"To dítě nemá rádo sýr."

Translation: That child does not like cheese.

[RWang2017]

Is rádo here a verb, an adjective or a noun?

[VladaFu]

adjective with the meaning of an adverb

[pma4w89A]

Hmm. I have to think about this.
It seems like a noun as a verb:
Using "Mam te rad" ... I love you/like you or literally I have love to/for you

I have love (noun) goes to I love (verb) you.
I'm getting closer. She/he isn't loving cheese. Here loving is an adjective used as a verb.

I would like your elaboration on this, please. It is pretty complex.

[iBrow.]

I think it's something like "He/she isn't loving of cheese"

[walkinwolk]

rado! Dítě is femenine, but I think the "rad" should follow the gender of the child. Right?

[endless_sleeper]

Nope, dítě is neuter. But, děti (plural) are feminine.

[walkinwolk]

Actually that's what I originally thought until I looked it up. Nevertheless, I never heard or read "ma rado". CAN I say "ma rad" if the child is a boy? And when it comes to neuters, don't they default to the male (rad) gender if the gender is not known?

[endless_sleeper]

If you are using words that are neuters specifically, then you have to use neuter suffixes. In this case, rádo.

Of course, you can say má rád/ráda if it is a boy/a girl and you use masculine/feminine words. But you can't say To dítě nemá rád sýr.

"And when it comes to neuters, don't they default to the male (rad) gender if the gender is not known?"

I think that you might be confusing grammatical genders and 'real-world' genders.

[LobstaJohnson]

so...if you said "to ditê nemá rád sÿr" (my keyboard won't make the symbols correctly...) it would be understandable, but just sound 'wrong' to a native Czech speaker?

[VladaFu]

Exactly, you woulds speaking be with the grammatically errors.

[VincentPD]

How does "rad" works ? Is it an adjective ? Because I thought adjectives have an -é as neuter suffix

[AgnusOinas]

It's an adjective in its short ("nominal") form. Other adjectives can also have this form, for example "young":

• (long) mladý, mladá, mladé
• (short) mlád, mláda, mládo

This short form is only usable in the predicate (for example: "Chci být stále mlád.") and it's quite formal, often bookish. Many adjectives lack the short form completely.

"Rád" is quite unique in that it only has the short form. The long form doesn't exist.

It also cannot be used as an agreeing modifier -- i.e. "I am glad." is "Jsem rád.", but "I am a glad man." cannot be translated as "Jsem rád muž." -- this means "I like being a man" instead, and we have to use "spokojený" (satisfied/content) instead as an agreeing modifier.

So, it's: rád (m.), ráda (f.), rádo (n.) and plural: rádi (m. anim.), rády (m. inanim.), rády (f.), ráda (n.) -- (The masculine inanimate form is hardly usable.) Note that the endings are similar as, for example, "ten/ta/to, plural ti/ty/ty/ta"

[JosephR.Ja]

Dite is neuter singular, so why is rado correct rather than rade, which has the -e ending of adjectives that modify neuter singular nouns, eg, mlade dite.

[AgnusOinas]

Well, these are different endings.

• M: rád, F: ráda, N: rádo
• M: mladý, F: mladá, N: mladé

Note that none of the genders have the same ending. Once you learn the past tense, you'll see that the same endings used in short-form adjectives (like "rád") are also used in past particples. Also notice that, for example, the demostrative "ten" (M), "ta" (F) and "to" (N) use the same endings - i.e. consonant for M, -a for F, and -o for N.

[JosephR.Ja]

OK, it seems helpful to me to translate Mam rad like hledam--I have a liking for/ I am looking for. I did notice that rad/radi (anim masc sg/pl), rada/rady (fem sg/pl), and rado, rada (neuter sg/pl) were like the demonstratives -ten/ti (m), ta/ty (f), and to/ta (n). I definitely wish Mam rad was like Mam zizen!

[AgnusOinas]

Not sure what you mean by the last sentence :)