Kardamone
Teachers Sign up

Back

Czech grammar A1: beginner

The complete guide from A1 to B1: the rules, examples to listen to, the usual mistakes.

At level A1, you learn the grammar you need for your first conversations in Czech. You introduce yourself, name and describe things, count, and say where you go, what you did and will do.

By the end of level A1, you will be able to:

  • say who you are and where you live, with the present tense (present simple);
  • leave out the subject pronoun: Bydlím v Brně (“I live in Brno”);
  • say what you do and have, with the four regular patterns of the present and the common irregular verbs;
  • say what is not so, with a negative verb, also after nic and nikdy: Nic nevím (“I know nothing”);
  • name people and things with no article: dům (“a house” or “the house”);
  • tell a noun's gender from its ending: ten stůl (“the table”), ta káva (“the coffee”), to okno (“the window”);
  • describe people and things, with the adjectives, demonstratives and possessives that agree with the noun;
  • say who does what to whom, with the nominative and the accusative singular: Eva zná Petra (“Eva knows Petr”);
  • talk about several things, with their plural in the nominative and the accusative;
  • say where you are, with the locative after v and na: v Praze (“in Prague”);
  • learn v or na with each noun: v obchodě (“in the shop”), but na poště (“at the post office”);
  • say what you talk about, with the locative after o;
  • say where you go and come from, with the genitive after do, z and a few other prepositions;
  • say at whose place you are, with the genitive after u;
  • say how you travel, with the instrumental: autem (“by car”);
  • use jít on foot and jet in a vehicle, and chodit and jezdit for a habit;
  • use the short personal pronouns in the accusative and the dative;
  • say how you feel: Je mi zima (“I am cold”), Bolí mě hlava (“I have a headache”);
  • say what you like: Líbí se mi (“I like it”);
  • say what happened, with the past tense (past simple): a man says Včera jsem pracoval (“I worked yesterday”);
  • make the past agree with the subject: a woman says Včera jsem pracovala (“I worked yesterday”);
  • put the short words jsem, se, mi and ho second in the clause, after the first word or phrase;
  • say what will happen, with the future: budu, půjdu, pojedu;
  • say what you want, can and must do, with the modal verbs;
  • ask politely, with chtěl bych (“I would like”);
  • count and pay, with the numbers and the noun after them: dvě kávy (“two coffees”), pět korun (“five crowns”);
  • tell the time, the day and the date;
  • call someone, with the vocative, and join clauses, with a, ale, protože, že and když;
  • write the long vowels á, é, í, ý, ú, ů and the háček (č, ř, š, ž, ě);
  • tell apart words that differ by a long vowel: byt (“flat”), být (“to be”); ji (“her”), jí (“to her”).

  1. Být

    In this part, you will learn to say who you are and where you are.

  2. The present

    In this part, you will learn to say what you do every day and what you are doing now.

  3. Gender

    In this part, you will learn to tell a noun's gender and to describe people and things.

  4. The plural

    In this part, you will learn to talk about more than one thing or person.

  5. The accusative

    In this part, you will learn to name the object of a verb.

  6. The locative

    In this part, you will learn to say where someone or something is.

  7. Going places

    In this part, you will learn to say where you are, where you go and where you come from.

  8. Possessives

    In this part, you will learn to say whose a thing is, and to talk about a person's own things.

  9. Short pronouns

    In this part, you will learn to say how you feel, your age, what you like and what hurts.

  10. The past

    In this part, you will learn to say what you did and where you were.

  11. The future

    In this part, you will learn to talk about plans and about what will happen.

  12. Modal verbs

    In this part, you will learn to say what you want, can, must and may do.

  13. Numbers and time

    In this part, you will learn to count things and ask a price.

  14. Calling and joining

    In this part, you will learn to call someone by name or title and to join words and clauses.

Contents · Czech grammar