Learn Hardcore Czech: Moje kamarádka asi nikdy nechce žít v cizině, protože má nejraději svou rodinu doma. - My friend probably never wants to live abroad, because she likes her family at home the most.

In everyday spoken Czech, moje kamarádka is more common and feels neutral.
má kamarádka sounds a bit more formal, bookish, or emphatic, and is used more in writing, speeches, or for stylistic effect.

Also note the gender agreement:

kamarádka is feminine, so you need moje / má, not můj (which is masculine).

What does asi mean here, and where can it go in the sentence?

asi means probably / I guess / I think. It softens the statement so it’s not 100% certain.

In this sentence:

Moje kamarádka asi nikdy nechce žít v cizině…
≈ My friend probably never wants to live abroad…

Other possible positions (still natural):

Asi moje kamarádka nikdy nechce žít v cizině…
(slightly more emphasis on the whole statement being your assumption)
Moje kamarádka nikdy asi nechce žít v cizině…
(less common; sounds a bit clumsy in neutral speech)

General rule: asi is a sentence adverb; it usually comes near the verb or early in the sentence, but Czech word order is flexible and mainly changes emphasis, not grammar.

Why is it nikdy nechce and not nechce nikdy, and is this a double negative?

Czech allows both orders:

nikdy nechce žít v cizině
nechce nikdy žít v cizině

Both mean (she) never wants to live abroad.
The most neutral, common order here is nikdy nechce, placing the negative adverb nikdy (never) before the verb.

About “double negative”:

nikdy (never) is already negative.
nechce (does not want) is also negative.

In English, saying “she doesn’t never want” would be wrong, but in Czech, negative elements usually agree and reinforce each other. This is called negative concord and is normal and required in Czech.

So combinations like:

nikdy nechodí
nikdo nic neříká

are completely correct and standard Czech.

Why is žít used here and not bydlet?

Czech has two common verbs that both translate as to live:

žít – to live (in general, to have one’s life somewhere or in some way)
bydlet – to live / reside (more about where you are physically living, your place of residence)

In nechce žít v cizině:

žít v cizině = live (lead one’s life) abroad
→ suggests a whole-life situation, lifestyle, long‑term existence abroad.

You could say bydlet v cizině, but that would focus more on residence / housing:

nechce bydlet v cizině = she doesn’t want to reside abroad (more about the address than the whole life situation).

Here, žít v cizině is the more natural collocation because we’re talking about her overall life choice, not just where her flat is.

What exactly does v cizině mean, and how is it different from v zahraničí?

Both v cizině and v zahraničí roughly mean abroad / in a foreign country.

cizina = foreign land, foreign countries
- v cizině = in a foreign country / abroad
  (locative case: cizina → v cizině)
zahraničí = abroad, foreign countries (more abstract noun)
- v zahraničí = abroad

Nuance:

v cizině can feel a bit more colloquial or emotional (for many speakers, it has a slight “away from home, in some foreign place” flavor).
v zahraničí is more neutral / standard, often used in news, official contexts, etc.

In this personal sentence about where she wants to live, v cizině fits very naturally.

Why do we use svou rodinu and not její rodinu?

Czech has reflexive possessive pronouns that are used when the owner is the subject of the clause:

svůj, svoje / svou = his own / her own / its own / their own (depending on context)

In the sentence, the subject of the second clause is she (same person as my friend). So:

svou rodinu means her own family (the family of my friend).

If you said její rodinu, that would normally be understood as:

someone else’s family, another woman’s family (not the subject’s).

So the rule:

Subject owns the thing → use svůj / svou / svoje:
- Moje kamarádka má nejraději svou rodinu.
  = My friend likes her own family the most.
Someone else owns it → use její / jeho / jejich, etc.:
- Moje kamarádka má nejraději její rodinu.
  = My friend likes her (another woman’s) family the most. (different person)

How is svou rodinu formed grammatically?

Breakdown:

svůj = base form of the reflexive possessive pronoun
It must agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case.

Here:

rodina (family) is:
- feminine
- singular
- accusative (it is the direct object: she likes whom/what? → her family)

So svůj changes to:

svou rodinu (feminine singular accusative)

Other forms of the same pronoun:

svůj dům (masc., sg., nom.) – his/her/their own house
svého bratra (masc., sg., acc./gen.)
svými přáteli (instr. pl.)

What does má nejraději mean, and how is this structure built?

The pattern is based on the verb mít rád:

mít rád + accusative = to like (someone / something)
- Mám rád kávu. – I like coffee.

The word rád is special: it behaves like an adverb meaning gladly / with pleasure, and it has comparative and superlative forms:

rád – gladly, like
raději – more gladly, prefer
nejraději – most gladly, like best

So:

má rád svou rodinu = she likes her family
má raději svou rodinu (než …) = she likes her family more (than …)
má nejraději svou rodinu = she likes her family the most / best of all

In your sentence:

protože má nejraději svou rodinu doma
= because she likes her own family at home best of all.

You may also see the colloquial shorter form nejradši instead of nejraději.

Why is the word order má nejraději svou rodinu doma and not, for example, má svou rodinu nejraději doma?

Czech word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

má nejraději svou rodinu doma
má svou rodinu nejraději doma
svou rodinu má nejraději doma
doma má nejraději svou rodinu

They all mean essentially the same thing, but with slightly different emphasis:

má nejraději svou rodinu doma
→ neutral; focus on whom she likes best (her family).
má svou rodinu nejraději doma
→ slightly more focus on the degree (how much – “the MOST”).
doma má nejraději svou rodinu
→ emphasises doma (“at home, she likes her family best”).

In your original sentence, the chosen order is quite natural and neutral for written Czech. Word order in Czech mostly serves to highlight or de‑emphasise parts of the sentence, not to mark grammar like in English.

What exactly does doma mean, and why is there no preposition like “v domě”?

doma is an adverb meaning at home (as a location), not “in the house” as a physical building.

doma = at home (in one’s home environment)
v domě = in the house (literally inside a house/building)

So:

má nejraději svou rodinu doma
= she likes her family best when they are at home / in their home environment.

There is no preposition with doma because it is already an adverb (like here, there, outside), not a noun phrase with a preposition.

Why is there a comma before protože, and what happens to word order after protože?

In Czech, protože = because, and it introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent clause).

The whole sentence has two parts:

Moje kamarádka asi nikdy nechce žít v cizině,
– main clause
protože má nejraději svou rodinu doma.
– subordinate clause (reason)

A comma is normally placed before conjunctions like protože when they introduce a subordinate clause.

Word order after protože is generally like in a normal statement:

protože má nejraději svou rodinu doma
Czech does not require inversion like English (because does she… would be wrong in English, but Czech just uses the standard statement order).

You could move some parts around for emphasis, but nothing special is required just because of protože.