Directions and Transport | Czech Grammar

Getting around a Czech town leans on three grammatical decisions an English speaker never has to make: whether a destination takes do or na, whether you are talking about a place (kde?) or a movement toward it (kam?), and which case names the means of transport you used to get there. Master these and "Where's the station?", "Turn left at the church", and "I go to work by tram" all fall out of the same small set of rules. This page builds the phrasebook on top of the grammar so the phrases keep working in sentences you've never seen.

Asking where something is: Kde je…?

The bare "where is" question uses kde ("where," a location) plus the nominative of the thing:

Promiňte, kde je nejbližší zastávka?

Excuse me, where is the nearest stop?

Nevíte, kde je tady někde lékárna?

Do you know where there's a pharmacy around here? (formal you)

To ask for the route rather than the location, Czech has a dedicated word kudy ("which way, by what route"), usually with the reflexive verb dostat se ("to get to"):

Kudy se dostanu na hlavní nádraží?

Which way do I get to the main station?

Jak se odsud dostanu do centra?

How do I get to the centre from here?

Notice already that the station takes na (na nádraží) but the centre takes do (do centra). That choice is the heart of the page.

The destination split: do + genitive vs na + accusative

When you move to a destination, Czech forces a choice between two prepositions, and each governs its own case:

do + genitive for enclosed, bounded places you go into: buildings, towns, countries, rooms.
na + accusative for open surfaces, events, and "institution" destinations: squares, stations, the post office, a concert.

do genitive (into)	na accusative (onto / to)
do města (to town)	na náměstí (to the square)
do obchodu (to the shop)	na nádraží (to the station)
do restaurace (to the restaurant)	na poštu (to the post office)
do školy (to school)	na koncert (to a concert)
do Prahy (to Prague)	na letiště (to the airport)
do banky (to the bank)	na zastávku (to the stop)

There is a soft logic — do for things you physically enter, na for flat/open spaces and event-like destinations — but a hard core of cases is simply lexicalised and must be memorised. The classic trap is the post office: it is na poštu, not do pošty, even though a post office is a building you walk into. The same goes for na nádraží (station), na úřad (the office/authority), and na hrad (up to the castle). There's no escaping that you learn these as fixed pairs; the choosing guide v vs na for places lists the stubborn ones.

Jdu na poštu a pak do banky.

I'm going to the post office and then to the bank.

V sobotu jedeme do Brna na koncert.

On Saturday we're going to Brno for a concert.

Kam? (motion) vs Kde? (location)

The deepest split is between motion toward and static location — and Czech grammaticalises it. The question word changes (kam? "where to" vs kde? "where at"), and so does the case after the very same preposition:

kam? → motion: do
- genitive, na
  - accusative
kde? → location: v/ve
- locative, na
  - locative

Question	Motion (kam?)	Location (kde?)
town	do města (genitive)	ve městě (locative)
the post office	na poštu (accusative)	na poště (locative)
the station	na nádraží (accusative)	na nádraží (locative)
school	do školy (genitive)	ve škole (locative)

Jdeš na poštu? Já tam zrovna jdu taky.

Are you going to the post office? I'm just heading there too.

Celý den jsem byla na poště ve frontě.

I spent all day at the post office in the queue. (female speaker)

The key habit for English speakers: an English "to / at" pair doesn't tell you the case, so before you pick an ending, silently ask kam or kde — am I moving there or already there? The same preposition na gives accusative poštu for motion but locative poště for location. The full apparatus of place-vs-direction question words (kde, kam, odkud) is on kde, kam, odkud.

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Before choosing an ending, ask kam? or kde? Motion → do + genitive / na + accusative (na poštu). Location → v + locative / na + locative (na poště). The preposition can stay the same while the case flips.

Giving directions: the spatial commands

Directions come in the imperative, plus a small fixed vocabulary of spatial adverbs. The essentials:

Czech	English
Jděte rovně.	Go straight ahead.
Zahněte doleva. / Zahněte doprava.	Turn left. / Turn right.
Jděte dál / nahoru / dolů.	Go on / up / down.
Přejděte ulici / silnici.	Cross the street / road.
Je to hned za rohem.	It's just around the corner.

Note doleva / doprava (the do- forms answer kam? — "to the left/right," a movement) as opposed to vlevo / vpravo ("on the left/right," answering kde? for where something stands).

Jděte rovně a na druhé křižovatce zahněte doleva.

Go straight and turn left at the second intersection.

Zahněte doprava u kostela a je to hned vedle.

Turn right at the church and it's right next to it.

Lékárna je vlevo, hned za bankou.

The pharmacy is on the left, right behind the bank.

For destinations you can also use k + dative to mean "up to / toward" a landmark without entering it:

Jak se dostanu k řece?

How do I get to the river?

The contrast between k (toward, up to) and do (right into) is drawn out on do vs k.

Transport: the instrumental of means

How you travel is expressed by the instrumental case, with no preposition — the bare instrumental already means "by (means of)":

Vehicle	Instrumental "by…"
auto (car)	autem
autobus (bus)	autobusem
vlak (train)	vlakem
tramvaj (tram)	tramvají
metro (metro)	metrem
loď (boat)	lodí

Jezdím do práce autobusem, je to rychlejší než autem.

I go to work by bus, it's faster than by car.

Zítra jedeme vlakem do Brna.

Tomorrow we're going to Brno by train.

There is one productive exception worth flagging: na kole ("by bike") and na koni ("on horseback") use na + locative, not the bare instrumental — historically you sit on them. And going on foot has its own adverb: pěšky.

Do centra jezdím na kole, ale dneska půjdu pěšky.

I cycle to the centre, but today I'll walk.

Finally, the verb of motion itself encodes the means: jít (and its habitual chodit) is "to go on foot," while jet (jezdit) is "to go by vehicle." You jdeš to the shop on the corner but jedeš to another city. Choosing between them — and between the one-off and habitual partners — is covered on jít vs chodit, jet vs jezdit, and the wider use of the instrumental is on the instrumental of means.

Pěšky je to deset minut, tramvají jen tři.

On foot it's ten minutes, by tram just three.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jdu do pošty.

Incorrect — the post office is a lexicalised na-destination: na poštu, not do pošty.

✅ Jdu na poštu.

I'm going to the post office.

❌ Jedeme do město.

Incorrect — do governs the genitive, so it must be do města, not the nominative město.

✅ Jedeme do města.

We're going to town.

❌ Byl jsem na poštu celé dopoledne.

Incorrect — location (kde?) needs the locative: na poště, not the accusative poštu.

✅ Byl jsem na poště celé dopoledne.

I was at the post office all morning.

❌ Jedu do práce s autobusem.

Incorrect — means of transport is the bare instrumental; s (with) means accompaniment, not 'by'.

✅ Jedu do práce autobusem.

I go to work by bus.

❌ Jdu do Brna vlakem.

Odd — for another city you travel, so use jet, not jít: Jedu do Brna vlakem.

✅ Jedu do Brna vlakem.

I'm going to Brno by train.

Key Takeaways

Pick the destination preposition first: do + genitive for enclosed places (do města, do banky), na + accusative for open/event/institution places (na poštu, na koncert) — and memorise the stubborn na-cases.
Always ask kam? (motion) vs kde? (location): the same na gives accusative na poštu (going) but locative na poště (being there).
Directions are imperatives plus doleva/doprava (motion) vs vlevo/vpravo (position).
Means of transport is the bare instrumental: autem, autobusem, vlakem, tramvají — with na kole / pěšky as the exceptions.
The motion verb itself chooses the means: jet/jezdit by vehicle, jít/chodit on foot.

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