English builds most relationships out of little words: to him, of my brother, with a pen, by car. Czech builds the same relationships out of endings. A case ending is not just decoration on a noun — it carries the meaning that English would hand to a preposition. This page collects the situations where Czech needs no preposition at all, because the ending alone does the work. For English speakers this is the single most important mental switch to make: where English has a little word, Czech often has just an ending.
The big idea: the ending is the preposition
When a Czech verb or noun phrase reaches for a particular case directly — not through a preposition — we say the case is governed by that verb or that relationship. The same noun, bratr ("brother"), will appear as bratra, bratrovi, or bratrem depending on the role it plays, and none of those forms needs a helper word in front of it.
Vidím bratra.
I see my brother. (accusative — direct object, no preposition)
Dávám to bratrovi.
I'm giving it to my brother. (dative — recipient 'to', no preposition)
To je auto mého bratra.
That's my brother's car. (genitive — possessor 'of', no preposition)
Four of the seven Czech cases routinely appear bare, with no preposition: the accusative, the dative, the genitive, and the instrumental. Let's take them one role at a time.
Bare accusative — the direct object (and duration)
The accusative is the case of the direct object — the thing the action lands on. English marks the object purely by position (I see the dog); Czech marks it with an ending. Animate masculine nouns take a special accusative that looks like the genitive.
Vidím psa na ulici.
I see a dog in the street. (pes → psa, animate accusative)
Petr čte zajímavou knihu.
Petr is reading an interesting book. (kniha → knihu)
The accusative also marks duration — how long something lasts — again with no preposition where English would use for:
Čekali jsme celý den.
We waited the whole day. (celý den — accusative of duration, no 'for')
Byla nemocná celý týden.
She was sick for a whole week.
Bare dative — the recipient and the experiencer
The dative is the case of the recipient — the person you give, send, lend, or say something to. English uses to or a word-order trick (give him the book); Czech just uses the dative ending.
Koupil jsem mamince kytici.
I bought my mum a bouquet. (maminka → mamince, the recipient)
Pomáhám otci s úklidem.
I'm helping my father with the cleaning. (pomáhat takes the dative — otec → otci)
Note that pomáhat ("to help") takes the dative even though English treats its object as direct. This is verb government: the verb simply demands the dative, and you memorize it with the verb.
The dative also marks the experiencer — the person who feels a state. Czech does not say I am cold; it says it is cold to me, with the feeler in the dative and no real subject at all.
Je mi zima, zavři okno.
I'm cold, close the window. (literally 'it is cold to me' — mi is dative)
Není ti špatně?
Aren't you feeling sick? (ti = dative 'to you')
Bare genitive — the possessor and amounts
The genitive is Czech's of-case. To say my brother's car or the capital of the country, you put the possessor in the genitive and attach it directly, with no preposition.
Půjčil jsem si auto svého bratra.
I borrowed my brother's car. (bratr → bratra, the possessor)
Hlavní město naší země je Praha.
The capital of our country is Prague. (země → genitive)
The genitive also names the amount after a quantity word — a bit of, a lot of, a glass of. English keeps the of; Czech replaces it with the genitive ending.
Dej mi trochu vody, prosím.
Give me a bit of water, please. (voda → vody, the partitive genitive)
Na náměstí bylo hodně lidí.
There were a lot of people in the square. (lidé → lidí)
A handful of verbs govern the bare genitive directly. The two you meet first are bát se ("to be afraid of") and ptát se ("to ask"). English uses of/about; Czech uses the bare genitive.
Bojím se tmy.
I'm afraid of the dark. (bát se + genitive — tma → tmy)
Ptám se učitele, kdy bude zkouška.
I'm asking the teacher when the exam is. (ptát se + genitive — učitel → učitele)
Bare instrumental — the means and the predicate
The instrumental answers with what? or by what means? — the tool you use, the vehicle you travel in. English uses with or by; Czech uses the bare instrumental.
Píšu perem, ne tužkou.
I write with a pen, not a pencil. (pero → perem, tužka → tužkou)
Jezdím do práce autem.
I go to work by car. (auto → autem)
The instrumental has a second, very different job: it marks the predicate after verbs of becoming and (often) being — what someone turns into or works as.
Po studiích se stal učitelem.
After his studies he became a teacher. (stát se + instrumental — učitel → učitelem)
Chci být lékařkou.
I want to be a doctor. (the profession goes in the instrumental — lékařka → lékařkou)
One exception: the locative always needs a preposition
There is a clean rule worth memorizing: the locative (the case for o, v, na, při, po) is the only Czech case that never appears without a preposition. If you ever see a noun in the locative, there is always a little word in front of it. Every other case can stand alone; the locative cannot.
Mluvíme o počasí.
We're talking about the weather. (locative — počasí — but the preposition 'o' is obligatory)
So the practical takeaway is the mirror image of the locative rule: with the accusative, dative, genitive, and instrumental, expect no preposition by default, and add one only when the meaning calls for it.
Common mistakes
English speakers import English prepositions that Czech does not want. These are the four most common transfer errors.
❌ Dávám to k bratrovi.
Incorrect — the dative alone means 'to my brother'; no 'k' is needed.
✅ Dávám to bratrovi.
I'm giving it to my brother.
❌ Píšu s perem.
Incorrect — 's perem' means 'in the company of a pen'; the instrumental of means takes no 's'.
✅ Píšu perem.
I'm writing with a pen.
❌ To je auto od mého bratra.
Incorrect — possession is the bare genitive; 'od' would mean the car came from him.
✅ To je auto mého bratra.
That's my brother's car.
❌ Jsem zima.
Incorrect — you can't be the subject of a feeling; the experiencer is dative.
✅ Je mi zima.
I'm cold.
❌ Bojím se z tmy.
Incorrect — bát se takes the bare genitive, never 'z'.
✅ Bojím se tmy.
I'm afraid of the dark.
Key takeaways
Which case a particular verb governs is something you ultimately learn verb by verb — there is no shortcut that predicts that pomáhat takes the dative while vidět takes the accusative. Group the verbs by the case they demand and the system becomes manageable. For the full inventory, see verbs and the cases they govern, and compare the cases that do lean on prepositions in prepositions by case.
Now practice Czech
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Prepositions Sorted by CaseB2 — A master reference grouping the common prepositions under the case each one governs.
- Verbs Sorted by the Case They GovernB2 — A reference listing verbs whose object is genitive, dative, or instrumental rather than accusative.
- The Accusative as Direct ObjectA1 — How the Czech accusative case marks the direct object — the noun that receives the action — and why the ending, not word order, does the work.
- The Dative as Indirect ObjectA1 — How the Czech dative case marks the person to or for whom something is given, said, shown, or sent — with no preposition at all.
- The Instrumental as Predicate (stal se učitelem)B1 — Why professions, roles, and changed states after být and stát se take the instrumental.
- Verbs That Govern the GenitiveB1 — The set of Czech verbs whose object stands in the genitive rather than the accusative.