Breakdown of Říkám dětem, že zvíře v parku není hračka.
Questions & Answers about Říkám dětem, že zvíře v parku není hračka.
In Czech, říkat / říct (to say, to tell) normally takes the person you speak to in the dative case.
Pattern:
- říkat něco někomu = to say/tell something to someone
So:
- děti = nominative/accusative plural (children as subject or direct object)
- dětem = dative plural (to the children / for the children)
In this sentence, the children are the indirect object (the receivers of the information), so you must use dětem:
- Říkám dětem … = I tell (to) the children …
Říkám is:
- 1st person singular
- present tense
- imperfective aspect
- from říkat (to say, to tell)
It can correspond to both:
- I say / I tell (habitual, repeated action)
- I am saying / I am telling (action happening now)
Czech doesn’t have a special continuous tense. Context decides whether Říkám dětem… is:
- a general habit: I tell the children (regularly) that…
- or right now: I’m telling the children that…
In Czech, a comma is usually placed before že when it introduces a subordinate clause.
Structure:
- Říkám dětem, že … = I tell the children that …
The part after že (zvíře v parku není hračka) is a full clause (subject + verb), so it is a subordinate clause, and Czech punctuation rules require a comma before že in such cases.
že is a conjunction meaning that, introducing a content clause.
Pattern:
- říkat, že… = to say / tell that…
So:
- Říkám dětem, že zvíře v parku není hračka.
= I tell the children that the animal in the park is not a toy.
The clause after že is what you are telling the children.
Czech has no articles (no a/an/the). The noun zvíře by itself can mean:
- an animal
- the animal
- or animals in general (depending on context)
Context gives the specificity. Here, to an English speaker it feels like:
- I tell the children that the animal in the park is not a toy.
(because the children presumably know which animal is meant — e.g. the one they see in the park)
Czech doesn’t mark this difference with articles, so zvíře alone is enough.
The preposition v (in) usually requires the locative case when describing location.
Pattern:
- v + locative = in/on/at (place)
park is a masculine inanimate noun:
- nominative: park
- locative: parku
So:
- v parku = in the park
The -u ending shows that park is in the locative case, required by v in the meaning “in” (somewhere).
není hračka literally = is not (a) toy. English style:
- is not a toy
- is no toy (more emphatic in English)
You can also say:
- není žádná hračka = is no toy at all / is not any toy
Czech allows double negation, so není žádná hračka is grammatically correct and even common:
- není hračka – neutral negation
- není žádná hračka – stronger, more emphatic (“absolutely not a toy”)
není is the 3rd person singular form of být (to be) in the present tense, negated:
- je = he/she/it is
- není = he/she/it is not
In the present tense, být doesn’t change form based on gender, only person and number. So:
- pes není hračka (masc.) – the dog is not a toy
- kočka není hračka (fem.) – the cat is not a toy
- zvíře není hračka (neut.) – the animal is not a toy
In all these, the verb form is není.
Czech word order is relatively flexible, but there are natural and unnatural orders.
Natural, neutral:
- Říkám dětem, že zvíře v parku není hračka.
Other possible but different in emphasis:
- Dětem říkám, že zvíře v parku není hračka.
(emphasis on to the children specifically) - Říkám dětem, že to zvíře v parku není hračka.
(emphasis on that animal in the park)
Říkám, že zvíře v parku není hračka dětem sounds incorrect/very odd, because dětem logically belongs with říkám (I say to the children), not with hračka. You normally keep dětem near říkám.
A few key pronunciation points:
- Ř in Říkám is a unique Czech sound; it’s like a rolled/trilled r combined with ž.
- í in Říkám is a long vowel: say it longer, like ee in see.
- ďe in dětem is soft:
- ď is a soft d produced with the tongue touching further back and the palate
- ě after ď makes the consonant palatal and then sounds roughly like -ye-
So dě is closer to dye than to de in English.
Altogether:
- Říkám roughly like Rzhee-kahm (with the special ř)
- dětem roughly like dyetem (with a soft ď
- ě).
In Czech, each noun has a grammatical gender:
- zvíře – neuter
- hračka – feminine
In this sentence:
- Both nouns are in the nominative case (subject and predicate noun):
zvíře (subject) – hračka (what it is / is not)
The difference in gender:
- does not change the form of není in the present tense
- does not require any agreement here, because there is no adjective modifying them
If you added adjectives, they would agree with each noun separately:
- to malé zvíře v parku není žádná roztomilá hračka
(that little animal in the park is not any cute toy)
Yes, that is perfectly correct.
- Říkám dětem… = I tell (the) children…
(it could be any children; the context may imply which children) - Říkám svým dětem… = I tell my children…
(svým = my/own; dative plural of svůj)
So svým dětem just adds the possessive meaning my (own) children. Grammatically it’s still dative plural and fits the same říkat někomu pattern.