Numbers and time

Formation

• Jeden (“one”) agrees with its noun: jeden čaj, jedna káva, jedno pivo.
• In the accusative, jeden has the forms jednu kávu and, before an animate masculine noun, jednoho.
• Dva (“two”) is used with a masculine noun, and dvě with a feminine or a neuter noun.
• Tři and čtyři have one form for every gender.

The numbers from five

• The numbers 5–20 are pět, šest, sedm, osm, devět, deset, jedenáct, dvanáct, třináct, čtrnáct, patnáct, šestnáct, sedmnáct, osmnáct, devatenáct, dvacet.
• The tens are třicet, čtyřicet, padesát, šedesát, sedmdesát, osmdesát, devadesát, and 100 is sto.
• In a number between the tens, the ten comes first: dvacet jedna, dvacet pět.

Use

• After dva, tři and čtyři, the noun and the verb are in the plural: Tady jsou tři židle. (“Here are three chairs.”)
• From pět on, the noun is in the genitive plural and the verb is singular: Je pět hodin. (“It's five o'clock.”)
• At A1, the genitive plural is used in a few fixed forms: korun, minut, hodin, gramů, let.
• Jeden is added only when the number matters: Mám čaj. (“I have a tea.”)
• A price is asked with Kolik to stojí? (“How much is it?”)

Formation

• “At” a time is v with the accusative: v jednu hodinu, v pět hodin, ve dvanáct hodin.
• V becomes ve before dvě, tři, čtyři and dvanáct: ve dvě hodiny, ve tři hodiny, ve čtyři hodiny.
• Half past is půl with the genitive of the next hour: půl osmé (7.30), v půl osmé.
• A quarter past is čtvrt na with the next hour: čtvrt na pět (4.15).

Asking the time

• The time is asked with Kolik je hodin? (“What time is it?”)
• The answer has je for one o'clock and from five on: je jedna hodina, je pět hodin.
• The answer has jsou from two to four: jsou dvě hodiny, jsou čtyři hodiny.

Days and parts of the day

• “On” a day is also v (ve) with the accusative:

• The parts of the day ráno, dopoledne, odpoledne and večer are used with no preposition.
• “At noon” is v poledne and “at night” is v noci; both are learnt as fixed forms.

Use

• A day and a part of the day are used together: v pondělí ráno, v pátek večer.
• “At the weekend” is o víkendu (see Saying where and what about: the locative after v, na and o).
• “Next Saturday” is příští sobotu, with no preposition.

Formation

• Ordinal numbers agree with their noun like adjectives.
• The ordinals první and třetí end in -í and have one form for every gender.
• In figures, an ordinal is written with a dot: 1., 2., 3.
• In the accusative, a feminine ordinal ends in -ou: druhou lekci.

The date

• In a date, the ordinal is in the genitive and ends in -ého (-ího for první and třetí).
• The month follows in the genitive, with no preposition: prvního května (written 1. května), pátého března, dvacátého října.
• A month with v (“in”) is in the locative:

Use

• The date is asked with Kolikátého je dnes? (“What's the date today?”)
• The answer starts with Dnes je…: Dnes je pondělí, třetího června. (“Today is Monday, the third of June.”)
• At A1, the genitive of the date is learnt as a fixed form.
• An ordinal is used for a place in a series: můj první den, druhá lekce.