A trip to a Czech shop or market is, grammatically, a small obstacle course: you have to ask a price, request a quantity, and name a sum of money — and each of those three moves drags a noun into a different case. The phrases themselves are easy; the trap is that koruna ("crown") changes shape depending on the number in front of it, and that everything measured by weight or volume goes into the genitive. Get those two reflexes right and you sound fluent at the till.
Asking for things and asking the price
The core question is Kolik to stojí? ("How much does it cost?"). You'll also hear the more colloquial Co to stojí? with the same meaning. Swap to for a named thing — Kolik stojí ten svetr? ("How much is that sweater?").
Kolik stojí tahle kniha?
How much is this book?
Dobrý den, co to stojí?
Hello, how much is this? (informal/colloquial)
To ask whether the shop has something, use Máte…? ("Do you have…?"). To say what you want, the polite default is the conditional Chtěl bych (man speaking) / Chtěla bych (woman speaking) — "I'd like." A bare Chci ("I want") sounds blunt; the conditional is the courteous form.
Máte čerstvé housky?
Do you have fresh rolls?
Chtěl bych dvě kávy s sebou, prosím.
I'd like two coffees to go, please. (said by a man)
Chtěla bych to vyzkoušet. Máte to i v modré?
I'd like to try it on. Do you have it in blue too? (said by a woman)
Quantities: weights and containers take the genitive
This is the first reliable rule. After a measure word — a weight, a volume, a container, a portion — the thing being measured goes into the genitive. English uses "of" (a kilo of apples); Czech just puts the noun in the genitive with no preposition at all.
| Measure |
| English |
|---|---|---|
| kilo | jablek | a kilo of apples |
| půl kila | šunky | half a kilo of ham |
| deset deka | sýra | 100 g of cheese |
| litr | mléka | a litre of milk |
| sklenice | vody | a glass of water |
| kus | chleba | a piece of bread |
Chtěl bych kilo jablek a litr mléka, prosím.
I'd like a kilo of apples and a litre of milk, please. (said by a man)
Dejte mi prosím deset deka šunky.
Give me 100 grams of ham, please.
Dáme si dvě piva a sklenici vody.
We'll have two beers and a glass of water.
Watch the genitive plural in jablek (from jablko, neuter) and brambor (from brambory, "potatoes"): these drop to a bare stem with no ending, which is exactly the shape the genitive plural takes for many nouns. Kila, mléka, sýra, vody are genitive singulars (the substance is uncountable). Either way: never the nominative after a measure.
The Czech crown and its three forms
Czech money is counted in koruna (crown), abbreviated Kč or CZK. The word koruna is a feminine -a noun, and — like every Czech noun counted by a number — it takes one of three forms depending on the number. This is the same counting rule that governs all nouns (see cardinal numbers 5 and up), but money is where you meet it ten times a day, so drill it here:
| Number | Form of "crown" | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | jedna koruna | nominative singular |
| 2, 3, 4 | dvě / tři / čtyři koruny | nominative plural |
| 5, 6, … 100… | pět / deset / sto korun | genitive plural |
To máte dohromady sto dvacet korun.
That comes to a hundred and twenty crowns altogether.
Stojí to jenom dvě koruny.
It only costs two crowns.
Lístek je za třicet korun.
The ticket is thirty crowns.
The decisive detail in compounds: it's the last digit that decides. Sto dvacet ends in dvacet (20, which is in the "5+" zone), so → korun. Dvacet jedna technically ends in jedna, but in real prices you'll overwhelmingly hear the genitive plural korun there too. Smaller coins are haléře (hellers, abbreviated hal. or h); they no longer exist as cash, but prices still show decimals, read out as the crown amount plus the number: 19,90 Kč is devatenáct korun devadesát or simply devatenáct devadesát.
Káva stojí čtyřicet pět korun.
The coffee costs forty-five crowns.
Mléko je za devatenáct devadesát.
The milk is nineteen ninety.
Paying: by card or in cash
To say how you pay, Czech uses the instrumental of means — the case for the instrument or method you use, with no preposition. Karta ("card") → kartou; "in cash" is the adverb hotově. (For the wider pattern, see the instrumental of means.)
Můžu platit kartou?
Can I pay by card?
Bohužel bereme jenom hotovost. Platí se hotově.
Unfortunately we only take cash. You pay in cash.
Zaplatím kartou a poprosím o účtenku.
I'll pay by card and I'll ask for a receipt.
Useful extras around paying: účtenka (receipt), drobné (small change/coins), and vrátit ("to give back" — what the cashier does with your change). To judge a price, Je to drahé ("it's expensive") and Je to levné ("it's cheap"); moc drahé is "too expensive."
To je na mě moc drahé, nemáte něco levnějšího?
That's too expensive for me, don't you have something cheaper?
Common Mistakes
❌ Stojí to pět koruny.
Wrong form — after 5+ the crown is the genitive plural korun.
✅ Stojí to pět korun.
It costs five crowns.
❌ Mám dvě korun.
Wrong form — 2, 3, 4 take the nominative plural koruny, not the genitive plural.
✅ Mám dvě koruny.
I have two crowns.
❌ Chtěl bych kilo jablka.
Wrong case — after a measure the noun is genitive plural: jablek.
✅ Chtěl bych kilo jablek.
I'd like a kilo of apples. (said by a man)
❌ Dáte mi litr mléko?
Wrong case — measure + genitive: mléka, not the nominative mléko.
✅ Dáte mi litr mléka?
Will you give me a litre of milk?
❌ Platím s kartou.
Wrong structure — 'by means of' is the bare instrumental, no s (that s would mean physically 'together with a card').
✅ Platím kartou.
I'm paying by card.
Key Takeaways
- Ask prices with Kolik to stojí? / Co to stojí?; ask for things with Máte…? and Chtěl(a) bych….
- After any measure (kilo, litr, deka, sklenice, kus), the noun goes into the genitive, no "of" word: kilo jablek, litr mléka.
- The crown has three forms by number: jedna koruna — dvě/tři/čtyři koruny — pět+ korun; read prices by the last digit.
- Method of payment is the instrumental of means: platit kartou; "in cash" is the adverb hotově — no s.
- Je to drahé / levné judges the price; ask for účtenka (receipt) and drobné (change).
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers 5 and Up: the Genitive Plural RuleA2 — Why pět, deset, sto and the higher numbers take a genitive-plural noun and a singular neuter verb — the central oddity of Czech numeral syntax.
- The Instrumental of MeansA2 — Using the instrumental to express the tool or means by which something is done.
- Money and CurrencyA2 — koruna/koruny/korun and haléř agreement, prices, and reading sums of money.
- Genitive Plural Noun Forms Used After NumbersA2 — How to actually build the genitive plural — mužů, žen, oken, sester, lidí, let — that every number from five up demands.
- Food and Ordering in a RestaurantA2 — How to order food and drink politely in Czech — Dám si / Chtěl bych + the accusative, the gender-marked conditional softener, partitive quantity phrases, and asking for the bill.