Questions & Answers about Chci se víc učit češtinu.
What does chci mean exactly, and what is the base verb?
Chci means “I want”. It is the 1st person singular present form of the verb chtít (to want).
Basic present-tense forms of chtít are:
- já chci – I want
- ty chceš – you (sg.) want
- on/ona/to chce – he/she/it wants
- my chceme – we want
- vy chcete – you (pl./formal) want
- oni chtějí – they want
So Chci se víc učit češtinu literally is “I want to learn Czech more.”
Why is there no “já” (I) in the sentence?
Czech normally drops subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- Chci se víc učit češtinu. – I want to study Czech more.
- The ending -i in chci already tells you the subject is já (I), so já is optional.
You can say Já chci se víc učit češtinu, but:
- it sounds a bit clumsy because of the word order with se (more on that below), and
- using já adds emphasis: I (as opposed to someone else) want to…
A more natural emphatic version is:
- Já se chci víc učit češtinu. – I want to study Czech more.