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Verbs - Slovesa

Basic information

Verbs (slovesa) are words that express actions (pracovat - to work, číst - to read) or represent states (sedět - to sit), changes of state (zblednout - to turn pale), or modality (muset - must).

The inflection of verbs, i.e., their different forms, is called conjugation (časování).

Verbal categories

Czech verbs feature categories of:

  • první osoba (1st person):
    • (já) mám (I have)
    • (my) máme (we have)
  • druhá osoba (2nd person):
    • (ty) máš (you have [informal])
    • (vy) máte (you have [singular formal, or plural])
  • třetí osoba (3rd person):
    • (on/ona/ono (to)) má (he/she/it has)
    • (oni/ony/ona) mají (they have)
  • jednotné číslo (singular):
    • (já) mám (I have)
    • (ty) máš (you have [informal])
    • (on/ona/ono (to)) má (he/she/it has)
  • množné číslo (plural):
    • my máme (we have)
    • vy máte (you have [for both singular formal and plural])
    • oni/ony/ona mají (they have)
  • mužský životný rod (masculine animate):
    • on měl (he had)
  • mužský neživotný rod (masculine inanimate):
    • počítač měl (computer had):
  • ženský rod (feminine):
    • ona měla (she had)
  • střední rod (neuter):
    • auto mělo (car had)

Verbs agree with the gender of the subject. The category of gender is visible in the past tense and in the passive voice.

Read more about tenses.

  • nedokonavý vid (imperfective):
    • on četl (he was reading)
  • dokonavý vid (perfective):
    • on přečetl (he has read)

Read more about aspect.

  • činný rod (active):
    • Podepsal smlouvu. (He signed a contract.)
  • trpný rod (passive)
    • Smlouva byla podepsána. (The contract was signed.)

Verbs strongly agree with the subject of a sentence, and the categories are combined:

Studoval? (Did he study?) is

third person (on - he)

singular (on - he)

masculine gender of the subject (on - he)

interrogative (studoval? - did he study?)

past tense (studoval - he studied)

imperfective aspect (studoval - he studied / was studying)

active voice (studoval)

of the verb studovat (to study).

Note

Note that subject pronouns are commonly omitted.

They can be used for emphasis: On studoval? (Did HE study?) and it is usually accompanied by a rising intonation on the emphasised word (On studoval?).


There are:

  • predicative verbs

    Infinitive Clause
    pracovat On pracuje.
    to work He works.

  • linking verb (typically verb být) + predicative adjective combinations 1

    Linking verb Adjective Clause
    být starý On je starý.
    to be old He is old.

Infinitive

The lemma (dictionary form) is the infinitive form 2 (neurčitý tvar slovesa, neurčitek, infinitiv):

pracovat (to work), mít (to have)

Infinitives end in -t.

Some verbs have an archaic (but still used in formal Czech) -ci next to the standard -ct:

  • moci / moct (can)
  • pomoci / pomoct (to help)
  • říci / říct (to say)

The infinitive does not indicate person or number. It is used as:

  • part of the future tense of imperfective verbs

    Budu pracovat. - I will work.

  • part of modal structures

    Musím pracovat. - I have to work.

  • a subject

    Pracovat je těžké. - To work is difficult.

  • an object

    Plánoval pracovat. - He planned to work.

  • a subject complement

    Jeho cílem je pracovat. - His aim is to work.

Negative

To create a negative verb form, Czech language uses the prefix ne-, which is added before:

  • the main finite verb:

    Petr včera nepracoval. - Petr didn't work yesterday.

    Petr dnes nepracuje. - Petr doesn't work today.

  • the future tense auxiliary verb (the main infinitive verb stays in positive):

    Petr zítra nebude pracovat. - Petr won't work tomorrow.

  • a modal verb:

    Petr nechce pracovat. - Petr doesn't want to work.

  • the forms of the essential verb být in the linking verb + predicative adjective structures:

    Petr není nemocný. - Petr is not sick.
    Petr a Jana nejsou nemocní. - Petr and Jana aren't sick.

In some verbs ending in -át, the vowel in the stem may be shortened in the negative infinitive form. This often occurs with monosyllabic verbs. For example:

  • psát → nepsat (to write)
  • dát → nedat (to give)
  • vzdát se → nevzdat se (to surrender)
  • spát → nespat (to sleep)

No shortening occurs in verbs like hrát - nehrát (to play), smát se - nesmát se (to laugh), which retain the long vowel.

Question

Indicative and interrogative sentences can look the same, except for punctuation:

  • Máš hlad. - You are hungry. (a statement)
  • Máš hlad? - Are you hungry? (a question)

The intonation of statements is falling:

  • Máš hlad.

The intonation of questions is rising:

  • Máš hlad?

With interrogative pronouns, the rising intonation is usually put to this pronoun:

  • Kde jsi byl? - Where were you?

  1. A linking verb is also called a copula, copular or copulative verb. In Czech, it is usually referred to as spona and this type of a predicate is called přísudek jmenný se sponou on the contrary to the verbal predicate which is called přísudek slovesný. ↩

  2. The infinitive form is also called non-finite. ↩