Být a pozdravy

In Czech, být means “to be”. In everyday speech, subject pronouns are often optional: jsem can mean “I am” without já. In this module, you hear both full forms and shorter natural forms.

Useful greetings are Dobrý večer!, Dobré ráno!, Ahoj! and Dobrou noc! Czech has no articles, so To je dům means “This is a house / the house” depending on context.

The full present forms are jsem, jsi, je, jsme, jste, jsou. With polite vy, Czech uses plural verb forms: Vy jste... But adjectives and past forms still match one person, so later you will say things like Vy jste nový or Vy jste nová.

Neighbour words change by gender: nový soused for a male learner and nová sousedka for a female learner.

A pronoun stands in for a person or thing: já, ty, on, ona. Czech often omits it when the verb ending already makes the person clear. Plural means more than one person or thing.

Gender is a noun class: masculine soused and klíč, feminine sousedka, neuter okno. Masculine nouns distinguish animate (living beings) and inanimate (things). An adjective describes a noun and matches its gender, number and case. A case is a form showing the noun’s role; learn the early short phrases before studying all endings.

An article is a word like English a or the. Czech has no articles; context tells you whether something is a house or the house.

Otázky a zápor

Simple yes/no questions can be made just with intonation: Vy jste nový soused? There is no extra word like “do”.

Very common question words are kdo (who), co (what), and kde (where): Kdo je to? Co je to? Kde je kavárna?

Negative forms of být are nejsem, nejsi, není, nejsme, nejste, nejsou. These are one-word forms, not two words.

Use To je... for identification, like To je Mourek. Use Tady je... for “here is...”, like Tady je váš klíč.

Rod a hlad

Czech nouns have gender: masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine, and neuter. At this stage, just notice some examples: soused is masculine animate, dům is masculine inanimate, kavárna is feminine, and ráno is neuter.

Some adjectives change with the speaker’s gender. A male learner says jsem hladový; a female learner says jsem hladová.

Czech also often uses mám hlad for “I am hungry”. Both jsem hladový / hladová and mám hlad are useful early chunks.

The word prosím is very useful. It can mean “please” in requests: Kávu, prosím. It can also mean “here you are” or “yes?” in other situations later.

Pracovat, dělat a místo

The noun form showing its role in the sentence.

A very common verb is dělat — “to do, make”. Its present forms are dělám, děláš, dělá, děláme, děláte, dělají.

Another common verb is pracovat — “to work”. Even though many verbs in Czech have -ám patterns, this verb is not pracovám. The correct present is pracuji, pracuješ, pracuje, pracujeme, pracujete, pracují.

Some very useful early location chunks are fixed phrases: v práci (at work), na stole (on the table), dole (downstairs), nahoře (upstairs). You do not need full case grammar yet; learn them as chunks.

These chunks help you say simple things fast: Jsem v práci. Klíč je na stole. Jan bydlí nahoře.

Jmenuji se a moje

Possessive: An ownership form agreeing with the owned noun: můj, moje.

Singular: One person or thing.

To say your name, use jmenuji se: Jmenuji se Lukas. or Jmenuji se Lena. In natural speech, Czech often keeps the little word se in second position: Jak se jmenuješ?

For possession, early useful forms are můj (my, masculine), moje (my, feminine/neuter), váš (your, polite), and tvůj (your, familiar singular). Learn them in chunks: můj klíč, moje kavárna, váš dům, tvůj klíč.

For place, use simple words and chunks: Kde je...?, doma, nahoře, dole. Example: Kde je Mourek? Je nahoře.

Czech can omit pronouns, but they are often used for contrast: Moje babička... a tvůj klíč...