"Kávu mají dobrou."

Translation: They have good coffee.

[illustrium]

I understand that it's possible to arrange these words this way, since "dobrou" is clearly linked to "Kávu" by case/number/gender, and word order is very flexible, but is it typical to separate the adjective and the noun this way? "Coffee they have good," is a bizarre sentence to me.

[endless_sleeper]

You usually add the information you want to stress at the end of the clause.

This sentence emphasises the fact that the their coffee is indeed good.

A more neutral way would be: Mají dobrou kávu.

[illustrium]

Thank you. I appreciate the helpful answer!

[David_Sarif]

This all depends on information already given in a conversation. If people are talking about a restaurant and complain about food, but then someone says "Kávu mají dobrou", it means he/she is pointing out that the coffee there is actually good. (it can also suggest that the coffee is the only thing good there)

"Jídlo je tam zlé, ale kávu mají dobrou." (The food is bad there, but they have good coffee.)

[rsail]

I am enjoying learning Czech on Duolingo, but some of the unnusual word order is slowing me down.

I understood the general meaning of "kávu mají dobrou" but I had to stop, scratch my head and read the comments.
:)
Would it be possible to add extra context to some of these sentences?

[VladaFu]

Duolingo does not work that way. Any context that makes sense is possible. Always.

[illustrium]

Thanks for the added context. I think I understand it, at least to a certain extent.

[Miss-Sparkle]

I did a double take when I read that sentence because the word order looked very German to me: "..., aber Kaffee haben sie guten!" What a nice surprise to find out that it carries exactly the same meaning as in German!

BTW: In German, this word order is perfectly normal everyday spoken/informal language. Is it rather informal in Czech too?

[VladaFu]

It is just a normal sentence.

[WeirdAlAwesome]

I put "the coffee they have is good" which is its literal meaning and it counted it wrong

[JeremyMill546049]

I believe the issue is twofold:
1) “The coffee (that) they have is good,” is a sentence of two clauses with an elided conjunction (that), while the Czech here is a simple sentence.
2) “is” (—> “je”) is not in the sentence; only coffee, have, and good.

So while your translation is semantically similar, it differs syntactically.

I’m happy to be corrected if wrong, but I do believe those are the issues here! :)

[Alebrno]

"Kávu mají dobrou" vs "vy nemáte dobré pivo". How to know if using dobrou or dobré.

[VladaFu]

Káva is feminine and dobrou is feminine accusative, and pivo is neuter and dobré is neuter accusative. Check the declension of hard adjectives in the tips and notes.

[Alebrno]

Thanks :) very kind