Budu hrát

Perfective: A perfective verb presents an event as complete, as in koupit.

Future tense: A future form with budu plus infinitive, or a perfective verb such as začne.

For an ongoing or repeated future action, use future být plus an imperfective infinitive: budu hrát, budeš hrát, bude hrát, budeme hrát, budete hrát, budou hrát. Negatives are nebudu, nebudeš, nebude, nebudeme, nebudete, nebudou.

Perfective verbs have future meaning with their ordinary personal forms: začne means will start; najdu means I will find. Do not put budu before a perfective infinitive. Learn začínat/začít and hledat/najít in their situations.

Viděl jsem, slyšela jsem

The past follows the subject’s gender: viděl/viděla, slyšel/slyšela, hledal/hledala, našel/našla. Add jsem/jsi/jsme/jste only for first or second person. In the third person use Petra viděla.

Negation goes on the participle: neviděl jsem, nenašla jsem. Compare a process hledal jsem with a completed result našel jsem. Keep the auxiliary after the first phrase: Celý večer jsem hledal Mourka.

Nejdřív a potom

Use nejdřív, potom, pak, nakonec to keep a story easy to follow. The participle agrees with its subject: koncert začal, světla zhasla, něco spadlo. Světla is neuter plural, so its past participle ends in -la.

Past motion has useful irregular forms: šel/šla for going on foot, jel/jela for going by vehicle. Digital time phrases such as ve dvacet čtrnáct make a report clear.

Byla jste tam?

For a man use byl, spal, viděl; for a woman byla, spala, viděla. Familiar you adds jsi, polite you jste. A polite address to one woman is Byla jste tam?, not a plural participle.

For plural groups, masculine animate takes byli/spali/viděli, feminine or masculine inanimate takes byly/spaly/viděly, and neuter plural takes byla/spala/viděla. The forms jsme/jste indicate we/you. In the third person the participle stands alone.

Milá Anno

Vocative: The form for addressing someone directly, such as Jane.

Letters can start with a vocative: Milá Anno, milý Jane. Czech direct address changes some names: Anna/Anno, Jan/Jane, Eliška/Eliško, Tomáš/Tomáši. A surname after paní usually keeps its feminine adjective form: paní Nováková.

Useful perfective future forms for a postcard are napíšu, pošlu, koupím. Learn them with psát/napsat, posílat/poslat, kupovat/koupit. For a signature use tvůj for a male writer and tvoje for a female writer.