Breakdown of Na nádraží byla včera dopoledne také dlouhá fronta na lístky na vlak.
Questions & Answers about Na nádraží byla včera dopoledne také dlouhá fronta na lístky na vlak.
Czech word order is flexible and often used to express what is known vs. new information, and what you want to emphasize.
- Na nádraží (at the station) is placed first to set the location as the topic.
- The fronta (queue) is the new or more important information, so it comes later:
Na nádraží byla … dlouhá fronta…
You could say:
- Dlouhá fronta na lístky na vlak byla včera dopoledne na nádraží.
This is grammatically fine, but it emphasizes the queue itself more than the place.
Typical neutral order here is:
[Place] – [verb] – [time] – [other info / subject complement]
Byla is the past tense of být (to be) for feminine singular subjects.
- fronta is a feminine noun (the basic form is ta fronta – that queue).
- Therefore, the past tense of být must match it in gender and number:
- masculine sg: byl
- neuter sg: bylo
- feminine sg: byla
So you get:
dlouhá fronta … byla (a long queue … there was).
Both na and v can mean “at/in” a place, but they’re used with different kinds of locations and with different meanings:
- na nádraží = at the station, the normal idiomatic expression for train/bus stations.
- v nádraží would literally mean inside the building of the station and is very unusual; native speakers almost always say na nádraží.
Also:
- With na nádraží, na is used with the locative case (nádraží here is locative, though it looks the same as nominative).
In na nádraží, the noun nádraží is in the locative case, required by na when it means “on/at” a place (no movement).
The problem: many neuter nouns ending in -í have the same form in the nominative and locative singular:
- nominative: (to) nádraží – the station
- locative: (o) nádraží, na nádraží – about/at the station
You know it’s locative here because:
- it follows the preposition na with a static location meaning.
- context: we’re describing where the queue was.
Here na has the meaning “for (the purpose of)”:
- fronta na lístky = a queue for tickets
- lístky na vlak = tickets for the train
Patterns with na + accusative are very common when talking about purpose or target:
- fronta na oběd – queue for lunch
- lístky na koncert – tickets for a concert
- čekám na tramvaj – I’m waiting for the tram
pro lístky (“for tickets”) is possible, but sounds more like going to get tickets:
- Jdu si stoupnout do fronty pro lístky. – I’m going to stand in line to get tickets.
In the original sentence, na lístky na vlak is the usual idiomatic choice.
The preposition na can take:
- locative (static location)
- accusative (direction / target / purpose)
In this sentence:
- na nádraží – at the station
- static location → na + locative (nádraží)
- na lístky, na vlak – for tickets, for the train
- target/purpose → na + accusative (lístky, vlak)
So the meaning (location vs direction/purpose) determines which case na uses.
fronta means:
- a queue / line (people waiting)
- in other contexts, it can also mean a front (e.g. war front, weather front), but here it clearly means a queue.
Grammatically:
- fronta is feminine, basic form is ta fronta.
- That’s why you see:
- dlouhá fronta (feminine adjective form -á)
- byla (feminine past tense of být)
Another word for a line/row is řada, also feminine, but:
- fronta is specifically for people waiting in line.
- řada is more general: a row/series/order, and sometimes a queue.
The adjective must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- fronta is feminine singular nominative.
- The corresponding feminine singular nominative form of dlouhý is dlouhá.
Masculine form dlouhý would be used with a masculine noun:
- dlouhý den – long day (masc.)
- dlouhá fronta – long queue (fem.)
také (or colloquial taky) means also / too. In Czech, these particles are quite flexible in position, but word order affects emphasis.
Original:
Na nádraží byla včera dopoledne také dlouhá fronta na lístky na vlak.
Here také most naturally connects with dlouhá fronta → there was also a long queue.
Other possible positions:
- Na nádraží byla také včera dopoledne dlouhá fronta… – emphasizes that yesterday morning as well there was a long queue.
- Také na nádraží byla včera dopoledne dlouhá fronta… – emphasizes that at the station as well there was a long queue (maybe compared to another place).
So yes, you can move také, but you slightly change what is being “also”-ed.
dopoledne is originally a neuter noun meaning “the (part of the) morning before noon”, but it is very often used adverbially without any preposition, like:
- Vstal jsem dopoledne. – I got up in the late morning.
- Přijedu odpoledne. – I’ll come in the afternoon.
In včera dopoledne:
- včera – yesterday (adverb)
- dopoledne – (in the) morning (adverbial use)
Together they mean yesterday morning.
Czech frequently uses bare time words (no preposition) for general times of day.
Czech does not have articles like English a/an or the.
- dlouhá fronta can mean:
- a long queue
- the long queue depending entirely on context, not on a separate word.
So the sentence naturally covers the English “There was a long queue…” without needing any article.
Yes, very often. To express English “there is / there was”, Czech usually just uses být with normal word order:
- Na nádraží je dlouhá fronta. – There is a long queue at the station.
- Na nádraží byla dlouhá fronta. – There was a long queue at the station.
There’s no special “there is” construction; context and word order do the job. The place or time usually comes first, then být, then what exists/was there.