Můj pes spí za domem.

My dog is sleeping behind the house.

Breakdown of Můj pes spí za domem.

• můj: my
• pes: the dog
• dům: the house
• spát: to sleep
• za: in

Questions & Answers about Můj pes spí za domem.

Why is it Můj pes and not Moje pes or Můj psa?

Můj is the correct form of “my” for a singular masculine noun in the nominative case.

• Pes (dog) is masculine animate and here it is the subject of the sentence → nominative case.
• The possessive adjective můj must match the noun in gender, number, and case:
  • Masculine (singular nominative): můj pes – my dog
  • Feminine (singular nominative): moje kočka – my cat
  • Neuter (singular nominative): moje auto – my car

Moje pes is wrong because moje is for feminine or neuter, not masculine.
Můj psa would use the accusative form of pes (psa), which you’d use only if the dog was the object (e.g. Vidím mého psa – I see my dog), not the subject.

Why don’t we say “On můj pes spí za domem”? Why is there no “he / it” pronoun?

In Czech, subject pronouns (já, ty, on, ona, ono, my, vy, oni) are usually omitted because the verb ending already shows the subject.

• Spí is 3rd person singular → “he/she/it sleeps”.
• We already know the subject: můj pes.
• So saying On můj pes spí za domem sounds unnatural and redundant.

You can add a pronoun only for emphasis, but then you would emphasize the dog itself, e.g.:

• On spí za domem, ne kočka. – He is sleeping behind the house, not the cat.

In normal neutral sentences like this, you simply leave the pronoun out.

Does spí mean “sleeps” or “is sleeping”? Why is there only one form?

Czech has only one present tense form for both English meanings:

• Můj pes spí za domem.
  • can mean “My dog sleeps behind the house” (habitually)
  • or “My dog is sleeping behind the house” (right now)

Context, adverbs, or the situation itself tell you which is meant.
There is no separate continuous form in Czech (no direct equivalent of English is sleeping vs sleeps); they are both just spí.

How is the verb spát (to sleep) conjugated, and where does spí come from?

The infinitive is spát (to sleep). In the present tense:

• já spím – I sleep / I am sleeping
• ty spíš – you sleep (singular, informal)
• on / ona / ono spí – he / she / it sleeps
• my spíme – we sleep
• vy spíte – you sleep (plural or formal)
• oni spí – they sleep

So spí is the 3rd person singular present tense form:
on / ona / ono spí → he/she/it sleeps.

Note that the long í remains in all 3rd person forms:
on spí, oni spí.

Why is it za domem and not za dům?

The preposition za can take two different cases depending on the meaning:

1. Za + accusative (za dům) → movement to a position behind something:

   • Jdu za dům. – I am going behind the house.

2. Za + instrumental (za domem) → location behind something (no movement):

   • Můj pes spí za domem. – My dog is sleeping behind the house.

In your sentence, the dog is already located behind the house, not moving there, so za uses the instrumental case → domem.

Why is it domem and not dům or domu? What case is this?

Dům (house) in za domem is in the instrumental case.

The noun dům (masculine, “house”) declines like this (singular only):

• Nominative: dům – the house (subject)
• Genitive: domu – of the house
• Dative: domu – to/for the house
• Accusative: dům – (I see) the house
• Locative: o domě – about the house (used with o, v, na etc.)
• Instrumental: domem – with/by/behind the house

Preposition za expressing location usually takes the instrumental, so you get:

• za domem – behind the house (location)

If you said za dům, that would be accusative and mean movement behind the house.

Can the word order change? Is Za domem můj pes spí also correct?

Yes, Czech word order is flexible, especially compared to English.
All these are grammatically correct:

• Můj pes spí za domem.
• Můj pes za domem spí.
• Za domem spí můj pes.
• Za domem můj pes spí.

The basic neutral order is usually:

Subject – Verb – Place – (other information)
Můj pes – spí – za domem.

Changing the order changes the emphasis, not the grammar. For example:

• Za domem spí můj pes. – Emphasis on the place: It’s behind the house that my dog is sleeping.
• Můj pes za domem spí. – Slight emphasis on spí (that’s what he is doing there).

What is the difference between můj pes and ten můj pes?

• Můj pes – simply “my dog”, neutral.
• Ten můj pes – literally “that my dog”, but in Czech it often adds:
  • slight emphasis,
  • emotional coloring (affection, annoyance, etc.).

Examples:

• Můj pes spí za domem. – My dog is sleeping behind the house. (neutral)
• Ten můj pes zase spí za domem. – That dog of mine is sleeping behind the house again.
  (Maybe with a tone of “as usual” or mild irritation or affection.)

In your basic sentence, just use Můj pes.

Is pes always “dog”? Why sometimes psa, psovi, psem?

Pes is the dictionary form (nominative singular). Other forms appear when the word is in different cases. Singular declension:

• Nominative: pes – the dog (subject)
• Genitive: psa – of the dog
• Dative: psovi / psu – to/for the dog
• Accusative: psa – (I see) the dog
• Vocative: pse! – O dog! (calling)
• Locative: psovi / psu – about the dog (with o, na, v etc.)
• Instrumental: psem – with the dog

In your sentence, pes is the subject → nominative: můj pes.

Can I say Můj pes je za domem instead of Můj pes spí za domem?

Yes, but it changes the meaning:

• Můj pes spí za domem. – My dog is sleeping behind the house (it tells you the action).
• Můj pes je za domem. – My dog is behind the house (just the location, nothing about sleeping).

So je corresponds to English “is” only in the sense of existence / location / identity, not in the sense of forming a continuous tense.
To express “is sleeping”, you simply use the present tense of the main verb: spí.

Is there a more colloquial way to say dům in this sentence?

Yes, in everyday spoken Czech people often use barák (informal, colloquial) instead of dům.

Then the instrumental form is:

• barák → barákem

So a more colloquial version would be:

• Můj pes spí za barákem. – My dog is sleeping behind the house (colloquial).