Breakdown of Svědek popsal neznámého zloděje.
zloděj
the thief
svědek
the witness
neznámý
unknown
popsat
to describe
Questions & Answers about Svědek popsal neznámého zloděje.
Why does svědek mean the subject here?
Because svědek is in the nominative singular, which is the normal case for the subject of a Czech sentence.
In Svědek popsal neznámého zloděje:
- svědek = nominative singular = the witness
- neznámého zloděje = accusative singular = the unknown thief
So the structure is:
- Svědek = the person doing the action
- popsal = described
- neznámého zloděje = the person being described
Even though English relies heavily on word order, Czech often shows these roles through case endings instead.
Why is zloděje ending in -e, and why is neznámého ending in -ého?
This is because zloděj is a masculine animate noun, and in Czech, the accusative singular of masculine animate nouns usually looks like the genitive singular.
So:
- zloděj = nominative singular
- zloděje = accusative singular
And the adjective matches it:
- neznámý = nominative singular masculine
- neznámého = accusative singular masculine animate
So neznámého zloděje is a matching adjective + noun pair in the accusative singular.