Apologizing and Thanking

Saying "sorry" and "thank you" is the most frequent social work any language does, and Czech wraps both jobs around two grammatical choices an English speaker has to make consciously: who you are talking to (the ty / vy split, which changes the actual word you say) and what case follows the little words inside the phrase. This page gives you the formulas, the responses that come back at you, and the two pieces of grammar — za + accusative for thanking, and the dative of the person — that hold them together.

Apologizing: promiňte / promiň, omlouvám se, pardon

Czech has three main ways to apologize, and they are not freely interchangeable — each has a register and, crucially, a ty / vy form.

Promiňte (to a vy-person) and promiň (to a ty-person) are the everyday "excuse me / sorry." They are imperatives of the verb prominout ("to forgive"), so you are literally telling the person "forgive (me)." Use them to apologize for small things and to get someone's attention before asking a question.

Omlouvám se ("I apologize," literally "I excuse myself") is a touch more serious and more formal — it is what you say for a real mistake, not just brushing past someone. It is built on the reflexive verb omlouvat se, and the se is not optional: drop it and the sentence falls apart. To say what you are apologizing for, attach za + accusative (see below).

Pardon is a borrowed, casual word for bumping into someone or squeezing past — quick and low-stakes, like English "oops, sorry." It carries no ty / vy marking, which is part of why it feels light.

The dative of the person you wronged

When you name the person you are apologizing to, they go in the dative — the case of the person affected. With omlouvat se this is omlouvám se + dative; with prominout it is promiňte / promiň + dative (often just promiňte mi).

So a full, formal apology can stack both pieces: the dative of the person plus za + accusative of the offence — Omlouvám se vám za to zpoždění ("I apologize to you for the delay"). Notice the system is perfectly regular: the person is dative (vám), the thing is accusative after za (za to zpoždění).

Thanking: děkuji, díky, mockrát děkuji

The neutral, all-purpose "thank you" is děkuji (colloquially děkuju — the same word, just the everyday spoken ending). For "thanks" among friends there is the lighter díky, and for emphasis you can reach for moc děkuji / děkuji moc ("thank you very much") or mockrát děkuji ("thanks a lot," literally "many times I thank").

Thanking for something: za + accusative

This is the grammatical heart of the page. To say what you are grateful for, Czech uses za + the accusative case — not the genitive, even though "for" feels like it might pull a different case, and not a bare noun the way English "thanks, help!" might tempt you. The pattern is fixed: děkuji za + accusative.

Watch the case endings shift on the noun after za: pomoc (already its accusative form), dárek (masculine inanimate, accusative = nominative), rada → radu (feminine -a nouns take -u in the accusative), pozvání (neuter, unchanged). The same za + accusative shows up in apologies (omlouvám se za chybu) and in many other spots, so it is worth locking in now — see prepositions with the accusative.

The responses: prosím, není zač, rádo se stalo

When someone thanks you, Czech offers a small set of replies, all meaning roughly "you're welcome":

• Prosím — the workhorse "you're welcome" (the very same prosím that means "please" and "here you are").
• Není zač — "don't mention it," literally "there's nothing to (thank) for." Warm and common.
• Rádo se stalo — "my pleasure," literally "it happened gladly." The rádo is neuter because the unspoken subject is to ("it").

And when someone apologizes to you, you wave it off with To nic ("it's nothing"), To je v pořádku ("it's fine"), or Nic se nestalo ("no harm done," literally "nothing happened").

Keeping ty and vy consistent

Because the apology and thanking words themselves carry the ty / vy distinction, the single most common slip is mixing the two registers inside one exchange — opening with familiar promiň and then switching to formal vám, or thanking with ti and apologizing with vás. Pick one footing per person and hold it for the whole conversation. If you are not sure which to use, default to the vy-forms (promiňte, omlouvám se vám, děkuji vám) and let the other person invite you onto ty-terms — the full logic is on the tykání vs. vykání page.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Apologize with promiň (ty) / promiňte (vy) for everyday slips, omlouvám se (keep the se!) for something more serious, pardon for a light bump.
• The person you address goes in the dative: omlouvám se vám / ti, promiňte mi.
• Thank with děkuji / děkuju, díky (informal), mockrát děkuji (emphatic) — and "thank for" is always za + accusative: za pomoc, za dárek, za radu.
• Reply to thanks with prosím, není zač, or rádo se stalo; reply to an apology with to nic or nic se nestalo.
• Keep ty and vy consistent across the whole exchange, and when in doubt use the vy-forms.