Kurz češtiny začne ve čtvrt na osm.

Because after kurz Czech normally uses the genitive case for the subject or field of the course.

• čeština = the dictionary form, nominative
• češtiny = genitive singular

So kurz češtiny is the normal way to say a Czech course / a course in Czech.

This pattern is very common:

• kurz angličtiny
• učitel češtiny
• znalost němčiny

Kurz is in the nominative singular, and the whole subject is Kurz češtiny.

The verb začne is 3rd person singular, so it agrees with that singular subject.

A good way to see it:

• Kurz češtiny začne... = singular subject, singular verb
• Kurzy češtiny začnou... = plural subject, plural verb

Začne is the 3rd person singular future of the verb začít.

The important thing for learners is that začít is a perfective verb. In Czech, perfective verbs use present-tense forms to talk about the future.

So:

• začíná = from začínat (imperfective)
• začne = from začít (perfective), meaning will start

That is why začne looks like a present form but has future meaning.

Both can be possible in real life, but they are not exactly the same.

• začne focuses on the event as a single completed beginning: it will start
• začíná is imperfective and can mean starts / is starting

In schedules and timetables, Czech often uses either form depending on style and nuance. Here, začne is very natural because it presents the start as a one-time event.

So this sentence sounds like: the course has a specific start time, and at that moment it will begin.

Ve is just a pronunciation variant of v.

Czech often uses ve instead of v when the next word begins with a consonant cluster or a sound combination that would be awkward to pronounce after v.

That is why you get forms like:

• ve škole
• ve středu
• ve čtvrt na osm

So there is no difference in meaning between v and ve here; it is mainly about ease of pronunciation.

This is a traditional Czech way of telling time, and it often surprises English speakers.

Czech counts toward the next hour:

• čtvrt na osm = 7:15
• literally something like a quarter on the way to eight

So this does not work like English quarter to eight, which means 7:45.

This is one of the most important time-expression differences to learn in Czech.

In this pattern, Czech uses na + the next hour.

So:

• čtvrt na osm = a quarter toward eight
• tři čtvrtě na osm = three quarters toward eight

The idea is that the clock is moving toward the upcoming hour.

Grammatically, osm here is after na, but because osm has the same form in nominative and accusative, you do not see a visible ending change.

Because Czech uses different patterns for different traditional clock expressions.

For example:

• čtvrt na osm = 7:15
• v půl osmé = 7:30
• ve tři čtvrtě na osm = 7:45

So you should not expect one single grammar pattern for all of them. It is better to learn them as common set expressions.

A useful shortcut is:

• čtvrt na + next hour
• půl + ordinal-like form of the next hour
• tři čtvrtě na + next hour

Yes, very normal.

Traditional expressions like ve čtvrt na osm are common in everyday Czech and sound natural in speech.

But Czech also very often uses a more digital-style way of saying time, especially in schedules or formal information:

• v sedm patnáct

So both are natural, but they can feel a little different in style:

• ve čtvrt na osm = traditional, conversational, very common
• v sedm patnáct = straightforward, exact, also very common

Yes. Czech word order is flexible, and changing it usually changes the focus rather than the core meaning.

The given sentence is a neutral, natural order:

• Kurz češtiny začne ve čtvrt na osm.

But you could also say:

• Ve čtvrt na osm začne kurz češtiny.

This puts more emphasis on the time.

So the original version is a good default, but not the only possible order.

Here are the most useful ones around the same hour:

• v sedm = 7:00
• ve čtvrt na osm = 7:15
• v půl osmé = 7:30
• ve tři čtvrtě na osm = 7:45
• v osm = 8:00

And with another hour:

• ve čtvrt na devět = 8:15
• v půl deváté = 8:30
• ve tři čtvrtě na devět = 8:45

These patterns are extremely useful in spoken Czech.