Master Case-Ending Reference Table

This is the capstone reference for the whole noun system: every core paradigm, all seven cases, both numbers, laid out so you can find an ending by looking it up rather than by recalling a whole table. It does not teach the paradigms from scratch — each one has its own dedicated page with examples, history, and pitfalls. What this page does is put them side by side so the recurring sub-patterns jump out and so you have one place to settle a question like "feminine žena-type, dative singular — what's the ending?" (Answer: -ě, ženě.)

Use it the way a musician uses a chord chart: not to learn the music, but to glance at when you are mid-phrase and momentarily blank.

How to read these tables

Czech nouns are sorted first by gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), then within masculine by animacy (does it name a living being?), and then within each by hard vs soft stem. Every paradigm below is named after a model word, and any noun that declines like the model takes the same endings. The single most important fact to keep in front of you is the animacy rule for masculines: animate accusative = genitive, inanimate accusative = nominative. Everything else is endings.

Masculine animate

The four animate-masculine paradigms: pán (hard consonant), muž (soft consonant), předseda (-a, male person), soudce (-e, male person). Throughout, the accusative equals the genitive. For the diagnostic cells where they differ and a rule for assigning a noun to its type, see the masculine animate summary; each type also has its own full page.

The one fully worked masculine-animate noun to keep in your ear is student (a pán-type): nom. student, gen./acc. studenta, dat./loc. studentovi, voc. studente, instr. studentem; plural studenti, studentů, studentům, studenty, studentech, studenty.

Masculine inanimate

Two paradigms: hrad (hard) and stroj (soft). The accusative equals the nominative in both numbers. The hrad type carries two lexical choices — genitive singular -u or -a (hradu vs lesa) and locative singular -ě/-e or -u (na hradě vs na břehu). The full account, with the lists, is in the masculine inanimate summary.

The worked inanimate noun to anchor is hrad itself: Na kopci stojí hrad (nom.), z hradu (gen.), na hradě (loc.), před hradem (instr.); plural hrady, hradů, hradům, hradech, hrady.

Feminine

Four paradigms: žena (hard, -a), růže (soft, -e/-ě), píseň (soft consonant), kost (i-stem consonant). The two consonant-final types, píseň and kost, are told apart by the genitive singular — písně (-ě/-e) versus kosti (-i). Each has its own page; the contrast is laid out on the píseň and kost pages.

The worked feminine noun is žena: žena, ženy, ženě, ženu, ženo, (o) ženě, ženou in the singular; ženy, žen, ženám, ženy, (o) ženách, ženami in the plural. (The dat./loc. singular -ě softens a preceding consonant: matka → matce, kniha → knize.)

Neuter

Four paradigms: město (hard, -o), moře (soft, -e/-ě), kuře (the -et-/-at- young-creature type), stavení (-í). For all four, the accusative equals the nominative in both numbers. Each has a dedicated page; kuře notably grows its stem (kuře → kuřete → kuřata).

The worked neuter noun is město: singular město, města, městu, městě, městem; plural města, měst, městům, městech, městy — with the bare-stem genitive plural měst (and a fill vowel where needed: okno → oken).

The recurring sub-patterns

You do not have to learn these fourteen tables as fourteen separate things. The same shapes recur across genders, and spotting them is the whole point of putting the paradigms together.

• Dative plural in -ům / -ám / -ím / -em. Hard masculines and hard neuters take -ům (pánům, hradům, městům); the hard feminine takes -ám (ženám); the soft types take -ím (mužům is the exception that keeps -ům, but růžím, písním, mořím, stavením); the i-stem kost alone takes -em (kostem). One vowel, picked by hard/soft and gender.
• Locative plural in -ech / -ách / -ích. Hard stems take -ech (pánech, hradech, městech); the hard feminine takes -ách (ženách); soft stems take -ích (mužích, růžích, písních, mořích, staveních); i-stem kost again breaks ranks with -ech (kostech).
• The zero genitive plural. The two hard vowel-final types — feminine žena and neuter město — drop their ending entirely in the genitive plural (žen, měst), inserting a fill vowel only to avoid an unsayable cluster (matek, oken). This is the single most distinctively Slavic ending you will meet, and it appears constantly after numbers from five up and after quantity words.
• The -ovi / -em masculine signature. Animate masculines reach for -ovi in the dative/locative singular and -em in the instrumental (pánovi, pánem). The same -em instrumental shows up on inanimate masculines and neuters (hradem, městem, mořem) — a single ending tying the three "masculine-ish" declensions together.

Common mistakes

These are paradigm-confusion errors — the noun is right, but it has been declined as the wrong type.

Key takeaways

• This page is a lookup hub, not a lesson: find the paradigm column, read off the case row. For the logic behind each paradigm, follow the link to its dedicated page.
• Masculines split by animacy first: animate acc = gen, inanimate acc = nom. This decision precedes any ending.
• The recurring sub-patterns to internalise: dative plural -ům/-ám/-ím/-em, locative plural -ech/-ách/-ích, and the zero genitive plural of hard feminine and hard neuter (žen, měst).
• Most "case errors" are paradigm errors. Diagnose hard vs soft and the correct type first; the ending then follows from this chart. To build that diagnosis into a routine, see a strategy for choosing the right case.