Czech language

Morphology

Parts of speech

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• Noun (podstatné jméno)
• Adjective (p?ídavné jméno)
• Pronoun (zájmeno)
• Numeral (?íslovka)
• Verb (sloveso)
• Adverb (p?íslovce)
• Preposition (p?edlo?ka)
• Conjunction (spojka)
• Particle (?ástice)
• Interjection (citoslovce)

Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numbers are declined (7 cases over a number of declension models) and verbs are conjugated; the other parts of speech are not inflected (with the exception of comparative formation in adverbs).

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Dialects

In the Czech Republic three distinct dialects can be found, all corresponding more or less to geographic areas within the country. The first, and most widely used, is "Bohemian Czech", obviously spoken in Bohemia. It has many grammatical differences from "standard" Czech, along with some differences in pronunciation. The most common pronunciation changes include -ý becoming -ej in some circumstances, -é becoming -ý- in some circumstances (-ej- in others), and the insertion of a v- at the beginning of all words starting with o-. Also, noun declension is changed, most notably the instrumental case. Instead of having various endings (depending on gender) in the instrumental, Bohemians will just put -ama at the end of all plural instrumental declensions.

Related Topics:
Dialect - Bohemia

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The second dialect is spoken in Moravia. This dialect, even has several different words from standard Czech. For example, tramvaj (streetcar or tram) is ?alina. Moravians consider themselves to speak correct Czech, unlike their Bohemian brothers.

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The third major dialect - Teshen Silesian - is spoken in Silesia, centered around the city Ostrava. This dialect, too, is grammatically sound, but in this dialect people speak very quickly, and the long vowels become the same as their short counterparts.

Related Topics:
Teshen Silesian - Silesia - Ostrava

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Declension

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The noun cases are typically referred to by number, and learned by means of the question to which they are the answer. When learning a new word, children recite the cases using a set of example phrases, shown as follows:

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• kdo/co? (who/what?) - Nominative
• bez koho/?eho? (without whom/what?) - Genitive
• komu/?emu? (to whom/what?) - Dative
• vidím koho/co? (I see whom/what?) - Accusative
• volám (I call) Vocative
• o kom/?em? (about whom/what?) - Locative (also known as Prepositional)
• s kým/?ím? (with whom/what?) - Instrumental

The case used depends on a number of variables, and for foreigners can be very confusing.

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The simplest of the rules governing noun declension is the use of prepositions (p?edlo?ky). Excepting expressions and common phrases, each preposition is matched with a certain noun declension case depending on use. The following are basic examples of common prepositions and their corresponding noun cases (note: these examples represent only one circumstance. Often each preposition can be used with two or more noun cases depending on the sentence).

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Genitive: b?hem (during), podle/dle (according to/along), vedle (beside), kolem (around), okolo (around), do (into), od (away from), z (out of), bez (without).

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Dative: k (towards), proti (against), díky (thanks to).

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Accusative: skrz (through), pro (for).

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Locative/Prepositional: o (around, about), na (on), p?i (into, in, around), v (in), po (after, around).

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Instrumental: za (behind), p?ed (in front of), mezi (between), pod (below), s (with).

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Many of the above prepositions are used in different circumstances. For instance, when motion or a change of position is expressed, prepositions like nad, mezi, na, pod, etc. are used with the accusative case.

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The second factor affecting noun declension is the verb used. In Czech grammar, the Accusative case serves as the direct object, and the Dative case serves as the indirect object. Some verbs require the Genitive case to be used.

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The third factor affecting noun declension is number. The Czech language has a very complex counting system, explained as follows with the example masculine animate noun mu? (man):

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For the number one, the singular number is of course used: jeden mu?.

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For the numbers 2, 3, and 4, the nominative plural is used: dva mu?i.

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For all numbers from 5 to infinity, the genitive plural is used: p?t mu??.

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The numbers are singular (jednotné ?íslo), plural (mno?né ?íslo), and remains of dual. The dual number is used for only several parts of the human body, of which each person has two: hands, shoulders, eyes, ears, knees, legs, breasts. In all but two of the above body parts (eyes and ears) the dual number is only vestigial and affects very few aspects of declension (mostly the genitive and prepositional cases).

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The genders are masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine, and neuter. Masculine animate is used only to describe living things (note: plants are not considered animate in Czech noun declension!). Strangely enough, there are hundreds of words for living things that are not masculine words (for example mor?e is a neuter word, and means "guinea-pig").

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Software

Coding of Czech letters with accents (especially those with a há?ek) is not uniform and sometimes causes incorrect display and printing of texts. The following sentence is commonly used to test all special characters: P?íli? ?lu?ou?ký k?? úp?l ?ábelské ódy ("a too yellow horse moaned devilish odes"; needs to be tested with lower- and uppercase).

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See also:

Czech alphabet, há?ek

Related Topics:
Czech alphabet - Há?ek

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