V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce.

On Sunday I will have only a small salad and fruit.

Breakdown of V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce.

• já: I
• malý: small
• a: and
• v: on
• jenom: only
• neděle: Sunday
• ovoce: the fruit
• dát si: to have
• salát: the salad

Questions & Answers about V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce.

What does “si” in “si dám” mean? Why is it there?

Si is a reflexive pronoun that often means something like “for myself / to myself”.

• dám = I will give
• dám si = I will have (for myself), typically about food, drink, or some small treat.

In this sentence, dám si is best translated as “I’ll have / I’ll order”:

• V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce.
  → On Sunday I’ll have only a small salad and some fruit.

Without si, dám usually means giving something to someone else:

• Dám ti knihu. – I’ll give you a book.

So si is necessary here to get the natural “have (to eat/drink)” meaning.

Why is the future expressed with “dám” and not with “budu dávat”?

Czech verbs have aspect: perfective and imperfective.

• dát si (perfective) – focuses on a single, complete action: to have (once)
• dávat si (imperfective) – focuses on a repeated or ongoing action: to (usually) have

With perfective verbs like dát si, the present tense form refers to future time:

• dám si = I will have (once)
• budu si dávat = I will be having / I will keep having (repeatedly)

So:

• V neděli si dám… – On Sunday I’ll have… (one particular Sunday)
• V neděli si budu dávat jenom malý salát a ovoce. – sounds like “On Sundays from now on I’ll be having only a small salad and fruit” (a repeated habit).

Why is “V” capitalized in “V neděli”, but “neděli” is not?

Days of the week in Czech are normally written with a lowercase letter.

• neděle – Sunday
• pondělí – Monday
• úterý – Tuesday
  etc.

In your sentence, “V” is capitalized only because it starts the sentence:

• V neděli si dám… – first word of the sentence → V is capitalized.
• In the middle of a sentence you would write: v neděli.

So the capitalization follows sentence position, not a rule about days of the week being proper names (they are not capitalized in Czech).

Why is it “v neděli” and not “v neděle”?

The preposition v (“in/on”) requires different cases depending on meaning.
For time expressions like “on Sunday”, v is used with the locative case.

• Base form (nominative): neděle – Sunday
• Locative singular: neděli

So:

• v neděli = on Sunday (using locative)
• v neděle is wrong, because neděle here is nominative, not locative.

You’ll see the same pattern with other feminine -e nouns:

• židle (chair) → na židli (on the chair)
• neděle (Sunday) → v neděli (on Sunday)

What gender and case is “malý salát”, and why does “malý” look like that?

Salát is masculine inanimate.

In the sentence, it is a direct object (“I’ll have a small salad”), so it is in the accusative singular.

For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular:

• Nominative: malý salát – a small salad (subject)
• Accusative: malý salát – a small salad (object)

The adjective malý agrees with salát in gender, number, and case:

• masculine singular accusative inanimate → malý salát

What about “ovoce” – is it singular or plural, and why doesn’t it change form?

Ovoce is a neuter mass/collective noun meaning “fruit (in general)”.

It behaves like a neuter singular noun, and its nominative and accusative forms are identical:

• Nominative singular: ovoce – fruit
• Accusative singular: ovoce – fruit (object)

In the sentence it’s a direct object, so it’s accusative singular, but that looks the same as the base form:

• … malý salát a ovoce. – a small salad and (some) fruit.

If you really want to count individual pieces, Czech often uses something like:

• jeden kousek ovoce – one piece of fruit
• tři kusy ovoce – three pieces of fruit
  or switches to other countable nouns like jablka (apples), hrušky (pears), etc.

What is the difference between “jenom” and “jen” here?

Jenom and jen both mean “only / just” and are near synonyms.

• jenom malý salát a ovoce
• jen malý salát a ovoce

Both are correct and natural. Nuances:

• jen – a bit shorter, very common in both speech and writing.
• jenom – slightly more colloquial-sounding, but also very common.

In most contexts, you can simply treat them as interchangeable. Another more formal synonym is pouze:

• pouze malý salát a ovoce – only a small salad and fruit (more formal).

Could I move “si” somewhere else, like “V neděli dám si…” or “Dám si v neděli…”?

Czech has special placement rules for clitics (short unstressed words) like si.

1. “V neděli si dám…” – correct and natural

   • V neděli is the first stressed phrase,
   • si goes in second position in the clause,
   • then dám.

2. “Dám si v neděli…” – also correct and natural

   • Now dám is first,
   • si is again in second position,
   • then v neděli.

3. “V neděli dám si…” – sounds wrong/ungrammatical

   • The clitic si shouldn’t come after dám in this way; it wants the second position in the clause, not the third.

So preferred options:

• V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce.
• Dám si v neděli jenom malý salát a ovoce.

Word order changes emphasis slightly (time vs. action), but both mean the same thing.

Do we need any word for “a” or “the” in this Czech sentence?

Czech does not have articles like English “a” or “the”.

• malý salát can mean:
  • a small salad
  • the small salad
  • my small salad, depending on context.

In your sentence:

• malý salát a ovoce is naturally translated “a small salad and (some) fruit”.

If you really need to specify something as definite, you use context or other words (like demonstratives ten, ta, to):

• ten malý salát – that small salad / the small salad (more specific).

Could I say “V neděli budu jíst jenom malý salát a ovoce” instead of “V neděli si dám…”? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

• V neděli budu jíst jenom malý salát a ovoce.
  → On Sunday I will eat only a small salad and fruit.

Difference in nuance:

• dám si – common when talking about ordering or choosing food/drink, or “treating yourself” to something. Very natural in restaurant or casual contexts.
• budu jíst – focuses more on the activity of eating itself, less on the act of choosing/ordering it.

So:

• In a restaurant or when planning what you’ll have:
  V neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce. – sounds very natural.
• If you’re talking more generally about your diet or eating:
  V neděli budu jíst jenom malý salát a ovoce. – also fine, with a slightly different focus.

How would I say “On Sundays I only have a small salad and fruit” (a regular habit), not just this one Sunday?

To express a regular habit, Czech often adds a word like každou (every):

• Každou neděli si dávám jenom malý salát a ovoce.
  → Every Sunday I (usually) have only a small salad and fruit.

Key points:

• dávám si – imperfective aspect → repeated/regular action.
• každou neděli – every Sunday (accusative singular of každá neděle).

Just “V neděli si dám…” usually sounds like one specific Sunday, unless the broader context clearly makes it habitual.

Can “v neděli” also mean “this Sunday” or “next Sunday”?

Yes. “V neděli” by itself just means “on Sunday”; whether it is this, next, or last depends on context.

If you want to be explicit:

• tuto neděli / tuhle neděli – this Sunday
• příští neděli – next Sunday
• minulou neděli – last Sunday

So you could say:

• Tuto neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce. – This Sunday I’ll have only a small salad and fruit.
• Příští neděli si dám jenom malý salát a ovoce. – Next Sunday I’ll have only a small salad and fruit.