Questions & Answers about Můj učitel má rád dějepis.
Word by word:
- Můj – my (masculine singular form of “my”)
- učitel – teacher (male teacher)
- má – has (3rd person singular of mít – “to have”)
- rád – literally glad, pleased; together with mít it forms to like
- dějepis – history (as a school subject, not general historical events)
So the literal structure is something like: “My teacher has [it] gladly history”, which idiomatically means “My teacher likes history.”
Czech possessive adjectives agree with the gender and number of the noun they modify, not with the owner.
- učitel is masculine singular
- The matching form of “my” is můj
Other forms of “my”:
- moje – for feminine or neuter nouns:
- moje učitelka – my (female) teacher
- moje auto – my car
- můj – for masculine animate/inanimate singular:
- můj bratr – my brother
- můj učitel – my teacher
So we say můj učitel because učitel is masculine.
In this sentence učitel is the subject (“who?”/“what?” likes history). Subjects stand in the nominative case.
The nominative singular of this noun is učitel. Other cases would appear with different grammatical roles, for example:
- Nominative (subject):
- Učitel učí dějepis. – The teacher teaches history.
- Accusative (direct object):
- Vidím učitele. – I see the teacher.
Because učitel is the subject in your sentence, it stays in the nominative: učitel.
In Czech, mít + rád/ráda/rádo/radi is a common way to express “to like”:
- mít rád něco/někoho – to like something/someone
If you said má dějepis, it would literally mean “he has history”, which would be understood as “he has a history lesson/class” or “he has history (as a subject)” on his timetable, not that he likes it.
So to express liking:
- Můj učitel má rád dějepis. – My teacher likes history.
They’re related, but used differently:
mít rád (+ accusative) – to like
- Mám rád kávu. – I like coffee.
- Můj učitel má rád dějepis. – My teacher likes history.
milovat (+ accusative) – to love (stronger feeling)
- Miluju svoji ženu. – I love my wife.
- Miluju dějepis. – I love history. (very strong enthusiasm)
líbit se (+ dative of the person) – literally to be pleasing to
- Líbí se mi ten film. – I like that film. (lit. “That film is pleasing to me.”)
- Líbí se mu dějepis. – He likes history.
Main points:
- mít rád is the most neutral for liking generally.
- milovat is strong, emotional.
- líbit se is often used for things perceived by the senses or first impressions (films, places, clothes, people’s appearance, etc.).
In your sentence, má rád is the natural choice.
Rád behaves like an adjective and agrees with the person who likes:
- masculine singular: rád
- feminine singular: ráda
- neuter singular: rádo
- plural (mixed or masculine animate): rádi
- plural (non-masculine animate): rády
In your sentence, the one who likes history is můj učitel (a male person → masculine singular), so:
- Můj učitel má rád dějepis. – My (male) teacher likes history.
If it was a female teacher:
- Moje učitelka má ráda dějepis. – My (female) teacher likes history.
You negate the verb mít:
- Můj učitel nemá rád dějepis. – My teacher doesn’t like history.
Changes:
- má → nemá (prefix ne- makes it negative)
- rád stays the same.
For a female teacher:
- Moje učitelka nemá ráda dějepis. – My (female) teacher doesn’t like history.
Czech word order is more flexible than English, but it affects emphasis.
All of these are grammatical, but slightly different in focus:
Můj učitel má rád dějepis.
– Neutral: statement of fact.Dějepis má můj učitel rád.
– Emphasis on dějepis (contrastive: history, not something else).Můj učitel dějepis má rád.
– Also possible; a bit more marked, again putting some focus on dějepis.
In everyday speech, the original version (Můj učitel má rád dějepis.) is the most natural and neutral.
Approximate pronunciation (using English-like hints):
- Můj – [mooy] (like “moo” + short “y”); the ů is a long u sound.
učitel – [OO-chi-tel]
- u as in “put” but a bit closer to [oo]/[u]
- č like ch in “chocolate”
- stress is on the first syllable: Ú-čitel (actually [ˈut͡ʃɪtɛl], but stress on the first syllable).
- má – [maa], long “a” (as in “father”)
rád – [raat]
- á long “a”
- final d is often pronounced a bit like t at the end of words.
dějepis – [DYEH-ye-piss]
- dě is a soft consonant cluster, roughly like “dje”
- stress again on the first syllable: DĚ-je-pis.
Overall rhythm:
Můj UČI-tel MÁ RÁD DĚ-je-pis – stress is always on the first syllable of each word.
Czech does not have articles like English a/an/the. Their meaning is usually understood from context or word order.
So:
- Můj učitel can mean “my teacher” or “my (particular) teacher”
- dějepis can mean “history”, without specifying further
You don’t have to (and can’t) add anything like “the” or “a” in the Czech sentence. The English articles are added only in translation.
In mít rád něco, the thing you like is a direct object, so it takes the accusative case.
- The accusative of dějepis (masculine inanimate noun) is the same form as the nominative:
- Nominative: dějepis – (subject)
- Accusative: dějepis – (object)
Many masculine inanimate nouns don’t change form between nominative and accusative.
If it were a different noun, the form might change:
- Mám rád film. – I like the film. (film → film, also same)
- Mám rád knihu. – I like the book. (kniha → knihu, change in the ending)
So dějepis is accusative here, but it just looks the same as nominative.
Dějepis is specifically history as a school subject (the school class). For example:
- učebnice dějepisu – history textbook
- hodina dějepisu – history lesson
For “history” in a broader sense (events, the past), Czech often uses dějiny:
- dějiny Evropy – the history of Europe
In everyday school-related contexts, dějepis = the subject “History”. So in your sentence, it clearly means the subject.
Yes, mít literally means “to have”, but in combination with rád/ráda/rádo/radi it forms an idiomatic structure:
- mít rád něco/někoho – to like something/someone
It’s similar to how English uses “have” in phrases like “I have fun”, “I have a liking for…”, but in Czech it has become the standard way to say “to like”.
So:
- Mám rád kávu. – I like coffee.
- Máš rád hudbu? – Do you like music?
- Můj učitel má rád dějepis. – My teacher likes history.
You can’t just drop rád; mít alone doesn’t mean “to like”.
You replace můj with other possessive adjectives:
- náš učitel má rád dějepis. – Our teacher likes history.
- tvůj učitel má rád dějepis. – Your (singular informal) teacher likes history.
- váš učitel má rád dějepis. – Your (plural/formal) teacher likes history.
- jeho učitel má rád dějepis. – His teacher likes history.
- její učitel má rád dějepis. – Her teacher likes history.
All of them keep má rád dějepis the same; only the possessive word in front changes.
Můj učitel má rád dějepis. is completely neutral in style:
- appropriate in spoken Czech (students talking about teachers)
- fine in simple written texts, exercises, basic descriptions
- not slangy, not overly formal
You can safely use it in any normal context where you’re talking about your teacher.