word (this time)”).

So neříká is correct here to match the idea of an ongoing scene.

Why is there a comma before and after která nás poslouchá?

Která nás poslouchá is a relative clause, giving additional information about další kolegyně.

In Czech, non-restrictive (non-defining) relative clauses are separated by commas, just like in English:

Další kolegyně, která nás poslouchá, se jen směje…
Another colleague, who is listening to us, is just laughing…

This suggests there is some shared context; we already roughly know who she is, and we’re just adding extra information about her.

If it were restrictive (defining which colleague you mean), you could technically omit one or both commas in some styles, but with další kolegyně it usually feels like additional information, so the commas are natural and standard.

Could I say Další kolegyně, co nás poslouchá, se jen směje… instead of která? Is that correct?

Yes, in spoken, informal Czech, many speakers would use co instead of která in relative clauses:

Další kolegyně, co nás poslouchá, se jen směje a nic neříká.

This is very common in everyday speech. However:

která is standard, grammatically correct and appropriate in all contexts (formal and informal).
co is more colloquial; fine in casual speech, but less appropriate in careful written language or formal contexts.

For learning and formal writing, it’s safest to stick with která.