Idioms with mít | Czech Grammar

When an English speaker is hungry, they are hungry — "hungry" is an adjective describing the subject. Czech sees the situation as ownership: you do not be hungry, you have hunger. Mám hlad, literally "I have hunger." A whole cluster of everyday states — hunger, thirst, fear, being right, being lucky, being in the mood — works this way: the verb mít ("to have") plus a noun in the accusative. Reach for být ("to be") plus an adjective, as English instinct demands, and you will produce sentences that are at best stiff and at worst plain wrong. This page maps the mít family and shows how to keep it separate from the other big "feeling" pattern, the dative one (Je mi zima).

The pattern: mít + accusative noun

The frame is a normal sentence — a real subject (you), the verb mít, and a direct object — except the "object" is an abstract state. Mít conjugates regularly: mám, máš, má, máme, máte, mají; past měl / měla / mělo / měli / měly / měla; negative nemám, nemáš… (full paradigm on the mít verb page).

Czech idiom	Literally	English	Noun: nom → acc
mít hlad	have hunger	to be hungry	hlad → hlad (masc.)
mít žízeň	have thirst	to be thirsty	žízeň → žízeň (fem. soft)
mít strach	have fear	to be afraid	strach → strach (masc.)
mít pravdu	have truth	to be right	pravda → pravdu (fem.)
mít čas	have time	to have time / be free	čas → čas (masc.)
mít náladu	have mood	to be in the mood	nálada → náladu (fem.)
mít štěstí	have luck	to be lucky	štěstí → štěstí (neut.)
mít smůlu	have bad luck	to be unlucky	smůla → smůlu (fem.)

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The noun after mít is a direct object, so it sits in the accusative. With masculine and neuter nouns the accusative often looks identical to the dictionary form (hlad, strach, čas, štěstí), so nothing seems to change — but with feminine -a nouns the ending visibly shifts to -u: pravda → pravdu, smůla → smůlu, nálada → náladu. Saying mám pravda is the giveaway of a learner who hasn't put the noun in the accusative.

Hunger, thirst, and the body

The most frequent members of the family describe bodily states. English uses "be + adjective" for all of them; Czech uses "have + noun."

Mám hlad jako vlk, kdy už bude oběd?

I'm hungry as a wolf, when's lunch finally?

Máš žízeň? Naliju ti vodu.

Are you thirsty? I'll pour you some water.

Po tom běhu jsme měli strašnou žízeň.

After that run we were terribly thirsty.

Notice the past in the third example: měli is the masculine-animate plural of mít, and the state-noun žízeň stays put in the accusative. To put any of these in the past, you change mít, not the noun: Měl jsem hlad ("I was hungry"), Měla jsem strach ("I was afraid," female speaker).

Being right, being afraid, being in the mood

The same logic stretches to mental and emotional states. Crucially, "to be right" is mít pravdu ("to have truth") — there is simply no way to say it with být plus an adjective. "To be afraid" can be either mít strach ("have fear") or the verb bát se; the mít version is the noun-based idiom that belongs to this family.

Máš pravdu, měli jsme vyrazit dřív.

You're right, we should have set off earlier.

Děti mají strach ze tmy, nech jim rozsvíceno.

The kids are afraid of the dark, leave the light on for them.

Dneska nemám náladu nikam chodit, zůstanu doma.

I'm not in the mood to go anywhere today, I'll stay home.

In mít strach ze tmy the thing feared is added with z + genitive (tma → tmy). And note mít náladu in the negative — nemám náladu — is the everyday "I'm not in the mood," far more natural than any být-based attempt.

Luck, time, and good fortune

Měl jsem štěstí, že jsem ten vlak na poslední chvíli stihl.

I was lucky to catch that train at the last minute. (male speaker)

Měla smůlu — přišla na nádraží minutu po odjezdu.

She was unlucky — she got to the station a minute after departure.

Nemám teď čas, spěchám na schůzku, zavolám ti večer.

I don't have time right now, I'm rushing to a meeting, I'll call you tonight.

Mít štěstí / smůlu ("be lucky / unlucky") and mít čas ("have time / be free") round out the core set. Beyond these, the same machine generates dozens more — mít radost (be glad), mít zájem (be interested), mít chuť na něco (fancy something), mít rád (like / be fond of) — all "have + noun" where English says "be."

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One member of this family hides an extra trap: mít rád ("to like, to be fond of"). Here rád is not a noun but an adjective that agrees with the speaker — mám rád (a man), mám ráda (a woman), máme rádi (plural). It still belongs to the mít camp, but it inflects differently from the noun idioms. See likes and dislikes and the mít rád vs líbit se vs chutnat guide.

Don't confuse it with the dative pattern (Je mi zima)

Czech actually has two rival ways to express how you feel, and the hardest part is keeping them apart. The mít family uses a normal subject and an accusative noun (Mám hlad). But a second family — temperature, sickness, sadness — uses no subject at all: just je plus a person in the dative plus an adverb (Je mi zima, "I'm cold"; Je mi špatně, "I feel sick"). That dative pattern has its own page, expressions with být and the dative.

The dividing line is reliable:

If the state is a noun you can "have" — hlad, žízeň, strach, pravda, čas, štěstí — it is mít + accusative with a normal subject.
If the state is an adverb describing how things are for you — zima, teplo, špatně, smutno — it is je + dative with no subject.

Mám hlad, ale jinak je mi fajn.

I'm hungry, but otherwise I feel fine.

That one sentence shows both systems side by side: mám hlad (mít + accusative noun) and je mi fajn (je + dative). They are not interchangeable — you cannot say je mi hlad or mám zima.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jsem hladový, kdy bude večeře?

Stilted calque — the everyday way to say 'I'm hungry' is mám hlad.

✅ Mám hlad, kdy bude večeře?

I'm hungry, when's dinner?

The adjective hladový exists, but for "I'm hungry (right now)" Czech overwhelmingly says mám hlad. Defaulting to být + adjective is the classic English-transfer error.

❌ Jsem pravdu.

Ungrammatical — 'be right' is not 'be truth'; it must be 'have truth'.

✅ Máš pravdu.

You're right.

There is no být-based way to say "be right." It is mít pravdu ("have truth"), and the feminine noun must be accusative: pravdu.

❌ Mám pravda.

Case error — the noun after mít is a direct object and takes the accusative.

✅ Mám pravdu.

I'm right.

Pravda is feminine, so its accusative is pravdu. The same shift hits smůla → smůlu and nálada → náladu.

❌ Je mi hlad.

Wrong pattern — hunger belongs to the mít camp, not the dative-adverb camp.

✅ Mám hlad.

I'm hungry.

Once you learn Je mi zima ("I'm cold"), it is tempting to over-apply it. But hlad is a noun you "have," so it stays mám hlad — the dative je mi frame is only for the adverb-states.

❌ Jsem strach z výšek.

Wrong — 'be afraid' is not 'be fear'; use mít strach or bát se.

✅ Mám strach z výšek.

I'm afraid of heights.

"To be afraid" is mít strach ("have fear") or the reflexive verb bát se — never být + the noun strach. The thing feared takes z + genitive (výšky → z výšek).

Key Takeaways

A core set of states uses mít + accusative noun where English uses "be": mám hlad (hungry), žízeň (thirsty), strach (afraid), pravdu (right), čas (free), náladu (in the mood), štěstí / smůlu (lucky / unlucky).
The noun is a direct object → accusative: invisible on most masculines (hlad, strach), but visible on feminines (pravda → pravdu, smůla → smůlu).
Put it in the past by changing mít, not the noun: Měl jsem hlad, Měla jsem strach.
mít rád belongs here too, but rád is an adjective that agrees with the speaker (mám rád / ráda / rádi).
Keep it apart from the dative family (Je mi zima / špatně): noun-states are mít
- accusative; adverb-states are je
  - dative.

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