Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Czech

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Nouns

Noun Declensions

Pronouns

Adjectives

Adverbs

Verbs

Verb Conjugations

Prepositions

Conjunctions

For Help on Help for Windows, press F1.

For Help on Help for Macintosh, select Help with Quick Help from the [image] menu.


Overview of
 Overview of Czech

Vítáme vás!

Welcome, and congratulations on your choice to learn Czech!  This Grammar Basics help file will serve as your introduction to the most basic aspects of Czech grammar.  The Overview will give you more information about this unique language.

Czech is a Balto-Slavic language.  Other members of this language family developed throughout Central and Eastern Europe; these include Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croat, and Lithuanian, among others.  Within the West Slavic group, Czech is most similar to Slovak.  In fact, a Czech and a Slovak can converse in their respective languages and still understand one another!  Czech is spoken by nearly ten million people in the Czech Republic, as well as many others across Central Europe and the Americas who are of Czech descent.

You have probably already noticed that spelling and pronunciation correspond much more closely in Czech than they do in English, making that much easier the task of learning to pronounce Czech.  However, you will need to distinguish between long and short vowels, and consonant clusters may twist your tongue in unfamiliar ways.

Czech has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural).  In addition, it has seven cases, among the most in any modern European language.  Case, like gender and number, affects the endings on nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.  Verbs, too, are quite complex in Czech and will merely be touched on here.  We hope this help file will encourage you to further study of this intriguing language, with its proud literary tradition and rich variety.


Alphabet
Alphabet and Pronunciation

Czech dictionaries are alphabetized in the following order.  Letters sharing a line below are mixed together in alphabetical lists.  Ch is considered a single character, distinct from c and h.

A, Á	a, á
B	b
C	c
�	“
D, D'	d, d'
E, É, ‡	e, é, —
F	f
G	g
H	h
Ch	ch
I, Í	i, í
J	j
K	k
L	l
M	m
N, †	n, –
O, Ó	o, ó
P	p
Q	q
R	r
Š	š
S	s
„	”
T, T'	t, t'
U, Ú, ‚	u, ú, ’
V	v
W	w
X	x
Y, Ý	y, ý
Z	z
…	•

VOWELS

Vowels, including y, are long when accented and short when unaccented.  Long u is written ’ instead of ú where it replaces historical o.  Short e also has a second form, —, which indicates that the preceding consonant is soft (see below).   In vowel pairs, or diphthongs, each vowel is pronounced separately.  Czech has three diphthongs: au, eu, and ou.  Au and eu appear only in loanwords.

CONSONANTS

Traditionally, Czech consonants have been divided into hard, soft, and neutral groups.  This system makes declensions easier to learn.

Hard consonants:	d, g, h, ch, k, n, r, t
Soft consonants:	c, “, d', j, –, š,”, t', •
Neutral consonants:	b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z
(Q, w, and x occur only in loanwords.)

Among the soft consonants, d', t', and –  are spelled d, t, and n, respectively, when they precede i, í, or —.  These consonant-vowel combinations themselves show the softness of the consonant, making unnecessary the accent mark which usually does so.

STRESS

Czech words are always stressed on the first syllable.  Words over two syllables long have secondary stresses on every other syllable.  Note that vowel length does not indicate stress.  Unstressed syllables can have long vowels, and stressed syllables can have short vowels.


Nouns

A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, action, thing, or idea.

Máte jednol’•kový pokoj?

Do you have a single room?

The endings on Czech nouns reflect their case, number, gender, animacy, and hardness.  Case and number can vary for an individual noun, but its gender, animacy, and hardness are always the same.

CASE

Czech has seven cases.  The case a noun takes depends on its role in a sentence.

Nominative	(N)	marks the subject of a sentence; the dictionary form
Genitive	(G)	marks possession, measurement, or source
Dative	(D)	marks an indirect object
Accusative	(A)	marks a direct object
Locative	(L)	marks time or place
Instumental	(I)	marks method or means
Vocative	(V)	marks the name or other animate noun in a greeting

NUMBER

When there is one of an item, a noun is singular.  When there are two or more, it is plural.

GENDER AND ANIMACY

People, animals, deities, and the like are animate nouns, while plants and other objects are inanimate.  Among animate nouns, male beings are masculine; female beings are feminine; children and young animals are neuter.  Some inanimate nouns are masculine, while some are feminine and others neuter.  Only masculine nouns vary in endings according to animacy.

HARDNESS

In general, nouns are hard if their final consonant in the nominative singular is hard.  They are soft if their final consonant is soft.  Some nouns with neutral final consonants are hard, while others are soft.

ARTICLES

Czech has no articles (English a, an, the).  For example, auto can mean car, a car, or the car.

See Also:

Noun Declensions


Noun Declension
Noun Declensions

The full set of variations in a Czech noun (or pronoun or adjective) according to case and number constitute its declension.  A noun's gender, animacy, and hardness determine which declension it belongs to.  Czech has some one dozen regular noun declensions, of which the nouns below are merely examples.

	HARD		SOFT
	SINGULAR	PLURAL	SINGULAR	PLURAL
N	pán = gentleman	páni	mu•= man	mu•i
G	pána	pán’	mu•e	mu•’
D	pánovi	pán’m	mu•ovi	mu•’m	MASCULINE
A	pána	pány	mu•e	mu•e	ANIMATE
L	pánovi	pánech	mu•i	mu•ích
I	pánem	pány	mu•em	mu•i
V	pane	páni	mu•i	mu•i
N	st’l = table	stoly	pokoj = room	pokoje
G	stolu	stol’	pokoje	pokoj’
D	stolu	stol’m	pokoji	pokoj’m	MASCULINE
A	st’l	stoly	pokoj	pokoje	INANIMATE
L	stolu	stolech	pokoji	pokojích
I	stolem	stoly	pokojem	pokoji
V	--	--	--	--
N	•ena = woman	•eny	ulice = street	ulice
G	•eny	•en	ulice	ulic
D	•en—	•enám	ulici	ulicím
A	•enu	•eny	ulici	ulice	FEMININE
L	•en—	•enách	ulici	ulicích
I	•enou	•enami	ulicí	ulicemi
V	•eno	•eny	--	--
N	m—sto = town	m—sta	moše = sea	moše
G	m—sta	m—st	moše	moší
D	m—stu	m—st’m	moši	moším
A	m—sto	m—sta	moše	moše	NEUTER
L	m—st—	m—stech	moši	moších
I	m—stem	m—sty	mošem	moši
V	--	--	--	--

Irregular nouns have their own unique declensions.

See Also:

Nouns


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned or understood noun.

Czech pronouns agree in case, number, gender, and animacy with the noun they replace.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

(given in nominative)

I	já
you	ty (singular), vy (plural or formal)
he	on
she	ona
it	ono
we	my
they	oni (animate), ony (inanimate)

OTHER COMMON PRONOUNS

(given in masculine animate nominative singular)

this (one)	tento, tenhle
that (one)	ten, tamten, onen
(one) who, (one) which	který, jen•
who?	kdo?
which?	který?
what?	co?


Adjectives

An adjective is a word that limits, or modifies, a noun.

Máte jednol’•kový pokoj?

Do you have a single room?

Czech adjectives precede the noun they modify, and they agree in case, number, gender, and animacy with that noun.  However, their hardness depends on their own final letter (soft adjectives end with -í in the masculine singular nominative), not the final consonant of the noun.

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

Most comparatives consist of the base adjective plus the suffix -ej”í or -—j”í.  Superlatives consist of the prefix nej- plus the comparative adjective.  Many common adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms.

See Also:

Adverbs


Adverbs

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb by expressing time, place, manner, degree, or cause.

Rozumím dobše.

I understand perfectly.

(Literally: I understand well.)

Czech adverbs generally consist of an adjective stem plus the ending -e or -—.  (Adjective stems are the masculine nominative singular form minus the final -ý or -í.)  When a stem ends in a hard consonant, however, the consonant becomes soft in the resulting adverb.

See Also:

Adjectives


Verb
 Verbs

A verb expresses action, existence, or occurrence.

Rozumím dobše.

I understand perfectly.

The dictionary form of a verb is its infinitive.

rozum—t

to understand

ASPECT

Most Czech verbs have two forms, or aspects: the imperfective and the perfective.  Imperfective verbs describe ongoing or incomplete action, while perfective verbs describe completed action.  Perfectives often consist of a prefix (u-, po-, do-, etc.) plus the corresponding imperfective.

TENSE

Czech verbs can express three time periods, or tenses: past, present, and future.  Both imperfectives and perfectives have past and future tenses, but only imperfectives have a present tense.  Perfective verbs with the same endings as present-tense imperfectives actually express the future tense.  Imperfective verbs express the future with the future tense of the verb být (to be) plus their infinitive.

AGREEMENT

The verb in a Czech sentence generally agrees with the subject in number and person.  The I and we forms are the first person; the you forms are the second person; and the he, she, it, and they forms are the third person.  Because the verb contains information about number and person, subject pronouns are often omitted.

The past tense consists of a past participle plus a helping verb--in this instance, the present tense of být.  Participles agree with the subject of a sentence in number, gender, and animacy, while helping verbs agree with the subject in number and person.

IMPERATIVES

Imperative constructions express commands.  A Czech verb has three imperatives: the we form, the singular you form, and the plural (or formal singular) you form.

NEGATION

The prefix ne- makes verbs negative in Czech.  Generally, when a verb includes a participle and a helping verb, the participle has the prefix, but when it includes a helping verb and an infinitive, the helping verb has the prefix.

Nerozumím.

I don't understand.

REFLEXIVE VERBS

Reflexive verbs in Czech express action on or toward the subject of a sentence.  A reflexive pronoun (se or si) always accompanies them; it can often be translated as -self (myself, themselves, and so on).  Many other verbs become reflexive with the addition of se or si.

Jak se jmenujete?  Jmenuji se Jana.

What is your name?  My name is Jana.

(Literally: What do you call yourself?  I call myself Jana.)

A NOTE ON WORD ORDER

Reflexive pronouns may precede the verb they accompany or they may follow it, depending on context.  Similarly, when verbs contain a helping verb and a participle, the helping verb may either precede or follow the participle.

Kdy jste si jej rezervoval?  Rezervoval jsem si pokoj v“era telefonicky.

When did you make your reservation?  I reserved the room by telephone yesterday.

Word order in Czech is quite variable because the endings on words provide much of the information that their order does in English.  The rules that govern placement of reflexive pronouns, helping verbs, and so on have as much to do with style as with intelligibility.  But these are the fine points of Czech grammar.  Right now, you'll want to focus on understanding and being understood.

See Also:

Verb Conjugations


Verb Conjugations

The full set of variations in a verb according to number, person, gender, and animacy make up its conjugation.  Most Czech verbs fall into one of three basic conjugations.  Here is an example of one of them.

	IMPERFECTIVE	PERFECTIVE
INFINITIVE	prosit = to ask	poprosit
PRESENT	SINGULAR	PLURAL
	1	prosím	prosíme	perfective verbs have no present tense
	2	prosí”	prosíte
	3	prosí	prosí
PAST	SINGULAR	PLURAL	SINGULAR	PLURAL
masc anim	1	prosil jsem	prosili jsme	poprosil jsem	poprosili jsme
	2	prosil jsi	prosili jste	poprosil jsi	poprosili jste
	3	prosil	prosili	poprosil	poprosili
masc inan	1	prosil jsem	prosily jsme	poprosil jsem	poprosily jsme
	2	prosil jsi	prosily jste	poprosil jsi	poprosily jste
	3	prosil	prosily	poprosil	poprosily
feminine	1	prosila jsem	prosily jsme	poprosila jsem	poprosily jsme
	2	prosila jsi	prosily jste	poprosila jsi	poprosily jste
	3	prosila	prosily	poprosila	poprosily
neuter	1	prosilo jsem	prosila jsme	poprosilo jsem	poprosila jsme
	2	prosilo jsi	prosila jste	poprosilo jsi	poprosila jste
	3	prosilo	prosila	poprosilo	poprosila
FUTURE		SINGULAR	PLURAL	SINGULAR	PLURAL
	1	budu prosit	budeme prosit	poprosím	poprosíme
	2	bude” prosit	budete prosit	poprosí”	poprosíte
	3	bude prosit	budou prosit	poprosí	poprosí
IMPERATIVE	2 SING	1 PLURAL	2 PL/FML	2 SING	1 PLURAL	2 PL/FML
	pros	prosme	proste	popros	poprosme	poproste

Irregular verbs have their own unique conjugations.

See Also:

Verbs


Prepositions

A preposition is a word that precedes a noun and shows how it relates to other elements of a sentence.

Na sv—tlech zahn—te doprava a jd—te pšes dv— ulice.

Turn right at the light and walk two blocks.

Nouns following a preposition in Czech take the case associated with that preposition.  Some prepositions are associated with different cases depending on their meaning.

SOME COMMON PREPOSITIONS

k, ke	to
na	for, at, on, to, about
o	of, for, by
pro	for
s, se	with
u	by, at
v, ve	at, in, on
z	from


Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that connects other words, phrases, or sentences.

Na sv—tlech zahn—te doprava a jd—te pšes dv— ulice.

Turn right at the light and walk two blocks.

SOME COMMON CZECH CONJUNCTIONS

and	a, i
or	(a)nebo
nor	ani
for	nebot'
but	ale, (a)v”ak
because	proto•e, pon—vad•
although	a“, a“koli
if	jestli, jestli•e, -li, kdyby, zdali
while	kde•to, zatímco
until	a•
that	•e
therefore	(a) proto, (a) tak, tedy