The Instrumental of Means | Czech Grammar

The instrumental — sedmý pád, "the seventh case" — gets its very name from its core job: it marks the instrument, the tool or means by which something is done. This is the most fundamental and most logical use of the case, and it answers the questions kým? ("by/with whom?", for people) and čím? ("by/with what?", for things). The single most important thing for an English speaker to internalise is this: where English says "with" or "by," Czech usually says nothing at all — it just puts the noun into the instrumental. No preposition. The case ending alone does the work.

The core idea: the ending replaces "with"

Look at the gap between the two languages. English needs the little word with because English long ago lost its noun cases and has nothing else to lean on. Czech kept its cases, so the meaning "by means of" is built straight into the ending. Adding a preposition on top would be saying it twice.

Píšu perem, ne tužkou.

I'm writing with a pen, not with a pencil. (perem, tužkou — bare instrumental, no preposition)

Do práce jezdím autem.

I go to work by car. (autem — 'by car' is just the instrumental of auto)

Krájím cibuli ostrým nožem.

I'm cutting the onion with a sharp knife. (nožem — the means, no preposition)

Zaplatím to kartou, nemám u sebe hotovost.

I'll pay for it by card, I don't have cash on me. (kartou — by card)

💡

Translate "with a pen / by car / by card" into Czech and your hand will itch to write a little word for "with." Resist it. The instrumental ending is the "with." Perem already means "with a pen."

The endings, gender by gender

For the singular, the instrumental of means is built like this:

Gender	Ending	Nominative → Instrumental
masculine	-em	vlak → vlakem, nůž → nožem, klíč → klíčem
feminine	-ou	karta → kartou, tužka → tužkou, ruka → rukou
neuter	-em	pero → perem, auto → autem, kolo → kolem

Two small things to notice. In nůž → nožem, the long ů shortens to o — a common alternation when an ending is added. And ruka → rukou ("with a/the hand") simply takes the regular feminine -ou, exactly like žena → ženou; the form happens to look identical to a plural form elsewhere in the paradigm, but the instrumental singular here is perfectly regular, so you can use it right away.

Otevřel dveře klíčem a vešel dovnitř.

He opened the door with a key and went inside. (klíčem)

Mávala na nás rukou z okna vlaku.

She was waving at us with her hand from the train window. (rukou)

Tu polévku se jí lžící, ne vidličkou.

You eat that soup with a spoon, not with a fork. (lžící, vidličkou)

Asking and answering: kým? čím?

The question word picks up the same case. For things you ask čím?; for people (a means rarely, an agent more often) you ask kým?. Answers come back in the bare instrumental.

Čím to otevřeš, když nemáš klíč? — Šroubovákem.

What will you open it with, if you don't have a key? — With a screwdriver. (čím → šroubovákem)

Cestujeme vlakem, nebo pojedeme autobusem?

Are we travelling by train, or shall we go by bus? (vlakem, autobusem — both bare instrumental)

The decisive contrast: means versus accompaniment

This is the trap, so it deserves its own section. Czech uses the instrumental for two very different things, and a single little preposition tells them apart:

Means / instrument → bare instrumental, no preposition. perem = using a pen.
Accompaniment / company → s
- instrumental. s bratrem = together with my brother.

The case is the same; the presence of s flips the meaning entirely. Píšu perem means "I'm writing using a pen." *Píšu s perem would literally mean "I'm writing in the company of a pen" — which is nonsense, and exactly the error English speakers make because English uses with for both ideas.

Jdu do kina s bratrem.

I'm going to the cinema with my brother. (accompaniment → s + instrumental)

Otevřel tu konzervu nožem.

He opened the can with a knife. (means → bare instrumental, no s)

Dáš si kávu s mlékem?

Will you have coffee with milk? (the milk accompanies the coffee → s; this is togetherness, not a tool)

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One test settles it: would the noun be a tool you use, or a companion that comes along? Tool → bare instrumental (perem, autem, nožem). Companion → s + instrumental (s bratrem, s mlékem). The deeper rules for s have their own page on s + instrumental.

A useful exception: vehicles you sit ON

Most vehicles you travel in take the bare instrumental: autem, vlakem, autobusem, letadlem, metrem, tramvají. But things you sit on — a bike, a horse, a motorbike — usually take na + locative instead: na kole (by bike), na koni (on horseback), na motorce (by motorbike). There's no deep logic to memorise here beyond the "in vs on" image; it's worth flagging honestly so you're not surprised.

V létě jezdím do práce na kole, v zimě tramvají.

In summer I cycle to work, in winter I take the tram. (na kole vs the bare instrumental tramvají)

A note on register

In standard written Czech the instrumental plural uses endings like -y / -mi / -ami (vlaky, kostmi, ženami). In everyday (informal) spoken Czech — obecná čeština — you'll constantly hear those levelled to the single ending -ma on almost everything: vlakama, autama, perama, klukama. It's natural in speech but avoided in (formal) writing, where you'd use the standard plural endings. The bare-versus-s logic of this page, though, holds in every register.

Common Mistakes

The number-one error is importing English with as a preposition where Czech wants none.

❌ Píšu s perem.

Incorrect — for a tool there is no preposition; s perem suggests 'in the company of a pen'.

✅ Píšu perem.

I'm writing with a pen.

❌ Jedu s autem do Brna.

Incorrect — 'by car' is the bare instrumental; s autem would mean accompanied by a car.

✅ Jedu autem do Brna.

I'm driving to Brno by car.

❌ Platím s kartou.

Incorrect — 'by card' takes the bare instrumental.

✅ Platím kartou.

I'm paying by card.

❌ Krájím chleba nůž.

Incorrect — the nominative nůž makes 'knife' the object; 'I'm cutting the bread, the knife'. The tool must go into the instrumental.

✅ Krájím chleba nožem.

I'm cutting the bread with a knife.

❌ Jím polévku s lžící.

Incorrect — a spoon is a tool, so it takes the bare instrumental, not s.

✅ Jím polévku lžící.

I'm eating the soup with a spoon.

Key Takeaways

The instrumental's core job is means / instrument — answering čím? / kým? — with no preposition.
English "with a pen / by car / by card" becomes a bare instrumental: perem, autem, kartou. The ending replaces "with."
Endings: masculine -em (vlakem), feminine -ou (kartou), neuter -em (perem).
Add s only for accompaniment (s bratrem, s mlékem), never for a tool — that's the trap.
Vehicles you sit on take na
- locative (na kole, na koni); the levelled -ma plural (autama, vlakama) is (informal) speech.

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