Learn Hardcore Czech: Moje babička nechce být doma sama. - My grandmother does not want to be at home alone.

moje babička – the neutral, most common version in everyday speech.
má babička – a bit more formal, literary, or stylistically marked. You will see and hear it, but much less in casual conversation.

So both are grammatically correct; in normal spoken Czech, learners should prefer moje babička.

How do I know that babička is feminine and why is moje used, not můj?

In Czech, most nouns ending in -a in the basic form (nominative singular) are feminine. Babička ends in -a, so it is feminine.

Possessive my changes with gender:

můj – masculine animate or inanimate (e.g. můj bratr – my brother)
moje – feminine (and also for neuter nouns in many cases)

Because babička is feminine, you must use the feminine form of my:

moje babička ✅
můj babička ❌

Why isn’t there a word for the or a in the sentence?

Czech does not use articles like English a/an and the.

Moje babička can mean my grandmother or my grandma, without any separate word for the.
The definiteness is usually clear from context, from the possessive (moje), or from word order and stress, not from articles.

So the sentence correctly has no word corresponding directly to English the or a.

What exactly does nechce mean, and from which verb does it come?

Nechce is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb chtít (to want), with negation.

chtít – to want
chce – he/she/it wants
nechce – he/she/it does not want

So moje babička nechce = my grandmother does not want.

Conjugation of chtít (present tense, positive forms):

já chci – I want
ty chceš – you (sg) want
on/ona/ono chce – he/she/it wants
my chceme – we want
vy chcete – you (pl/formal) want
oni chtějí – they want

Negation is regular: you just add ne- in front (e.g. nechci, nechceš, nechce…).

Why is the verb after nechce in the infinitive být?

In Czech, when you say that someone wants (or doesn’t want) to do something, the second verb is in the infinitive, just like English to do:

nechce být – (she) does not want to be
chci jíst – I want to eat
nechceme čekat – we don’t want to wait

So nechce být is exactly parallel to English doesn’t want to be:
nechce = does not want, být = to be.

What case is moje babička in, and why?

Moje babička is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence.

Subject (who? what?) → nominative
Kdo nechce být doma sama? – Moje babička.
(Who doesn’t want to be at home alone? – My grandmother.)

So:

babička: nominative singular feminine
moje: nominative singular feminine (agreeing with babička)

What part of speech is doma, and why is it used instead of something like v domě?

Doma is an adverb meaning at home.

dům – a house (noun)
v domě – in the house (in + locative)
doma – at home (adverb)

In everyday Czech, when you talk about being at home, you almost always use doma, not v domě:

Jsem doma. – I’m at home.
Nechce být doma. – She doesn’t want to be at home.

V domě would sound more like inside the building/inside the house as a physical structure, not just at home in general.

Why is sama at the end of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Czech word order is more flexible than English. The neutral, common order here is:

Moje babička nechce být doma sama.

Other possibilities:

Moje babička nechce být sama doma.
Doma nechce být moje babička sama.

All can be grammatically correct; the differences are mainly in emphasis and style:

…doma sama (original) – neutral, very natural.
…sama doma – slightly stronger focus on alone at home as a pair; also evokes the movie title in Czech.
Moving words earlier or later can highlight them, but beginners can safely copy the original order.

Why is it sama and not sám or samo?

The adjective/pronoun sám/sama/samo (alone) agrees in gender and number with the subject:

masculine singular: sám
feminine singular: sama
neuter singular: samo
plural forms: sami, samé, samy (depending on gender)

The subject is babička (feminine singular), so you must use sama:

Moje babička nechce být doma sama. ✅
Moje babička nechce být doma sám. ❌
Moje babička nechce být doma samo. ❌

Is there any difference between sama in být doma sama and English alone or by herself?

Czech sama in this sentence covers both meanings:

My grandmother doesn’t want to be at home alone.
My grandmother doesn’t want to be at home by herself.

Czech doesn’t need a preposition like by here; the form sama already expresses the idea alone / by herself. If you wanted to emphasize without anyone, you might add something like:

Moje babička nechce být doma sama s nikým. (more emphasis on having nobody, though this is stylistically a bit heavy)

Could I say just Babička nechce být doma sama without moje? Would it still mean my grandma?

Yes, you can say:

Babička nechce být doma sama.

In many contexts, this will be understood as my grandma (or our grandma), because Czech often drops possessives when the relationship is obvious: máma, táta, babička, děda, etc.

However:

Moje babička is explicit and clear: my grandmother.
Babička by itself might mean the grandma in this situation, and who exactly that is depends on context.

So both are correct; moje babička is just more explicit.

How would the sentence change if the subject were masculine, e.g. my grandpa?

You would have to change both the noun and the form of alone to agree in gender:

Můj dědeček nechce být doma sám.
– My grandfather doesn’t want to be at home alone.

Changes:

moje babička (feminine) → můj dědeček (masculine)
sama (feminine) → sám (masculine)

The rest (nechce být doma) stays the same.

How do you pronounce nechce and babička? The ch and č look similar.

Pronunciation tips:

nechce – [NECH-tse]
- ch is one sound, like German Bach or Scottish loch: a voiceless velar fricative.
- ce sounds like tse.
babička – [BA-bich-ka]
- č is like English ch in church.
- čka is chka together.

So:

ch in nechce ≠ č in babička.
- ch = rough kh sound
- č = English ch sound

Is there any double negative in this sentence, like in some other Czech sentences?

No, this sentence has only one negative element:

nechce – does not want

Czech often uses double negatives with words like nikdo (nobody), nikdy (never):

Nikdo nechce být doma sám. – Nobody wants to be at home alone.
(literally: Nobody not-wants be at-home alone.)

But in Moje babička nechce být doma sama, there is no nikdo / nic / nikdy etc., so you only see the single negative ne- in nechce.