Talking about your family is one of the first things you'll want to do in any language, and in Czech it's a perfect, low-stakes way to practise three things at once: the basic family words, the verb mít ("to have") with the accusative case, and the two ways Czech links one person to another — the genitive ("the house of my parents") and the lovely possessive adjectives ("father's house"). This page gives you the vocabulary and shows you how Czech actually puts a family into a sentence.
The family words and their genders
Every Czech noun has a gender, and family words mostly behave the way you'd hope — words for women are feminine, words for men are masculine. But there's one trap worth flagging immediately: the affectionate words táta (dad) and děda (grandpa) end in -a, which looks feminine, yet they are masculine, because they name men. Natural gender wins. And dítě (child) is neuter.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|
| otec / táta (father / dad) | matka / máma (mother / mum) | dítě (child) |
| bratr (brother) | sestra (sister) | miminko (baby) |
| syn (son) | dcera (daughter) | vnouče (grandchild) |
| manžel (husband) | manželka (wife) | |
| dědeček / děda (grandpa) | babička (grandma) | |
| strýc (uncle) | teta (aunt) |
Useful group words: rodiče (parents), prarodiče (grandparents), sourozenci (siblings), rodina (family, feminine). Notice that Czech, like English, has a casual and a neutral register: máma/táta are the everyday "mum/dad," while matka/otec are more neutral or formal — you'd write matka on a form but call out mámo! across the kitchen.
Máme malou rodinu: já, manžel a dvě děti.
We're a small family: me, my husband, and two children.
Moje babička bydlí na vesnici a peče nejlepší koláče.
My grandma lives in the countryside and bakes the best pastries.
"I have…" — mít plus the accusative
To say you have a relative, use mít ("to have") and put the family member in the accusative case — the case of the direct object (covered in full on the accusative as direct object page). For masculine animate nouns (and people are always animate), the accusative singular adds -a: bratr → bratra, syn → syna. Feminine nouns in -a change to -u: sestra → sestru, dcera → dceru.
Mám staršího bratra a mladší sestru.
I have an older brother and a younger sister. (bratr → bratra, sestra → sestru)
Máš sourozence, nebo jsi jedináček?
Do you have siblings, or are you an only child?
Counting family members: the number trap
Here's where English speakers stumble. When you count family members with mít, the case of the noun depends on the number — this is a core Czech rule, and family talk is where you first hit it:
- One → jeden / jedna / jedno
- accusative singular. The word for "one" must match the gender: jednoho bratra (masc.), jednu sestru (fem.).
- Two, three, four → dva / dvě, tři, čtyři
- the plural form, and "two" itself has a gender: dva for masculine, dvě for feminine and neuter. So dva bratry but dvě sestry.
- Five and up → the number + the genitive plural: pět bratrů, šest sester.
Mám dva bratry a jednu sestru.
I have two brothers and one sister. (dva bratry — masc. two; jednu sestru — fem. one)
Manželka má dvě sestry a jednoho bratra.
My wife has two sisters and one brother. (dvě sestry — fem. two; jednoho bratra — masc. one)
Máme pět vnoučat, čtyři kluky a jednu holčičku.
We have five grandchildren, four boys and one little girl. (pět vnoučat — genitive plural after five)
Saying whose: the genitive of possession
To say "my parents' house" or "my sister's friend," Czech most often uses the genitive of possession. The trick for English speakers: Czech has no apostrophe-s, and the owner comes after the thing owned, in the genitive case. So "my parents' house" is literally "house of-my of-parents" — dům rodičů — and "my sister's brother" is "brother of-my of-sister" — bratr mé sestry. (More on this on the genitive of possession page.)
To je dům mých rodičů, postavili ho sami.
That's my parents' house, they built it themselves. (dům + rodičů in the genitive)
Petr je přítel mé sestry.
Petr is my sister's boyfriend. (přítel + sestry in the genitive)
Saying whose, more naturally: possessive adjectives
Czech has a second, often crisper way to say "X's" when the owner is one specific person: it turns that person into a possessive adjective. From otec (father) you get otcův ("father's"); from matka (mother), matčin ("mother's"). These behave like adjectives, so they agree with the thing owned — otcův dům (father's house, masc.), otcova kniha (father's book, fem.), otcovo auto (father's car, neuter). The feminine ones work the same way: matčin kabát, matčina taška, matčino auto. (See the otcův and matčin pages for the full endings.)
This matters because English speakers, reaching for the genitive they just learned, tend to say dům mého otce for "my father's house" — which is grammatical, but a Czech ear usually prefers the punchier otcův dům. As a rule of thumb: one named person → reach for the possessive adjective; anything plural or more complex → use the genitive.
Otcův bratr, můj strýc, žije v Brně.
My father's brother — my uncle — lives in Brno. (otcův, the possessive adjective)
Tohle je matčina sestra, moje teta Eva.
This is my mother's sister, my aunt Eva. (matčina agreeing with the feminine sestra)
Marital status
To state whether you're married, Czech uses two completely different words depending on whether you're a man or a woman — and this is a classic learner trip-up. A man says ženatý (married); a woman says vdaná (married). They are not the same adjective in two genders; they're separate words, and you must use the right one.
| Status | Said by a man | Said by a woman |
|---|---|---|
| married | Jsem ženatý. | Jsem vdaná. |
| single | Jsem svobodný. | Jsem svobodná. |
| divorced | Jsem rozvedený. | Jsem rozvedená. |
Jsi ženatý? — Ne, zatím jsem svobodný.
Are you married? (to a man) — No, I'm still single.
Moje sestra se loni vdala, takže je teď vdaná.
My sister got married last year, so she's married now.
Common mistakes
❌ Jsem ženatá. (said by a woman)
Incorrect — ženatý is only for men; a woman says vdaná.
✅ Jsem vdaná.
I'm married. (said by a woman)
❌ Mám dva bratr a pět sestra.
Incorrect — after dva it's plural (bratry), and after pět it's genitive plural (sester).
✅ Mám dva bratry a pět sester.
I have two brothers and five sisters.
❌ To je dům od mého otce.
Incorrect — Czech doesn't use 'od' (from) for ownership; it's the bare genitive or a possessive adjective.
✅ To je dům mého otce. / To je otcův dům.
That's my father's house.
❌ Mám bratr.
Incorrect — bratr is a masculine animate object, so the accusative is bratra.
✅ Mám bratra.
I have a brother.
❌ Moje táta je doktor.
Incorrect — táta ends in -a but is masculine, so it takes můj, not moje.
✅ Můj táta je doktor.
My dad is a doctor.
Key takeaways
- Family words follow natural gender, but watch táta/děda (masculine despite -a) and dítě (neuter).
- "I have" is mít
- the accusative: Mám bratra a sestru (bratr → bratra, sestra → sestru).
- Counting: jeden/jednu
- singular, dva/dvě–čtyři
- plural, pět+ → genitive plural — and "two" is dva (masc.) vs dvě (fem.).
- singular, dva/dvě–čtyři
- Ownership: the genitive of possession comes after the noun, with no apostrophe (dům rodičů); for one named person prefer a possessive adjective (otcův dům, matčina sestra).
- Marital status uses different words by gender: a man is ženatý, a woman is vdaná.
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Possessive Adjectives From Masculine Nouns: otcůvB2 — Forming and declining -ův/-ova/-ovo possessives like otcův dům, bratrův.
- Possessive Adjectives From Feminine Nouns: matčinB2 — Forming -in/-ina/-ino possessives like matčin, sestřin and the stem alternations they trigger.
- 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 Genitive of PossessionA1 — Using the genitive to express possession and the 'of' relationship between two nouns.
- mít — to haveA1 — Full conjugation of mít (to have), its accusative object, the obligation construction mít + infinitive, and the everyday idioms mít se and mít rád.