Once you accept that a Czech noun changes its ending to show its job (covered in what cases are), the next practical question is: how do I figure out which case a particular noun is in? Czech gives you a beautifully simple tool for this — every case has a question word, and the case of a noun is whichever question it answers in the sentence. This is not a learner's crutch invented for foreigners; it is exactly how Czech children are taught the cases in school, and how Czechs themselves talk about grammar.
There are seven cases. Each has a traditional Latin-derived name, a Czech name, a number (Czechs very often refer to cases simply by number, 1. pád through 7. pád — pád means "case"), and one or two diagnostic questions. Learn the questions and you have a reliable procedure: point at a noun, ask the questions, and the one it answers tells you its case.
The master table
Here are all seven, with everything you need on one screen.
| No. | Latin name | Czech name | Question (people / things) | Core function |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nominative | nominativ | kdo? co? (who? what?) | subject; dictionary form |
| 2. | Genitive | genitiv | koho? čeho? (of whom? of what?) | possession, "of", after many prepositions |
| 3. | Dative | dativ | komu? čemu? (to whom? to what?) | indirect object, recipient |
| 4. | Accusative | akuzativ | koho? co? (whom? what?) | direct object |
| 5. | Vocative | vokativ | oslovení (direct address) | calling out to / addressing someone |
| 6. | Locative | lokál | o kom? o čem? (about whom? about what?) | location and topic; only after prepositions |
| 7. | Instrumental | instrumentál | kým? čím? (with/by whom? with/by what?) | means, instrument, accompaniment |
Notice the structure of the questions. Each case has a "person" question (built on kdo) and a "thing" question (built on co or its inflected forms čeho, čemu, čem, čím). The question words are themselves declined — they are the case forms of "who" and "what" — so asking the question is really asking the noun to match a known pattern.
How to use the questions
The method is to take the verb of the sentence and pose each question against it; whichever question a noun answers reveals its case.
Bratr dal kamarádovi knihu.
The brother gave his friend a book.
Walk through it. Who gave? — bratr answers kdo?, so it is nominative (1. pád), the subject. To whom did he give it? — kamarádovi answers komu?, so it is dative (3. pád), the recipient. What did he give? — knihu answers co?, so it is accusative (4. pád), the direct object. Three nouns, three questions, three cases, all read off mechanically.
Mluvili jsme o počasí s učitelem.
We talked about the weather with the teacher.
Again: about what did we talk? — o počasí answers o čem?, locative (6. pád). With whom? — s učitelem answers s kým? (the kým? question), instrumental (7. pád). The preposition is part of the signal here, which is normal — several cases regularly travel with prepositions.
Bojím se bouřky.
I'm afraid of the storm.
What am I afraid of? — bouřky answers čeho?, genitive (2. pád). This one is governed by the verb bát se (to fear), which demands the genitive. The question still works: čeho se bojíš? (what are you afraid of?) → bouřky.
Karle, pojď sem!
Karel, come here!
And the vocative (5. pád) is the odd one out — it has no who/what question because it is not answering anything inside the sentence. It is the form used to address someone directly. Karle is the vocative of Karel; you use it to call out to him.
A note on the case numbers
Czechs refer to cases by number constantly: a dictionary will say a verb "takes the 4. pád," a teacher will ask "v jakém je to pádu?" (which case is it in?) and expect "ve čtvrtém" (the fourth). So it is well worth fixing the numbering: 1 = nominative, 2 = genitive, 3 = dative, 4 = accusative, 5 = vocative, 6 = locative, 7 = instrumental. The history and logic of this traditional ordering is on the Czech case numbers page.
The tricky overlap: koho in two cases
There is one trap the question method must handle carefully. The word koho? appears in both the genitive ("of whom?") and the accusative ("whom?"). So for a person, the genitive and accusative questions sound the same. How do you tell them apart?
Two ways. First, the thing questions differ clearly: genitive is čeho? while accusative is co?. If you can re-pose the question about a thing, the contrast is obvious — čeho se bojíš? (genitive) versus co vidíš? (accusative).
Vidím kamaráda.
I see my friend. (accusative — co/koho vidíš? — direct object of 'see')
Bojím se kamaráda.
I'm afraid of my friend. (genitive — koho/čeho se bojíš? — governed by 'bát se')
Both have kamaráda, and for this particular noun the two case forms even happen to look identical. But they are doing different jobs: in the first, the friend is the thing being seen (accusative); in the second, the friend is what the fear is about (genitive, demanded by bát se). Context and the verb resolve it. With the čeho? versus co? test and an eye on what the verb requires, you will not confuse them.
Common mistakes
❌ Asking only 'who?' to find every noun's case.
Incorrect — only the subject answers kdo?; each case has its own question.
✅ Posing the matching question (komu? co? o čem? kým?) for each noun in turn.
Correct — the case is whichever question the noun answers.
❌ Treating genitive and accusative as the same because both use 'koho?'.
Incorrect — they differ in the thing-question: čeho? (genitive) vs co? (accusative).
✅ Using čeho? vs co? and the governing verb to tell genitive from accusative.
Correct — that contrast disambiguates the two cases.
❌ Looking for a 'who/what' question to identify the vocative.
Incorrect — the vocative answers no question; it is the form of direct address.
✅ Recognising the vocative whenever you are calling out to or addressing someone.
Correct — e.g. 'Karle!' to get Karel's attention.
❌ Ignoring the case number when a dictionary says a verb takes the 3. pád.
Incorrect — the number is the standard Czech way of stating case government.
✅ Reading '3. pád' as 'dative — the komu? čemu? case'.
Correct — link each number to its case and question.
Key takeaways
- The seven cases, in order: nominativ (kdo? co?), genitiv (koho? čeho?), dativ (komu? čemu?), akuzativ (koho? co?), vokativ (direct address), lokál (o kom? o čem?), instrumentál (kým? čím?).
- To find a noun's case, ask the questions against the verb — the one it answers names the case.
- Czechs refer to cases by number (1.–7. pád); link each number to its question.
- The genitive and accusative both use koho? for people — separate them with čeho? vs co? and by which verb governs the noun.
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
- What Cases Are and Why Czech InflectsA1 — An introduction to the Czech case system and how grammatical relationships are marked by endings rather than word order.
- The Czech Case Numbers (1.–7. pád)A1 — Why Czechs number their cases and how the numbering maps to the case names.
- The Nominative as SubjectA1 — Using the nominative case for the subject of the sentence — the doer of the action.
- The Genitive of PossessionA1 — Using the genitive to express possession and the 'of' relationship between two nouns.
- 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.