Learn Hardcore Czech: Pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita. - For my health, running in the park is the best activity.

In Czech, the preposition pro always takes the accusative.
The noun zdraví is a neuter noun ending in -í, and its nominative and accusative singular have the same form: zdraví.

So even though the form doesn’t change, grammatically it’s accusative here because of pro.

What is the difference between “moje zdraví” and “mé zdraví”? Are they both correct?

Both “moje zdraví” and “mé zdraví” mean “my health” and are grammatically correct. The difference is mostly in style and register:

moje zdraví – more neutral / colloquial, very common in everyday speech
mé zdraví – more formal / literary, often seen in written texts, speeches, or when you want to sound a bit more elevated

So you could also say:

Pro mé zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.

It’s correct, just a bit more formal in tone.

Why is it “běhání” and not “běhat” in this sentence?

Czech distinguishes between:

infinitive verb: běhat – to run (habitually)
verbal noun / gerund: běhání – running (as an activity, a thing)

In English, you can say:

Running in the park is the best activity for my health.

Here “running” is a noun-like form (gerund). Czech usually uses a verbal noun for this role:

Běhání v parku je nejlepší aktivita. – Running in the park is the best activity.

Using běhat directly as the subject (“Běhat v parku je nejlepší aktivita.”) is not wrong, but it sounds more casual/colloquial and less like “a named activity.” Běhání explicitly treats “running” as a noun, which matches “aktivita” better.

What exactly is “běhání” grammatically (gender, number, etc.)?

Běhání is a verbal noun (sometimes called a “deverbal noun”) formed from the verb běhat.

Grammatically:

Gender: neuter
Number: usually used in the singular
Declension: follows the pattern of neuter nouns ending in -í (like zdraví)

In the sentence:

běhání is in the nominative singular because it is the subject:
- (Co?) Běhání v parku – Running in the park

Why is the word order “Pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita”? Can I move the parts around?

Czech has flexible word order, so you can rearrange elements to change emphasis, not grammar. All of these are grammatically correct:

Pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.
– neutral; slightly emphasizes the “for my health” part at the start.
Běhání v parku je pro moje zdraví nejlepší aktivita.
– more typical neutral-sounding version; starts with what the sentence is about (“running in the park”).
Nejlepší aktivita pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku.
– emphasizes “the best activity” first.

All say the same thing. Czech often starts a sentence with what you want to set as the topic. Here, starting with “Pro moje zdraví” frames the whole sentence as being “from the point of view of my health.”

Why is it “v parku” and not some other form, and what case is used after “v” here?

The phrase “v parku” uses the locative case after the preposition v.

v = in
park (masculine inanimate noun)
locative singular of park is parku ⇒ v parku = in the park

The preposition v can take either locative (for location: in, at, inside) or accusative (for movement into: into), depending on meaning:

v parku – in the park (location → locative)
do parku – to the park / into the park (movement → accusative with do, or na with accusative in other contexts)

Here, running is taking place in the park, so locative is used.

Why is “nejlepší aktivita” in this form? Shouldn’t something be declined differently?

Nejlepší aktivita is in the nominative singular, because it is the predicative complement of the subject běhání:

Běhání v parku (subject; neuter singular)
je (verb “to be”)
nejlepší aktivita (predicate; nominative, describing what the subject is)

Agreement works like this:

The predicate noun (“best activity”) is in the nominative, and the adjective must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies:
- aktivita – feminine singular
- nejlepší – form used for feminine singular nominative (and also some other cases; “nejlepší” itself doesn’t change form as much as regular adjectives, because it ends in -í)

So nejlepší aktivita is the correctly agreed phrase.

Could I say “Běhání v parku je tou nejlepší aktivitou pro moje zdraví”? What changes?

Yes, that sentence is perfectly correct and natural:

Běhání v parku je tou nejlepší aktivitou pro moje zdraví.
– literally: Running in the park is the best activity for my health.

Changes:

Word order: You start with Běhání v parku, making “running in the park” the clear topic.
tou nejlepší aktivitou:
- ta nejlepší aktivita – nominative (used when it’s just a simple “is the best activity”)
- tou nejlepší aktivitou – instrumental case, used in a slightly different structure:
  - literally “is (as) the best activity”
pro moje zdraví moved to the end, which is also fine and still means “for my health.”

Both structures are correct:

je nejlepší aktivita pro moje zdraví (nominative)
je tou nejlepší aktivitou pro moje zdraví (instrumental)

The second one can sound a bit more stylistically elaborate or emphatic.

Can I omit “je” like in some other Slavic languages?

In standard contemporary Czech, you normally do not omit the verb “je” in sentences like this. You say:

Pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.

If you omit je, you get:

Pro moje zdraví běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.

This sounds incorrect or at least very ungrammatical in modern standard Czech.

Omitting forms of “být” (to be) is not common in the present tense in Czech, unlike in e.g. Russian where you can leave the copula out in some present-tense sentences.

Why is it “moje zdraví” and not something like “můj zdraví”? How does “moje” agree with “zdraví”?

The possessive pronoun must agree with the gender and number of the noun it modifies:

zdraví is neuter singular
the appropriate nominative/accusative possessive form is moje (or mé)

So:

moje zdraví – my health (neuter singular)
Compare:
můj pes – my dog (masculine animate)
moje kniha – my book (feminine)
moje auto – my car (neuter)

So “můj zdraví” is wrong because můj is the masculine form, and zdraví is neuter.

Could I use “kvůli” instead of “pro”, like “Kvůli mému zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita”? Does the meaning change?

You can say:

Kvůli mému zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.

But the nuance changes slightly:

pro moje zdraví – for my health, beneficial to my health
- focus: what is good for your health
kvůli mému zdraví – because of my health, for the sake of my health
- focus: your motivation is your health; you do it because of health reasons

So:

Pro moje zdraví je běhání v parku nejlepší aktivita.
= From the viewpoint of what benefits my health, running in the park is the best activity.
Kvůli mému zdraví běhám v parku.
= I run in the park because of my health (e.g., the doctor told me to).

In your original type of statement (talking about benefits), “pro moje zdraví” is the most natural choice.

How do you pronounce “běhání” and “zdraví”? Any tricky sounds for English speakers?

Approximate pronunciation (in IPA):

běhání: /ˈbjɛɦaːɲiː/
- bě-: /bjɛ/ – like “bye” + “eh”, but very short; b
  - “yeh”
- -h-: /ɦ/ – voiced “h” (vocal cords vibrate)
- -á-: /aː/ – long “a”, as in “father” but held longer
- -ní: /ɲiː/ – “ň” is a palatal “n”, like “ny” in “canyon”; í is a long “ee”
zdraví: /ˈzdraviː/
- zdr-: cluster /zdr/ all at once; can be tricky, but it’s just [z] + [d] + [r]
- -a-: short “a”, like in “cup” but a bit more open
- -ví: /viː/ – “vee” with a long “ee”

Main challenges for English speakers:

The consonant cluster zdr- at the start of zdraví.
The palatal ň in běhání.
Keeping short vs long vowels distinct: á, í are clearly longer than a, i.