Learn Hardcore Czech: Moje kamarádka ráda běhá v parku a říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí. - My friend likes to run in the park and says that nothing hurts her after running.

In Czech, possessive adjectives (můj, tvůj, jeho, její etc.) agree in gender, number and case with the noun they modify, not with the speaker.

kamarádka is feminine singular (nominative).
The correct feminine form of můj in nominative singular is moje (or má, a bit more formal/literary).

So:

Moje kamarádka = my (female) friend
Můj kamarád = my (male) friend

What is the difference between kamarádka and přítelkyně?

Both can translate as friend, but there’s a nuance:

kamarádka – female friend, neutral; often someone you hang out with, school friend, colleague, etc. Not automatically romantic.
přítelkyně – can mean female friend in a more serious or close sense, but very often means girlfriend (romantic partner) in modern Czech.

So Moje kamarádka usually means my (female) friend, while Moje přítelkyně is usually understood as my girlfriend (unless context clearly suggests otherwise).

Why is it ráda běhá and not something like má ráda běhání?

Both are possible, but they differ slightly in structure:

ráda běhá
- ráda is an adverb meaning gladly / with pleasure.
- běhá is she runs (regularly).
- Together: she likes to run / she likes running.
- This construction is very common and colloquial for “likes doing X”:
  - Rád čtu. – I like reading. (male speaker)
  - Ráda vařím. – I like cooking. (female speaker)
má ráda běhání
- má ráda = likes (literally: has in liking).
- běhání = running (noun).
- More literally: She likes running (running as an activity/thing).

Both are correct, but ráda + verb is extremely natural for everyday speech when talking about liking activities.

Why is ráda and not rád here?

Rád / ráda / rádo / rádi agrees with the subject’s gender and number:

rád – masculine singular (e.g. On rád běhá. – He likes running.)
ráda – feminine singular (e.g. Ona ráda běhá. – She likes running.)
rádo – neuter singular
rádi – plural (mixed or all-male group)

The subject is Moje kamarádka (a woman), so you must use the feminine form ráda:

Moje kamarádka ráda běhá. – My (female) friend likes running.

Why is it běhá and not běží?

Czech often uses two related verbs for activities like running:

běhat (imperfective, frequentative) – to run regularly / habitually / back and forth.
běžet (imperfective, one-time motion) – to run once / in a specific direction / right now.

běhá (3rd person singular of běhat) suggests habitual action:

Moje kamarádka ráda běhá v parku. = She likes running (in general / regularly) in the park.

If you said:

Moje kamarádka ráda běží v parku.

this would sound more like “she likes (the act of) running (once, at this moment) in the park” and is unusual; ráda běhá is the standard way to express “she likes to run” in general.

Why is it v parku and not just v park?

In Czech, prepositions usually require a specific case. The preposition v (in) here requires the locative case to express location.

park – nominative singular (dictionary form)
v + locative singular of park = v parku

So:

v parku = in the park

You almost never use the bare nominative after prepositions; you must change the ending according to the required case.

Why do we use říká instead of something like řekne?

Czech distinguishes between imperfective and perfective aspects:

říkat (imperfective) – to say, to be saying, to say repeatedly.
- 3rd person sg. present: říká
říct / říci (perfective) – to say once, to have said.
- 3rd person sg. future/past-like meaning: řekne, řekl(a)

In the sentence:

… a říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí.

říká suggests something she says (generally / often), not a one-time event. It’s like:

…and she says (she usually says / she tends to say) that after running nothing hurts her.

If you used řekne, it would refer to a single future act of saying: she will say.

What does že do here? In English we can often drop “that”; can we drop že in Czech?

že is a conjunction meaning “that” in reported (indirect) speech:

říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí = she says *that nothing hurts her after running.*

In English, “that” is often optional:

She says (that) nothing hurts her.

In Czech, že is usually necessary to introduce this kind of subordinate clause after verbs like říkat, myslet si, vědět, doufat, etc. Omitting že here would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in standard Czech:

✔ říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí
✖ říká, jí po běhání nic nebolí (wrong)

What is jí here, and why this form instead of ona or ji?

jí in this sentence is the dative form of the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun (ona = she).

Relevant forms of ona:

ona – nominative (subject)
ji / ją (colloquial) – accusative (direct object)
jí – dative (indirect object / “to her”, “for her”)

The verb bolet (to hurt, to ache) in Czech uses the dative for the person who experiences the pain:

Bolí mě hlava. – My head hurts. (The head pains me.)
Bolí ho záda. – His back hurts. (The back pains him.)
Jí nic nebolí. – Nothing hurts her. (Nothing pains her.)

So we need the dative form jí, not the nominative ona or accusative ji.

Why is it po běhání and what exactly is běhání?

po:
- The preposition po (after) typically takes the locative case when used in a temporal sense (after X).
- Example: po práci (after work), po obědě (after lunch).
běhání:
- This is a verbal noun (noun derived from a verb) from běhat or běhat/běžet.
- It corresponds to English “running” as a noun (the activity).
- It is a neuter noun; its nominative, accusative, and locative singular forms are the same: běhání.

So po běhání literally means “after (the) running”, i.e. after running.

Why do we say nic nebolí and not just nic bolí?

Czech uses negative concord (double negation) in negative sentences:

The negative words (nikdo = nobody, nic = nothing, nikdy = never, etc.) require the verb to be in a negative form as well.

So:

Nic nebolí. – Nothing hurts. (literally: nothing not-hurts)
Nikdo nepřišel. – Nobody came. (literally: nobody not-came)
Nikdy tam nechodím. – I never go there. (literally: never not-go)

Saying nic bolí would sound ungrammatical, like saying “nothing hurts” but without a negative verb in a language that requires it. In Czech, with nic, the verb must be nebolí.

Why is the word order že jí po běhání nic nebolí and not, for example, že po běhání jí nic nebolí or že nic jí po běhání nebolí?

Czech word order is relatively flexible, but there are two important points here:

Clitics:
- jí (dative pronoun) is a clitic: a short, unstressed word that tends to appear in second position in its clause (after the first stressed element).
- In že jí po běhání nic nebolí:
  - že is the first element,
  - jí comes immediately after it, which is very natural.
Information structure:
- po běhání sets the time frame: after running.
- nic is the main focus: nothing (hurts).
- nebolí is the verb.

Typical neutral order:

že jí po běhání nic nebolí
= that after running nothing hurts her.

Alternative orders:

že po běhání jí nic nebolí – also possible; here po běhání is given slightly more prominence.
že nic jí po běhání nebolí – unusual, sounds marked or awkward; jí doesn’t like being in that position, and nic prefers to stay close to the verb nebolí.

The given order is natural and neutral-sounding Czech.

Could the whole sentence be ordered differently, like Moje kamarádka v parku ráda běhá…? Would that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move some parts around; Czech word order is flexible, but it affects emphasis, not the basic meaning.

Original:

Moje kamarádka ráda běhá v parku a říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí.
- Neutral: she likes running, and the place (in the park) is added at the end.

Variant:

Moje kamarádka v parku ráda běhá a říká, že jí po běhání nic nebolí.
- Slightly more focus on in the park – as if contrasting with other places.

Both are grammatically correct. In spoken Czech, the original order is very typical. The key is to keep:

ráda close to the verb it modifies (běhá), and
clitics like jí in the early part of their clause (after the first stressed word).