Gender-Sensitive Verbs
Certain verbs in the Czech language are gender-sensitive, meaning that the verb has to be changed depending on the person who is saying the sentence or who it refers to.
The above example shows the verb write in the past tense. The basic form used for a man is napsal. If the sentence is about a woman (or a woman is speaking), it will always have the additional -a suffix and in the case of a child (neutral gender), it takes the -o suffix.
- Ten muž napsal knihu.
- Ta žena napsala knihu.
- To dítě napsalo knihu.
List of Verbs
This grammar is vastly related to verbs in the past tense. However, the very first encounter with gender-sensitive verbs is at the verb like (rád, mít rád).
- all verbs in the past tense (he/she ate, drank, wrote…)
- rád, mít rád (he/she likes)
- all modal verbs in the past (he/she wanted, should…)
- conditional sentences with “by” and “aby” (he/she would…)
- passive voice (he/she was invited…)
Examples
The following sentences are about Eva, Tomáš and their child. Notice the differences highlighted in bold.
- Tomáš chtěl pít kolu.
- Eva chtěla pít kolu.
- To dítě chtělo pít kolu.
- Tomáš by nakoupil.
- Eva by nakoupila.
- To dítě by nakoupilo.
- Tomáš má rád ovoce.
- Eva má ráda ovoce.
- To dítě má rádo ovoce.
- Tomáš byl pozván.
- Eva byla pozvána.
- To dítě bylo pozváno.
Plural Verbs
The matter is slightly more complicated when there are more people or objects involved. This grammar needs a deeper understanding of the past tense and other grammatical structures. Therefore, beginner students are encouraged to skip this part for the time being.
- men take the -i suffix
- women and masculine and feminine inanimate objects take the -y suffix
- neutral objects have the -a suffix
- men and women together (or the word people) take the -i ending.
- Exception: děti (children) have the -y ending
- Ti muži přijeli.
- Ty ženy přijely.
- Ta auta přijela.
- Ti lidé přijeli.
- Ty děti přijely.
