The Genitive in Dates | Czech Grammar

Telling someone when something happens on the calendar is one of the most frequent things you do in any language, and Czech does it with a construction that English has no model for. To say on the first of May, Czech puts both the day and the month into the genitive — and uses no preposition at all: prvního května. The bare genitive already carries the meaning "on that date." This page shows you the pattern, walks through the month forms (several of which change their stem in awkward ways), and separates saying a date as a point in time from stating it as a label.

The core pattern: ordinal + month, both genitive

A Czech date has two parts, and both go into the genitive:

the day, expressed as an ordinal number (první → prvního, "first" → "of the first"),
the month name, in its genitive (kvě ten → května, "May" → "of May").

There is no preposition — no equivalent of English on. The genitive ending alone means "on this date," answering the question kdy? (when?). Think of it as a frozen "of the Xth of the month Y," where the of is baked into the endings.

Máme svatbu prvního května.

We're getting married on the first of May. (prvního května — both genitive, no preposition)

Přijedu pátého prosince.

I'll arrive on the fifth of December. (pátého prosince)

Narodila se dvacátého třetího srpna.

She was born on the twenty-third of August. (dvacátého třetího srpna)

In that last one, note that a two-word ordinal puts both words in the genitive: dvacátý třetí → dvacátého třetího. The month srpen (August) becomes srpna. We'll deal with those month stems next, because they are where the surprises live.

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The whole date — day ordinal plus month — sits in the genitive with no preposition. If you find yourself reaching for a word meaning "on" (like na or v), stop: the genitive ending is already doing that job. Prvního května = "on the first of May," full stop.

The month names in the genitive

The Czech month names are native words (not Latin borrowings), and their genitives are mostly regular — but several change the stem in ways you simply have to know. Here is the full set:

Month	Nominative	Genitive (in dates)
January	leden	ledna
February	únor	února
March	březen	března
April	duben	dubna
May	květen	května
June	červen	června
July	červenec	července
August	srpen	srpna
September	září	září
October	říjen	října
November	listopad	listopadu
December	prosinec	prosince

Three things to watch:

Fleeting -e- drops out. Leden, březen, duben, květen, červen, srpen, říjen all lose the -e- of the last syllable when an ending is added: leden → ledna, březen → března, říjen → října. This is the same "fleeting e" you see in pes → psa. (Únor has no such -e- — its genitive února simply adds the ending.)
Two months don't take -a. Listopad is a hard inanimate noun whose genitive is listopadu, and prosinec is a soft noun ending in prosince. Saying listopada or prosinca is a classic foreign slip.
September is indeclinable here. Září never changes — prvního září, třicátého září. It is a neuter -í noun, so its genitive looks identical to its nominative.

Škola začíná prvního září.

School starts on the first of September. (září unchanged)

Svátek máme sedmnáctého listopadu.

The holiday is on the seventeenth of November. (listopadu — genitive in -u, not -a)

Zima většinou přijde až koncem prosince.

Winter usually doesn't arrive until the end of December. (prosince)

Reading dates written in figures

A date written with numerals is still read aloud as genitives. So 23. 8. is not "twenty-three eight" — it is dvacátého třetího osmého: the day ordinal in the genitive, then the month as an ordinal in the genitive (the eighth month). The same goes for the day-plus-month-word style 23. srpna → dvacátého třetího srpna.

Schůzka je 23. 8. — dvacátého třetího osmého.

The meeting is on 23 August — read 'of the twenty-third of the eighth'.

Faktura je splatná do 15. 6.

The invoice is due by 15 June. (read: do patnáctého šestého)

Note the dot after each figure: in Czech an ordinal written as a numeral always takes a full stop (1., 23., 8.), which is exactly how you know to read it as an ordinal in the genitive rather than as a cardinal.

Saying the date as a point in time vs. as a label

There are two questions you might be answering, and they call for two grammatical strategies.

As a point in time — answering kdy? (when?) or kolikátého? (on what date?) — you use the genitive, exactly as above. This is also the everyday way to state today's date, because the question Kolikátého je dnes? is itself genitive:

Kolikátého je dnes? — Dnes je prvního května.

What's the date today? — Today is the first of May. (genitive answer, the everyday default)

As a label or heading — naming the date the way it sits on a letterhead, a poster, or a calendar page — Czech can instead use the nominative: Dnes je první květen ("Today is the first [of] May"), treating the date as a standalone name. The difference is answering "what's the date?" (genitive — prvního května) versus labelling something with its date (nominative — první květen). You'll meet the nominative on posters, calendar pages and some headings, but in ordinary speech the genitive (prvního května) is the default both for stating today's date and for answering kolikátého? — so when in doubt, use the genitive.

V záhlaví dopisu stálo: Praha, 1. května 2026.

The letter's header read: Prague, 1 May 2026. (read prvního května — genitive even in a heading)

Common Mistakes

❌ Narodil se na prvního května.

Incorrect — Czech dates take no preposition; the bare genitive already means 'on'.

✅ Narodil se prvního května.

He was born on the first of May.

❌ Přijedu pátý prosinec.

Incorrect — a date as a point in time needs the genitive, not the nominative ordinal.

✅ Přijedu pátého prosince.

I'll arrive on the fifth of December.

❌ Svátek je sedmnáctého listopada.

Incorrect — listopad makes its genitive in -u: listopadu.

✅ Svátek je sedmnáctého listopadu.

The holiday is on the seventeenth of November.

❌ Schůzka je dvacátého třetího srpen.

Incorrect — the month must be genitive too: srpna, not the nominative srpen.

✅ Schůzka je dvacátého třetího srpna.

The meeting is on the twenty-third of August.

Key Takeaways

A Czech calendar date puts both the day-ordinal and the month name in the genitive, with no preposition: prvního května, pátého prosince.
This answers kdy? (when?) and kolikátého? (on what date?), and is the everyday way to state today's date.
Several month genitives change stem: the fleeting -e- drops (leden → ledna, říjen → října), while listopadu and prosince don't take -a, and září is indeclinable.
Dates in figures are still read as genitives: 8.
= dvacátého třetího osmého — both numbers are ordinals.
A nominative form (první květen) exists as a "label/heading" variant, but the genitive dominates in speech.

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