The accusative

Formation

• Only feminine nouns and masculine nouns for people and animals change in the accusative singular:

• In some animate nouns, the e of the last syllable drops: pes → psa, chlapec → chlapce, Pavel → Pavla.
• In kůň, the ů becomes o: koně.

Use

• The accusative is used for the direct object. It is used after verbs such as mít, chtít, kupovat, hledat, vidět, znát, pít, jíst and potřebovat.
• The question word is koho? for a person and co? for a thing, as explained in Describing the object: adjectives, ten, jeden and possessives in the accusative.
• Na, pro and za are followed by the accusative too. They are explained in Waiting, giving and thanking: prepositions with the accusative, čekat na, dárek pro, děkovat za.
• A day or an hour after v is in the accusative too: v sobotu, v jednu hodinu. This use is explained in Telling the time and the day: Kolik je hodin?, ve tři hodiny, v pondělí, ráno.

Formation

• The words before an object agree with its noun in gender. In the masculine, their form also depends on whether the noun names a person or an animal:

• Jeho and jejich never change.
• A surname in -ová takes the ending of a feminine adjective: paní Nováková → paní Novákovou.

Use

• The noun takes its own accusative ending and the word before it takes its own: dobrou kávu, dobrého kamaráda.
• Before a masculine thing and a neuter noun, nothing changes: velký stůl, nové auto.
• The question word is koho? for a person and co? for a thing; co? is the same as in the nominative.
• The use of svůj is explained in Saying whose: the possessives můj, tvůj, jeho, její, náš, váš, jejich; čí, svůj.

Formation

• The personal pronouns have short forms in the accusative and in the dative:

• The accusative ji and the dative jí differ only by the length of the vowel.
• For a feminine thing, ji is used, and for several things, je.

Use

• The accusative is used for the direct object: Vidím tě (“I see you”), Znáš ho? (“Do you know him?”)
• Ho also stands for a masculine or neuter thing: Kde je klíč? — Nemám ho. (“Where's the key? — I haven't got it.”)
• Psát, pomáhat, rozumět, říkat, dávat and volat (“to phone”) take the dative: Píšu ti (“I'm writing to you”).
• In Je mi zima (“I'm cold”) and Líbí se mi (“I like it”), the person is in the dative too. See How one feels and what one likes: je mi zima, líbí se mi, chutná mi, bolí mě.

Word order

• The short forms stand in the second place of the clause, often before the verb: Petr mě zná. (“Petr knows me.”)
• After a preposition, mě, nás and vás are used unchanged: pro mě, na nás, pro vás.

Formation

• Liking a thing is expressed by mít rád and an object in the accusative: Mám rád pivo. (“I like beer.”)
• Rád agrees with the person who likes, rád for a man and ráda for a woman: Mám ráda sýr. (“I like cheese.”)
• Rád is used with a conjugated verb, never an infinitive: rád čtu (“I like reading”), ráda plave (“she likes swimming”).
• The negative is nemám rád, nemám ráda, and before a verb nerad, nerada, in one word.

Use

• Mít rád is used for what a person is fond of in general.
• Líbit se is used for what pleases the eye or the mind, chutnat for what tastes good. See How one feels and what one likes: je mi zima, líbí se mi, chutná mi, bolí mě.

Formation

• Three prepositions are followed by the accusative at A1:

Use

• The preposition is learnt with the verb: čekat na, děkovat za.
• Na with the accusative is also used for where someone goes. This use is explained in Where, where to and where from: kde, kam, odkud; do Prahy, na poštu, domů.
• Na with the locative is used for where someone is. This use is explained in Saying where and what about: the locative after v, na and o.