Dnes mi voní i káva, i když mi včera nevoněla.

Mi means to me. It is the short form of the dative pronoun mně/mi.

In Czech, verbs like vonět often work as:

• něco voní někomu = something smells good to someone

So:

• káva mi voní = coffee smells good to me
• literally: coffee is fragrant to me

This is different from English, where we often do not explicitly say to me unless we want to stress personal opinion.

Because káva is the grammatical subject of the verb vonět.

In this sentence, the structure is:

• káva voní = coffee smells nice
• káva mi voní = coffee smells nice to me

So káva is the thing doing the “smelling nice,” and mi is the person experiencing it.

That is why:

• káva = nominative subject
• mi = dative indirect object / experiencer

Voní is from the verb vonět, which means to smell nice, to have a pleasant smell, or sometimes to be fragrant.

Important: it does not just mean to smell in the neutral English sense.

Compare:

• vonět = smell good / pleasant
• smrdět = stink / smell bad

So káva mi voní is not just I smell coffee. It means that the coffee’s smell is pleasant to the speaker.

Here i means even or also, depending on context.

So:

• Dnes mi voní i káva = Today even coffee smells good to me
  or
• Today coffee smells good to me too

In this sentence, i most naturally feels like even, suggesting that coffee is one more thing that smells good today, or that this is a bit surprising.

So the speaker may be implying something like:

• many things smell good today, and even coffee does
• or coffee usually doesn’t smell good to them, but today it does

Yes. I když is a fixed conjunction meaning although, even though, or though.

So:

• i když mi včera nevoněla = even though it didn’t smell good to me yesterday

Even though i by itself can mean also/even, in i když you should learn it as a whole expression:

• i když = although / even though

Because both clauses have the same idea: something smells good/bad to me.

The sentence has two clauses:

1. Dnes mi voní i káva
2. i když mi včera nevoněla

In both clauses, the experiencer is me, so Czech repeats mi.

English can sometimes avoid repeating things more easily, but in Czech this repetition is natural and normal.

Because Czech past tense agrees in gender and number with the subject.

The subject is káva, which is:

• feminine
• singular

So the past tense of vonět must match that:

• voněl = masculine singular
• voněla = feminine singular
• vonělo = neuter singular
• voněly = plural

That is why we get:

• káva nevoněla = the coffee didn’t smell good

Czech often leaves out subject pronouns when they are clear from context.

In the second clause:

• i když mi včera nevoněla

there is no separate word for it, because Czech does not need one here. The verb form nevoněla is feminine singular, and the context already tells us the subject is káva.

So Czech is effectively saying:

• even though [the coffee] didn’t smell good to me yesterday

This kind of omission is very common.

Czech word order is flexible, and it often reflects topic, focus, and what is being emphasized.

This order sounds natural because:

• Dnes sets the time first: today
• mi is a short unstressed pronoun, which tends to come early
• i káva comes later, where it gets emphasis: even coffee

So the structure highlights the contrast:

• today … even coffee
• compared with yesterday … it didn’t smell good

Other word orders are possible, but they would change the emphasis slightly.

Yes, those are possible, but the emphasis changes.

For example:

• Dnes mi voní i káva
  neutral and very natural; emphasis on even coffee
• Dnes i káva mi voní
  stronger focus on coffee too / even coffee
• I káva mi dnes voní
  strong fronting of even coffee; more marked or expressive

A learner should probably treat Dnes mi voní i káva as the safest natural version.

Grammatically, you could say:

• Dnes voní i káva, i když včera nevoněla.

But the meaning changes slightly.

Without mi, the sentence sounds more like a general statement about the coffee’s smell. With mi, it clearly expresses a personal reaction:

• mi voní = it smells good to me
• without mi = more like it smells nice in general

Since smell is often subjective, mi is very useful here.

Because the sentence contrasts two time points:

• dnes = today
• včera = yesterday

This creates the core contrast of the sentence:

• today coffee smells good to me
• yesterday it didn’t

So the sentence is not just about coffee; it is about a change in perception from one day to another.

Very often, yes, when you mean that something smells pleasant to someone.

Typical pattern:

• To jídlo mi voní. = That food smells good to me.
• Ta růže jí voní. = She likes the smell of that rose / That rose smells nice to her.

So it is a good idea to learn vonět together with the pattern:

• něco voní někomu

That will help you produce sentences naturally.

Yes. The sentence can suggest a subtle personal or emotional state.

Because the speaker says:

• Today even coffee smells good to me, although yesterday it didn’t

it may imply that something about the speaker has changed:

• mood
• health
• appetite
• sensitivity to smells

So the sentence can feel more expressive than a plain factual statement. The word i helps create that nuance by making coffee sound a little surprising.