Breakdown of Můj učitel chce učit celý den.
Questions & Answers about Můj učitel chce učit celý den.
In Czech, the possessive pronoun has to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it describes.
- učitel = teacher (masculine, singular, nominative)
- The matching possessive pronoun is můj (my) for masculine singular in nominative.
Basic nominative singular forms of můj:
- Masculine: můj učitel (my teacher – male)
- Feminine: moje učitelka (my teacher – female)
- Neuter: moje auto (my car)
So moje učitel would be grammatically wrong, because učitel is masculine, and moje is the feminine/neuter form here.
Because učitel is the subject of the sentence, so it must be in the nominative case.
- Můj učitel (nominative) = My teacher (subject)
- učitele is the genitive or accusative form, used e.g. after verbs like to see:
- Vidím učitele. = I see the teacher. (accusative)
- Nemám učitele. = I don’t have a teacher. (genitive)
So:
- As a subject: Můj učitel chce...
- As an object: Vidím učitele.
In Czech, verbs like chtít (to want) are followed by the infinitive form of the second verb, never by a conjugated form.
- chce učit = wants to teach
- chce = 3rd person singular of chtít
- učit = infinitive (to teach)
You cannot say chce učí because that would be like saying in English “wants teaches” instead of “wants to teach”. The pattern is:
- chtít + infinitive:
- Chci učit. = I want to teach.
- Chceš učit? = Do you want to teach?
- Můj učitel chce učit celý den. = My teacher wants to teach all day.
Chtít is irregular. Present tense:
- já chci – I want
- ty chceš – you (sg.) want
- on / ona / ono chce – he / she / it wants
- my chceme – we want
- vy chcete – you (pl./formal) want
- oni chtějí – they want
In the sentence:
- Můj učitel chce…
učitel = 3rd person singular → we use chce.
They are related but mean different things:
- učit = to teach (you teach someone else)
- Můj učitel chce učit. = My teacher wants to teach.
- učit se = to learn (you learn something yourself)
- Chci se učit česky. = I want to learn Czech.
So:
- učit někoho něco = to teach somebody something
- Učitel učí studenty angličtinu. = The teacher teaches the students English.
- učit se něco = to learn something
- Student se učí angličtinu. = The student is learning English.
In your sentence, the teacher is the one doing the teaching, so we correctly use učit, not učit se.
učit is imperfective – it describes an ongoing, repeated, or general action (to be teaching, to teach regularly).
The common perfective counterpart is naučit:
- učit (imperfective) = to be teaching / to teach in general
- Můj učitel chce učit celý den. = He wants to spend the whole day teaching.
- naučit (perfective) = to teach something to completion (to cause someone to know something)
- Můj učitel mě chce naučit česky. = My teacher wants to teach me Czech (so that I know it).
In your sentence, the focus is on the activity over time (“teaching all day”), so the imperfective učit is appropriate.
Celý den is in the accusative case and expresses duration of time. Czech often uses bare accusative (without a preposition) to say how long something lasts:
- celý den = (for) the whole day
- hodinu = (for) an hour
- týden = (for) a week
So:
- Můj učitel chce učit celý den.
= My teacher wants to teach (for) the whole day.
You can say po celý den for emphasis or style, but it’s less neutral and can sound a bit more formal/literary in many contexts:
- Můj učitel chce učit po celý den.
= My teacher wants to teach throughout the whole day.
Grammatically, celý agrees with den:
- den = masculine singular
- accusative masculine singular of celý is celý → celý den.
The normal, neutral word order is adjective before noun:
- celý den = the whole day
You can say den celý, but:
- it sounds more poetic, expressive, or emphatic
- it usually puts extra emphasis on celý (that it really was the whole day)
So:
- Neutral:
Můj učitel chce učit celý den. - Emphatic / stylistic:
Můj učitel chce učit den celý. (sounds more like something from a poem, story, or very expressive speech)
For everyday speech and standard style, use celý den.
Yes, Czech word order is more flexible than English. All of these are grammatically correct:
Můj učitel chce učit celý den.
– Neutral order. Focus slightly on the activity (wants to teach all day).Můj učitel chce celý den učit.
– Also natural. Slightly more emphasis on the duration (wants to teach all day).Celý den chce můj učitel učit.
– Strong emphasis on celý den (“All day my teacher wants to teach!”).Učit celý den chce můj učitel.
– Marked, more stylistic/literary; focus on učit celý den as the topic.
In everyday speech, versions 1 and 2 are the most common and neutral.
Czech stress is almost always on the first syllable of each word.
Approximate pronunciation (using English-like hints):
- Můj – [mooy] (like “moo” + “ee” merged; long ú
- j)
- učitel – [OO-chi-tel]
- u like “oo” in “good” (but shorter)
- č like “ch” in “chocolate”
- stress on U: U-či-tel
- chce – [htse]
- ch like German “Bach”
- this cluster chc- is pronounced almost like one consonant group at the start
- učit – [OO-chit]
- celý – [TSE-lee]
- c like “ts” in “cats”
- stress on ce: CE-lý
- den – [den]
Stress:
Můj Účitel CHce Účit CE-lý Den.
Each content word: stress on first syllable.
The noun changes to the feminine form, and the possessive pronoun must agree with it:
- učitel (male teacher) → učitelka (female teacher)
- můj učitel → moje učitelka
So the full sentence:
- Moje učitelka chce učit celý den.
= My (female) teacher wants to teach all day.
Only můj → moje and učitel → učitelka change.
chce učit celý den stays the same.
Yes, grammatically you can. But the meaning changes slightly:
Můj učitel chce učit celý den.
= My teacher wants to teach all day. (specifically your teacher)Učitel chce učit celý den.
= The teacher wants to teach all day.
(some teacher, “the teacher” in context, or “a teacher” in general)
Czech often omits possessives if the possessor is obvious (e.g. family members, body parts), but with učitel it’s common to keep můj if you really mean “my teacher”.