Questions & Answers about Jahody i hrozny dobře voní, když jsou čerstvé.
What does i mean here, and why isn’t it just a?
Here i means something like also / as well / both ... and ....
So Jahody i hrozny means both strawberries and grapes.
You could also say Jahody a hrozny, which is a more neutral and. Using i gives a slight sense of not only strawberries, but grapes too.
Why are jahody and hrozny plural?
They are plural because the sentence talks about these fruits in general.
- jahoda = a strawberry
- jahody = strawberries
- hrozen / hrozny is commonly used for grapes in everyday speech
Czech often uses the plural when talking about fruits as a type of food, just like English often says strawberries and grapes.
Does hrozny really mean grapes?
Yes, in normal everyday Czech, hrozny can mean grapes.
A useful nuance:
- hrozen literally means a bunch/cluster
- hrozny is commonly used for grapes
- hroznové víno is another common word for grapes
So in this sentence, hrozny is perfectly natural.
What case are jahody and hrozny in?
They are in the nominative plural, because they are the subject of the sentence — the things that smell good.
You can test that by asking: What smells good? Answer: Jahody i hrozny.
Why is the verb voní the same form for a plural subject?
Because in Czech, many verbs have the same form in the present tense for 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural.
So:
- jahoda voní = a strawberry smells
- jahody voní = strawberries smell
The subject tells you whether it is singular or plural.
What exactly does dobře voní mean? Is it literally smell well?
Literally, yes, it looks like smell well, but idiomatically it means smell good / smell nice.
This is natural Czech.
Also, vonět usually has a positive meaning: to give off a pleasant smell. So dobře voní emphasizes that pleasant smell.
It is also normal to use vonět for food and fruit, not just flowers or perfume.
What does když mean here? Can it also mean if?
Here když means when.
So když jsou čerstvé = when they are fresh.
It is true that když can sometimes mean if in colloquial Czech, but in this sentence the meaning is clearly when, because it describes a general situation: strawberries and grapes smell good when they are fresh.
Why is there no word for they before jsou?
Why is it čerstvé and not some other adjective form?
Čerstvé agrees with the subject jahody i hrozny.
This is a plural predicate adjective after jsou. Since the subject is a mixed plural group with no masculine animate noun, Czech uses the -é form:
- jsou čerstvé = are fresh
So the form is chosen by grammatical agreement, not just by dictionary form.
Does čerstvé describe both jahody and hrozny, or only the second noun?
It describes both.
The structure is:
- Jahody i hrozny = the whole subject
- jsou čerstvé = what is said about that whole subject
So the meaning is both strawberries and grapes smell good when they are fresh.
Why is there a comma before když?
Because když jsou čerstvé is a subordinate clause, and Czech normally separates subordinate clauses with a comma.
So the comma is required here.
This is very common with words like:
Could the word order be different?
Yes. Czech word order is more flexible than English word order.
For example, you could also say something like Dobře voní jahody i hrozny, když jsou čerstvé, but the original sentence is very natural and neutral.
Starting with Jahody i hrozny puts the fruits first as the topic.
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