The Partitive Genitive | Czech Grammar

When you name a container and then the stuff inside it — a glass of water, a kilo of meat, a cup of coffee — Czech puts the substance into the genitive. The English word of simply disappears; the genitive ending alone carries the whole "of" relationship. This is the partitive genitive: it marks a part, portion, or measured amount of some larger mass. It is the same case you met after quantity words like mnoho and trochu, working on exactly the same logic — and it answers the same question, koho? čeho? (of whom? of what?).

Container or measure, then the genitive

The pattern is rigidly fixed: [measure word] + [substance in the genitive]. The measure word stays in whatever case the sentence needs; the substance bends to the genitive.

Measure word	Substance (genitive)	Meaning
sklenice	vody	a glass of water
šálek	kávy	a cup of coffee
kilo	masa	a kilo of meat
láhev	vína	a bottle of wine
litr	mléka	a litre of milk
kousek	chleba	a piece of bread
talíř	polévky	a plate of soup
kus	dortu	a piece of cake

Dáš si ještě šálek kávy?

Will you have another cup of coffee? (káva → genitive kávy)

Přinesl bys mi sklenici vody?

Would you bring me a glass of water? (voda → genitive vody)

Otevřeme k večeři láhev vína?

Shall we open a bottle of wine for dinner? (víno → genitive vína)

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There is no Czech word for "of" in these phrases. Resist the urge to translate it. A cup of coffee is two words — šálek kávy — with the "of" baked into the genitive ending -y. Insert a preposition and you change the meaning entirely.

The genitive endings you'll meet here

Because most substances are everyday food and drink, you keep meeting the same small set of singular genitive endings. They are worth knowing as a block:

Feminine -a → -y: voda → vody, káva → kávy, polévka → polévky.
Neuter -o → -a: maso → masa, víno → vína, mléko → mléka, pivo → piva.
Masculine inanimate → -u, -e or -a: dort → dortu (hard), čaj → čaje (soft); but several food words take -a: chléb → chleba, sýr → sýra.

K snídani mám vždycky hrnek čaje.

For breakfast I always have a mug of tea. (čaj → genitive čaje)

Ukrojím ti ještě kousek sýra.

I'll cut you another piece of cheese. (sýr → genitive sýra)

When the thing measured is itself countable, the substance goes into the genitive plural instead — kilo brambor (a kilo of potatoes), půl kila jablek (half a kilo of apples). This mirrors exactly the count-versus-mass split you see after mnoho: you measure meat by mass (singular masa) but count potatoes by the piece (plural brambor).

Kup cestou domů kilo brambor.

Buy a kilo of potatoes on the way home. (brambory → genitive plural brambor)

The measure words you'll actually use

The "measure word" slot is wider than just glasses and bottles. It includes weights, volumes, vessels, and the everyday words for a slice, a chunk, a spoonful, a pinch. They all behave identically — whatever follows them lands in the genitive.

Measure word	Used for	Example
krajíc / plátek	a slice (of bread / of something thin)	krajíc chleba, plátek sýra
lžíce / lžička	a spoonful / a teaspoon	lžíce cukru, lžička soli
špetka	a pinch	špetka soli
hrnek / sklenka	a mug / a small glass	hrnek čaje, sklenka vína
plechovka / krabice	a can / a box	plechovka piva, krabice mléka

Do těsta přidej špetku soli a dvě lžíce cukru.

Add a pinch of salt and two spoonfuls of sugar to the dough. (sůl → soli, cukr → cukru)

K snídani si dám krajíc chleba s máslem.

For breakfast I'll have a slice of bread with butter. (chléb → chleba)

Vzal jsem si z lednice plechovku piva.

I took a can of beer out of the fridge. (pivo → piva)

Recipes are where this pattern is densest — half a Czech cookbook is measure words plus genitives — so if you can read lžička soli and hrnek mléka without flinching, you've internalised the rule.

The partitive nuance: "some" versus "the whole thing"

The genitive does more than follow measure words. With certain mass nouns, Czech can use the genitive on the object itself to signal an indefinite, partial amount — some of the thing rather than all of it. The accusative, by contrast, points to the whole, definite item. The classic pair is bread:

Dej mi chleba.

Give me some bread. (genitive chleba — an indefinite amount)

Podej mi chléb.

Pass me the bread (the loaf). (accusative chléb — the whole, definite thing)

The genitive chleba says "cut me a bit, some bread"; the accusative chléb points at the loaf on the table and asks for it whole. The same contrast appears with liquids and granular substances, where the genitive quietly means "a bit of":

Nalej mi ještě vody.

Pour me some more water. (genitive vody — an unspecified amount)

Dej si polévky, je jí dost.

Have some soup, there's plenty of it. (genitive polévky — a helping)

This partitive object is not obligatory — modern Czech often just uses the accusative — but it is alive and natural in everyday speech, especially in invitations and requests. Honest caveat: in casual Czech, chleba has also drifted into use as a base form (you will hear it as a subject too), so this one word blurs the line. The clean place to feel the contrast is with liquids: nalej vody (some) versus nalej tu vodu (that water).

Common Mistakes

The errors here almost all come from trying to render the English of with a Czech preposition. Czech has prepositions that look tempting — z (out of), od (from) — but they mean something quite different.

❌ Dáš si sklenici z vody?

Incorrect — 'z vody' means 'made out of water'; the partitive needs no preposition.

✅ Dáš si sklenici vody?

Will you have a glass of water? (sklenice vody)

❌ Uvařím šálek od kávy.

Incorrect — 'šálek od kávy' is an (empty) coffee cup, the vessel; for a cup of coffee drop the preposition.

✅ Uvařím šálek kávy.

I'll make a cup of coffee. (šálek kávy)

❌ Koupil jsem kilo maso.

Incorrect — the substance after a measure must be genitive, not nominative.

✅ Koupil jsem kilo masa.

I bought a kilo of meat. (maso → masa)

❌ Otevři láhev víno.

Incorrect — víno has to go into the genitive after the measure word.

✅ Otevři láhev vína.

Open a bottle of wine. (víno → vína)

❌ Dám si kus dort.

Incorrect — 'dort' must take the genitive ending after 'kus'.

✅ Dám si kus dortu.

I'll have a piece of cake. (dort → dortu)

Key Takeaways

A container, measure, or portion word puts the following substance into the genitive: sklenice vody, kilo masa, šálek kávy.
There is no word for "of" — the genitive ending carries the whole relationship.
Common endings: feminine -y (vody, kávy), neuter -a (masa, vína), masculine -u/-a (dortu, sýra); countable things go genitive plural (kilo brambor).
A genitive object can mark an indefinite, partial amount — dej mi chleba (some bread), nalej vody (some water) — versus the definite accusative chléb, tu vodu.
Beware false friends: z = "out of / made of", od = "from"; neither belongs in šálek kávy.

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