"In January, we saw a wolf there."

Translation: V lednu jsme tam viděli vlka.

[judygunson]

Ah the famous flexible Czech word order! "V lednu jsme videli tam vlka" No no no! But why not? I would love to know the rule. Can anyone help me?

[VladaFu]

Posting three times will not give you a better answer.

Anyway, maybe someone can help you. What is your question?

[teabeadle]

I'm not the OP but have the same question: What is false about "V lednu jsme viděli tam vlka"? (It is not accepted.)

[VladaFu]

Adverbs can be used only in certain positions in the sentence. Unfortunately I do not know a systematic rule off the top of my head, but this order is wrong. The normal position is likely in front of the verb, at the beginning or at the end.

Viděli jsme tam v lednu vlka. - the new thing is that we saw a wolf there and it happened in January, you cannot switch the order of the adverbs of place and time here

Tam jsme viděli v lednu vlka. - similar, but stresses Tam

V lednu jsme tam viděli vlka. - similar, but stresses V lednu

Tam jsme viděli vlka v lednu. - It was January when we saw him there (and elswhere at some other time).

V lednu jsme viděli vlka tam. - In January we saw him there (and in other months somewhere else).

Vlka jsme tam viděli v lednu. - It was January when we saw the wolf there. Answer when asked When?

Vlka jsme v lednu viděli tam. - It was there where we saw the wolf in January. Answer when asked Where?

Vlka jsme viděli v lednu tam. -the same, you cannot switch the adverbs of time and place here

[Esus111138]

jsou and tam are both clitic...

[VladaFu]

That is not exactly true. Tam is not a strict clitic. Jsou is, but only as a past tense auxiliary verb.

[Chessnecof]

Is there a rule when tam can or must seperate jsme and viděli?

[VladaFu]

It is not about separating jsme a tam. It is about general rules for placing adverbs. Please go through the examples I listed above, you will see many combinations.

[Qurraguina]

If "Zimy tady jsou studené a dlouhé" is fine, why "V lednu tam jsme viděli vlka" is wrong? Is it related to the missing subject?

[VladaFu]

These two sentences have almost nothing in common.

The auxiliary verb in the past tense ("jsme" in "jsme viděli") must be in the second position. See the Tips and notes about the past tense for more.