You have met the genitive in its big jobs — possession, partitives, after numbers, after prepositions. This page sweeps up the remaining uses: the genitive that follows certain adjectives (plný vody — full of water), the genitive after quantifying nouns (řada otázek — a number of questions), and a scattering of frozen adverbial genitives (jednoho dne — one day, za bílého dne — in broad daylight). These do not all share one tidy rule. The honest advice is to learn them as collocations — fixed pairings worth memorizing — while keeping one productive pattern firmly in mind: adjectives of fullness, emptiness, and capability take the genitive.
The productive one: plný + genitive ("full of")
This is the pattern worth treating as a rule, because it generalizes cleanly. A small family of adjectives describing how full, empty, or capable something is governs the genitive of whatever fills, lacks, or is mastered. English uses of here too — full of water, capable of anything — and Czech answers it with the bare genitive, no preposition.
| Adjective |
| Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| plný | plný vody | full of water |
| prázdný | prázdný slov | empty of words / hollow |
| schopný | schopný čehokoli | capable of anything |
| hoden / hodný | hoden obdivu | worthy of admiration |
| prostý | prostý starostí | free of cares |
| znalý | znalý věci | knowledgeable of the matter |
Sklenice byla plná vody až po okraj.
The glass was full of water right to the brim. (plný + genitive vody)
Po té hádce byl schopný čehokoli.
After that argument he was capable of anything. (schopný + genitive čehokoli)
Je to počin hodný obdivu.
It's an achievement worthy of admiration. (hoden/hodný + genitive obdivu). (formal)
Quantifying nouns: řada, spousta, většina, množství
Czech has a set of nouns that behave like quantity words — "a number of", "a load of", "the majority of", "a quantity of". Like the quantifiers mnoho and hodně, they put the thing they quantify into the genitive (singular for masses, plural for countables). They are extremely common in both speech and writing.
| Quantifying noun |
| Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| řada | řada otázek | a number of questions |
| spousta | spousta práce | a load of work |
| většina | většina lidí | most people |
| menšina | menšina studentů | a minority of students |
| množství | množství vody | a quantity of water |
| spousta / fůra (colloq.) | fůra peněz | a ton of money |
Na schůzce padla řada otázek.
A number of questions came up at the meeting. (řada + genitive plural otázek)
Mám teď spoustu práce, ozvu se večer.
I've got a load of work right now, I'll get in touch this evening. (spousta + genitive práce)
Většina lidí s tím souhlasí.
Most people agree with it. (většina + genitive plural lidí)
These quantifying nouns themselves decline normally — po řadě let ("after a number of years"), kvůli spoustě problémů ("because of a load of problems") — while the quantified noun stays glued in the genitive. For the broader pattern of quantity-plus-genitive, see the genitive after quantities and quantifiers with the genitive.
Frozen adverbial genitives
Czech preserves a number of adverbial genitives — old genitive phrases that now function as fixed time or manner expressions. They are not productive; you cannot coin new ones. But they are common enough that you must recognize them, and a few are everyday vocabulary.
| Frozen genitive | Literal | Means |
|---|---|---|
| jednoho dne | of one day | one day / someday |
| toho roku | of that year | that year |
| za bílého dne | in white day | in broad daylight |
| každého rána | of every morning | every morning |
| příštího týdne | of next week | next week |
| jednoho krásného dne | of one beautiful day | one fine day |
Jednoho dne se vrátím a všechno ti vysvětlím.
One day I'll come back and explain everything to you. (frozen genitive jednoho dne)
Okradli ho za bílého dne přímo na náměstí.
They robbed him in broad daylight right in the square. (frozen genitive za bílého dne)
Toho roku napadlo nejvíc sněhu za celé desetiletí.
That year saw the most snow in the whole decade. (frozen genitive toho roku)
A note on comparison
You may meet the genitive lurking in comparisons, but be careful: the standard way to say "bigger than X" in Czech is než + nominative (větší než dům), not a genitive. A bare genitive of comparison (větší domu) is archaic/literary and you should not use it. The genitive does, however, turn up legitimately in comparison-flavoured set phrases like není nad ("there's nothing better than") and after some superlatives expressing "of all" (nejlepší ze všech — best of all, with ze + genitive). For the než-versus-genitive question in full, see než vs. the genitive in comparison.
Je to nejlepší ze všech, co jsem viděl.
It's the best of all I've seen. ('of all' = ze všech, ze + genitive)
Nad dobrou kávou není.
There's nothing better than good coffee. (frozen 'není nad' + instrumental; contrast the genitive patterns)
Common Mistakes
❌ Sklenice byla plná voda.
Incorrect — 'plný' governs the genitive; 'water' must be vody, not the nominative voda.
✅ Sklenice byla plná vody.
The glass was full of water. (plný + genitive vody)
❌ Mám teď spoustu práci.
Wrong case — after 'spousta' the noun goes into the genitive: práce, not the accusative práci.
✅ Mám teď spoustu práce.
I've got a load of work right now. (spousta + genitive práce)
❌ Většina lidé s tím souhlasí.
Wrong — 'většina' takes the genitive plural lidí, not the nominative lidé.
✅ Většina lidí s tím souhlasí.
Most people agree with it. (většina + genitive lidí)
❌ Jeden den se vrátím.
Means 'I'll come back for one day' — for the idiom 'someday' you need the frozen genitive jednoho dne.
✅ Jednoho dne se vrátím.
One day I'll come back. (frozen adverbial genitive)
Key Takeaways
- Adjectives of fullness/capability take the genitive: plný vody, schopný čehokoli, hoden obdivu — and plný + genitive is productive, so learn it as a rule.
- Quantifying nouns put their noun in the genitive: řada otázek, spousta práce, většina lidí, množství vody.
- Frozen adverbial genitives are fixed time/manner phrases — learn them whole: jednoho dne, za bílého dne, toho roku, každého rána.
- For comparison, use než + nominative (větší než dům); the genitive of comparison is archaic. "Of all" is ze všech.
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- The Genitive After Quantity WordsA2 — How indefinite quantity words like mnoho, málo and trochu force the counted noun into the genitive.
- The Partitive GenitiveA2 — Why a container, measure or portion forces the substance it holds into the genitive — sklenice vody, kilo masa, šálek kávy — with no word for 'of'.
- The Genitive in DatesA2 — Why Czech puts both the day-ordinal and the month name in the genitive to say a calendar date — and the irregular month stems you need to read figures aloud.
- Comparison With než and With the GenitiveB1 — Two ways to mark 'than': než + same case, or the bare genitive of comparison.
- Quantifiers and the Genitive: mnoho, málo, několik, hodněB1 — Quantity words that govern the genitive and take a singular-neuter verb.
- The Genitive of NegationB2 — The optional, receding genitive object under negation — nemám času vs. nemám čas — its partitive flavour, and the obligatory genitive after není.