How to remember Czech cases for a foreigner – table. Czech declension rules
How to remember Czech declensions for beginners
Table of cases of the Czech language
- Nominativ Kdo? Co? Who? What?
- Genitiv (bez) Koho? Čeho? (Without) Whom? What?
- Dativ Komu? Čemu? (To)whom? What?
- Akuzativ (vidíme) Koho? Co? Whom? What?
- Vokativ vocative case, used when addressing someone
- Lokál (o) Kom? Čem? (about) Who?what?
- Instrumentál (s) Kým? Čím? (With) whom? What?
Why does Czech have cases? Cases of using the Czech language
Czech, as a synthetic language with a flexible word order, needs case with their endings as a kind of ‘signal’, which expresses the grammatical relationship between words. Compare the basic meanings of the cases:
- The nominative is the dictionary form of nouns, adjectives, pronouns and some numerals. It expresses the subject of a sentence. For example: Student je ve škole. – A student is at school.
- The genitive expresses possessive or partitive meaning. For example: Kniha studenta. – The book of a student. Láhev vina. – A bottle of wine
- The dative expresses the indirect object in a sentence. For example: Dám dárek studentovi. – I’ll give a present to a student.
- The accusative expresses the direct object in a sentence. For example: Vidím studenta. – I see a student.
- The vocative is the addressing form. If you want to address someone in Czech, use the vocative. For example: Adame! – Adam! Evo! – Eva!
- The locative expresses location. For example: Jsem ve škole. – I’m at school.
- The instrumental expresses the means or instruments by or with which an action is carried out. For example: Jedu autem. – I go by car.
Czech language cases. How to remember czech declensions for foreigners?
However, in addition to these basic meanings, there are further uses of the cases. All verbs and prepositions in Czech are connected with a certain one of cases. Students have to master this part of the language through language exercises and drills (just as students of English learn phrasal verbs, for example. For a better understanding you can imagine that verbs and prepositions have a hook or hooks, on which you can hang one more czech language cases. How to learn czech cases for beginners?
In the following table you can see an overview of the cases that follow several verbs and prepositions.
Table of Czech cases for beginners . Declension table in Czech
| Verbs | Prepositions | Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Být (to be), jmenovat se (to be called) | --- | nominative |
| Bát se (to be afraid of), účastnit se (to take part in) | Z (from), do (to/into), od (from), bez (without), u (at), vedle (next to) | genitive |
| Rozumět (to understand), pomáhat (to help), telefonovat (to telephone), gratulovat (to congratulate) | K (to), kvůli (because of), díky (thanks to), proti (against) | dative |
| Mít (to have), vidět (to see), dát si (to take), znát (to know), hledat (to look for), kupovat (to buy), potřebovat (to need) | Pro (for), za (behind/after), na (to) | accusative |
| --- | --- | vocative |
| Číst o (to read about), mluvit o (to speak about), povídat si o (to talk about), slyšet o (to hear about) | V (in), na (on), o (about) | ocative |
| Zabývat se (to be occupied with), stat se (to become), být spokojený s (to be content with) | S (with), před (in front of/before), mezi (between) | instrumental |
‘For the prepositions we present the most common meanings. In reality, every preposition may have other equivalents depending on the context.
How to learn czech declensions to a foreigner. Czech grammar – cases
In the Czech language, the changeable parts of speech are nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns and numerals. Declensions in the Czech language.
The declension of a noun depends on its gender and type. In Czech all nouns are divided into three genders – male, female and middle.
The main types of declension in each genus are hard and soft, but there are also others. Adjectives are consistent in number and case with a noun.
Adjectives in Czech vary by gender, number and case. There are two types of adjectives in Czech: hard and soft. The solid type includes adjectives that in the nominative singular end in -á feminine, -ý masculine and -é middle gender. The soft type includes adjectives that in the nominative singular end in -í in all genera. Remember that in the nominative case, adjectives (except possessive ones, e.g. matčin – mother) in Czech there is always a long ending.
How to learn czech cases for a foreigner?
Personal pronouns are practically not used in Czech, except when there is an enumeration of subjects (Já a sestra o tom víme. – Both I and my sister know about it.) or when the speaker deliberately wants to emphasize who we are talking about (Neudělal jsem to já! – It wasn’t me who did it!).
In Czech, demonstrative pronouns of male, female and middle gender are used – ten (this), ta (this), to (this).
