Czech declension is a complex system of grammatically determined modifications of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in Czech, one of the Slavic languages. Czech has seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, locative and instrumental, partly inherited from Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Slavic. Some forms of words match in more than one place in each paradigm.

Nouns

There are 14 paradigms of noun declension. The paradigm of nominal declension depends on the gender and the ending in the nominative of the noun. In Czech the letters d, h, ch, k, n, r and t are considered 'hard' consonants and č, ř, š, ž, c, j, ď, ť, and ň are considered 'soft'. Others are ambiguous, so nouns ending in b, f, l, m, p, s, v and z may take either form. For nouns in which the stem ends with a consonant group, a floating e is usually inserted between the last two consonants in cases with no ending. Examples: Consonant or vowel alternations in the word-stem are also obvious in some cases, e.g. zámek (N sg) → zámcích (L pl), Věra (N sg) → Věře (D sg), kniha (N sg) → knize (D sg), moucha (N sg) → mouše (D sg), hoch (N sg) → hoši (N pl), kluk (N sg) → kluci (N pl), bůh (N sg) → bozích (L pl), kolega (N sg) → kolezích (L pl), moucha (N sg) → much (G pl), smlouva (N sg) → smluv (G pl), díra (N sg) → děr (G pl), víra (N sg) → věr (G pl), kráva (N sg) → krav (G pl), dvůr (N sg) → dvora (G sg), hnůj (N sg) → hnoje (G sg), sůl (N sg) → soli (G sg), lest (N sg) → lsti (G sg), čest (N sg) → cti (G sg), křest (N sg) → křtu (G sg), mistr (N sg) → mistře (V sg), švec (N sg) → ševce (G sg). See Czech phonology for more details.

Masculine animate

pán – sir, lord; kluk – boy; host – guest; manžel – husband; muž – man; kůň – horse; učitel – teacher; otec – father; předseda – chairman; turista – tourist; cyklista – cyclist; kolega – colleague; soudce – judge; mluvčí -speaker, spokesman

Masculine inanimate

''hrad – castle; les – forest; zámek – chateau, lock; stroj – machine Latin words ending -us are declined according to the paradigm pán (animate) or hrad (inanimate) as if there were no -us ending in the nominative: Brutus, Bruta, Brutovi, Bruta, Brute, Brutovi, Brutem

Feminine

žena – woman; škola – school; husa – goose; ulice – street; růže – rose; píseň – song; postel – bed; dveře – door; kost – bone; ves – village

Neuter

město – town; jablko – apple; moře – sea; letiště – airport; kuře – chicken; stavení – building, house; Latin words ending -um are declined according to the paradigm město: muzeum, muzea, muzeu, muze****um ...

Irregular nouns

The parts of the body have irregular, originally dual, declension, especially in the plural forms, but only when used to refer to the parts of the body and not in metaphorical contexts. For example, when "noha" (leg) is used to refer to the part of the body, it declines as below, but when used to refer to a leg on a chair or table, it declines regularly (according to žena). oko – eye, ucho – ear, rameno – shoulder, koleno – knee, ruka – hand/arm, noha – foot/leg. bůh – god, člověk – person, lidé – people, obyvatel – resident, přítel – friend Submodels of feminine declension dcera – daughter, ulice – street Submodels of neuter declension vejce – egg, letiště – airport Other cases of special inflection loket – elbow, dvůr – courtyard, čest – honour, zeď – wall, loď – boat

Adjective

Adjective declension varies according to the gender of the noun which they are related to:

Hard declension

mladý – young

Soft declension

jarní – spring, vernal

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives are formed from animate singular nouns (masculine and feminine): Examples: Possessive adjectives are often used in the names of streets, squares, buildings, etc.: but:

Comparisons

The comparative is formed by the suffix -ejší, -ější, -ší, or -í (there is no simple rule which suffix should be used). The superlative is formed by adding the prefix nej- to the comparative. Examples: The comparative and the superlative can be also formed by the words více (more)/méně (less) and nejvíce (most)/nejméně (least): Irregular comparisons:

Short forms

There are also short forms in some adjectives. They are used in the nominative and are regarded as literary in the contemporary language. They are related to active and passive participles. (See Czech verb) Example: Rád is used in a short form only: Jsem rád, že jste přišli. (I am glad that you came.)

Pronouns

Pronoun declension is complicated, some are declined according to adjective paradigms, some are irregular.

Personal pronouns

In some singular cases, short forms of pronouns are possible, which are clitics. They cannot be used with prepositions. They are unstressed, therefore they cannot be the first words in sentences. Usually they appear in second place in a sentence or clause, obeying Wackernagel's Law. Examples: In 3rd person (singular and plural) j-forms are used without prepositions, n-forms are used after prepositions: Accusative forms jej (on), je, ně (ono) are usually regarded as archaic. They: oni – masculine animate gender, ony – masculine inanimate and feminine genders, ona – neuter gender Reflexive personal pronoun Reflexive personal pronoun is used when the object is identical to the subject. It has no nominative form and it is the same for all persons and numbers. It is translated into English as myself, yourself, himself, etc. Example: Short form se and si are again clitics; often they are a part of reflexive verbs and as such are not usually translated into English explicitly:

Possessive pronouns

Můj – my Tvůj – your Jeho – his, its This pronoun is indeclinable. Její – her Náš – our Váš – your Jejich – their This pronoun is indeclinable. Reflexive possessive pronoun The reflexive possessive pronoun is used when the possessor is also the subject (my own, your own, etc.). It is identical for all persons. Examples: Compare:

Demonstrative pronouns

Ten – the, this, that Tenhle, tahle, tohle/tento**, tato, toto (this) and tamten, tamta, tamto** (that) are declined as ten + to (tento, tohoto, tomuto ...), resp. tam + ten (tamten, tamtoho, tamtomu ...). Onen, ona, ono (that – not to be confused with personal pronouns) is declined as ten (onen, onoho, onomu ...). To is often used as personal pronoun instead of ono (it): "To je/jsou" means "this is/these are" and is used for all genders and both numbers:

Interrogative and relative pronouns

Kdo – who Co – what Který – which, who declined as mladý Jaký – what, what kind, what type declined as mladý Compare: Čí – whose declined as jarní Jenž – which, who Jenž is not an interrogative pronoun, it is equivalent to který (as a relative pronoun):

Indefinite and negative pronouns

někdo, kdos(i) (old) – somebody, someone nikdo – nobody, no one kdokoli(v) – anyone leckdo(s), leda(s)kdo, kdekdo – many people, frequently/commonly someone declined like kdo (někdo, někoho, někomu, …; nikdo, nikoho, nikomu, …; kdokoli, kohokoli, komukoli, …; leckdo, leckoho, leckomu, …) něco – something nic – nothing cokoli(v) – anything lecco(s), ledaco(s), leda(s)co, kdeco – many things, frequently/commonly something declined like co (něco, něčeho, něčemu, …; nic, ničeho, ničemu, …; cokoli, čehokoli, čemukoli, …; lecos, lecčeho, lecčemu, …) někde – somewhere nikde – nowhere kdekoli(v) – anywhere všude – everywhere; less frequently: any path/direction/trajectory leckde, leda(s)kde – on many/frequent/common places, wherever někudy, kudysi (old) – some path/direction/trajectory nikudy – no path/direction/trajectory kdekudy – any path/direction/trajectory odněkud, odkudsi (old) – from somewhere odnikud – from nowhere odevšad – from everywhere/every direction/every angle kdesi (old) – somewhere more specific not declined všelijak – in all ways nějak, jaksi (old) – somehow (colloquial tak nějak – in a way, somewhat, quite, rather) nijak, nikterak (old) – in no way jakkoli(v), kdejak (old) – in any way, anyhow not declined každý – each, each one nějaký – some, one, a(n) některý – some, particular, selected (little more specific than nějaký) kterýsi (old), jakýsi (old) – some, someone (more specific) žádný – none, no (as in "no man has ever been there") nijaký – no whatsoever; of no properties (specifically) jakýkoli(v), kterýkoli – any lecjaký, leda(s)jaký, kdejaký, kdekterý – frequently/commonly some, whichever všelijaký – getting many forms, various veškerý – entire, total, all declined like mladý něčí, čísi (old) – belonging to someone or something ničí – belonging to no one or nothing číkoli – belonging to any one or anything lecčí, leda(s)čí, kdečí – belonging to many or frequent/common number of owners, whosever declined like jarní Czech grammar allows more than one negative word to exist in a sentence. For example: „Tady nikde nikdy nikdo nijak odnikud nikam nepostoupí.‟, standing for: "Anywhere around here, no one will ever progress from any place anywhere in any way." (literally, word by word: "Here nowhere never nobody no way nowhence nowhere won't progress."), uses six negatives in adverbs and pronouns and one at verb while still being grammatically correct. It uses negative form in questions, expressing doubts, wishes, asking for favours, etc. like, for example: „Neměl bys být už ve škole?!‟ ("Shouldn't you be at school already?!"); „Neměl byste na mě pár minut čas?‟ ("Wouldn't you have few minutes of Your time for me?"); „Nemáš náhodou papír a tužku?‟ ("Don't you, by chance, happen to have a paper and some pencil?"); „Přišel jsem se tě zeptat, jestli bychom si nemohli vyměnit směny.‟ ("I came to ask if we could not swap our shifts.")

Prepositions with certain cases

Czech prepositions are matched with certain cases of nouns. They are usually not matched with the nominative case, which is primarily used as the subject in sentences. However, there are some exceptions to this rule: foreign prepositions (kontra, versus, etc.) are matched with the nominative, but their use is very rare. No prepositions are matched with the vocative, because it is used for addressing people only. Genitive: Dative: Accusative: Locative: Instrumental:

Plural forms

Like other Slavic languages, Czech distinguishes two different plural forms in the nominative case. For numbers 2 to 4 or in cases where the quantity of the plural noun is not defined in any way, the nominative plural form is used. For higher numbers or when used with a quantifying adjective, the genitive form is used, and any following verb will be neuter singular. This declension applies to nouns and adjectives. (dlouhý – long, hodina – hour, pár – a few; a pair)

Gender and number of compound phrases

In the case of a compound noun phrase (coordinate structure), of the form "X and Y", "X, Y and Z", etc., the following rules for gender and number apply: However: For further description (in Czech) and example sentences, see the Institute of the Czech Language source listed below.

Sources