Learn Hardcore Czech: Moje babička chce, aby celá rodina byla doma. - My grandmother wants the whole family to be at home.

In Moje babička chce, aby celá rodina byla doma, the word aby introduces a subordinate clause that expresses a wish, demand, instruction, or goal.

Very literally, chce, aby… is like (she) wants that… or (she) wants for … to…. In natural English, we usually translate it as:

My grandmother wants the whole family to be at home.

Some common patterns with aby:

Chci, abys přišel včas. – I want you to come on time.
On nechce, aby o tom někdo věděl. – He doesn’t want anyone to know about it.

With verbs like chtít (to want), přát si (to wish), žádat/požadovat (to demand), you normally use aby + clause, not že.

So: chce, aby… = she wants (that) … happen / be true.

Why is it byla and not je? It’s about now, not the past, right?

Correct, the meaning is about now (or the future), not the past. But Czech uses a past tense form after aby to express a kind of subjunctive / unreal / desired situation.

aby byla literally looks like “so that she was”,
but functionally it means so that she would be / so that she is.

This is a fixed pattern:

Chci, abys přišel. – I want you to come.
Přeju si, abych byl zdravý. – I wish I were healthy.
On chce, aby to skončilo. – He wants it to end.

In all of these, Czech uses what looks like a past form (přišel, byl, skončilo), but the time reference is present/future and the key idea is wish / intention / non‑realized action.

So je would be a normal present indicative (she is), but aby byla is the special form used in this type of want/wish clause.

Why is it byla and not byli? Isn’t rodina a group of people?

Grammatically, rodina is a singular feminine noun in Czech, even though it refers to a group. Verbs agree with the grammatical form, not with the “logical” idea of many people.

rodina – feminine, singular → byla (3rd person, feminine singular past)

That’s why we get:

Rodina byla doma. – The family was at home.

Just like in English we normally say the family is (not always are), Czech also treats rodina as singular.

In informal speech, you may sometimes hear plural agreement with other collective words, but rodina with byla is the standard, correct form.

Why is celá rodina in the nominative? Isn’t it somehow the object of chce?

In this sentence, celá rodina is not the object of chce. It is the subject of the subordinate clause introduced by aby.

The structure is:

Main clause: Moje babička chce – My grandmother wants
Subordinate clause: aby celá rodina byla doma – that the whole family be at home

Inside the subordinate clause, the verb is byla, and its subject is celá rodina. Subjects are in the nominative, so celá rodina is nominative.

If you wanted the whole family as a direct object of chce, you would use a different structure, e.g.:

Moje babička chce mít celou rodinu doma.
– My grandmother wants to have the whole family at home.

Here celou rodinu is accusative (direct object of mít).

What’s the difference between doma, domů, and dům / v domě?

These words all relate to home / house, but they express different ideas:

doma – “at home” (location, state)
- Jsem doma. – I am at home.
- aby celá rodina byla doma – for the whole family to be at home.
domů – “(to) home” (direction, movement towards home)
- Jdu domů. – I’m going home.
- Babička chce, abychom šli domů. – Grandma wants us to go home.
dům – “house” as a building (noun)
- To je velký dům. – That is a big house.
v domě – “in the house” (literally inside a building, but not necessarily one’s home)
- Jsou v domě. – They are in the house.

In Moje babička chce, aby celá rodina byla doma, the idea is at home (state/location), so doma is correct.

Can I change the word order in aby celá rodina byla doma? For example, say aby byla doma celá rodina?

Yes, Czech word order is relatively flexible, and both are grammatically correct:

aby celá rodina byla doma
aby byla doma celá rodina

The difference is mainly about emphasis / information structure:

aby celá rodina byla doma – neutral, slightly emphasizes celá rodina as the topic.
aby byla doma celá rodina – can sound like you are emphasizing celá rodina as the important new information at the end (e.g. not just some members).

In everyday speech, both orders are natural; context and intonation carry most of the nuance.

Why is it moje babička and not můj babička?

Because babička is feminine, and possessive pronouns must agree in gender (and number and case) with the noun.

můj – masculine singular (e.g. můj bratr – my brother)
moje – generic form used for feminine singular nouns in the nominative (e.g. moje sestra – my sister)

So:

moje babička – my grandmother (correct)
můj babička – wrong, mismatched gender.

You may also see the shorter form má babička, which is common and correct too:

Moje babička chce…
Má babička chce…

Both mean the same; moje sounds a bit more neutral/spoken, má can feel slightly more compact or a bit more formal/literary, depending on context.

Why is there a comma before aby?

In Czech, you usually put a comma before conjunctions that start a dependent clause, such as aby, protože, když, jestli, že (when it means “that”), and many others.

Here, aby starts a subordinate clause (aby celá rodina byla doma) that depends on chce. So you write:

Moje babička chce, aby celá rodina byla doma.

Leaving out the comma (Moje babička chce aby…) is a spelling/grammar mistake in standard Czech.

Are there other natural ways to express the same idea in Czech?

Yes, several variants are possible, with slightly different nuances:

Moje babička chce mít celou rodinu doma.
– My grandmother wants to have the whole family at home.
- Uses infinitive mít instead of aby + clause.
- celou rodinu is now a direct object (accusative).
Moje babička by chtěla, aby celá rodina byla doma.
– My grandmother would like the whole family to be at home.
- by chtěla softens the wish; it’s more polite/less strong than chce.
Babička chce, aby byla celá rodina doma.
– Just dropping moje and slightly changing word order; very natural in context.

All of these are correct; the original sentence is a very typical and idiomatic way to express this idea.