On the Telephone

A phone call is a small ritual with fixed lines, and Czech has its own — different enough from English that translating word for word will mark you out instantly. The grammar that runs through the whole call is the instrumental case (because "to speak with someone" is mluvit s + instrumental) and the polite conditional (because requests on the phone are softened: "Could you…?"). Get those two right and you can answer, ask, leave a message, and bail out of a bad connection like a native.

Answering the phone

When you pick up, the neutral options are Haló? and Prosím?. In a more formal or work setting, Czechs very commonly answer by simply stating their surname.

Prosím is doing one of its many jobs here — see prosím: The Politeness Multitool. Note that Haló? is essentially used only on the phone; you would never greet someone with it face to face.

Identifying yourself: Tady… and U telefonu…

English says "This is Jana speaking" or "Jana here". Do not translate that literally — Toto je Jana sounds like you are pointing at a photograph. The two idiomatic openers are Tady + name and U telefonu + name (literally "at the telephone").

When someone asks for you by name and it is you, the one-word answer is U telefonu. — "Speaking."

Asking for someone: mluvit s + instrumental

This is the grammatical heart of the page. To say "May I speak with Mr Novák?", Czech uses the verb mluvit plus the preposition s — and s always governs the instrumental case, never the accusative or genitive. So the person's name has to take its instrumental ending: pan Novák → s panem Novákem. (For the wider pattern of "with someone", see Accompaniment with S plus Instrumental; for the full list of prepositions that demand this case, Prepositions That Take the Instrumental.)

Here is the instrumental in action for the people you most often ask for:

A simpler, very common alternative avoids the case problem entirely: Je tam pan Novák? — "Is Mr Novák there?" — using the nominative because Novák is now the subject.

Getting connected — or not

The person who answers may need to put you through or break bad news:

Leaving a message: the polite conditional

When the person you want is unavailable, you leave a message — and here the conditional softens the request from a command into a courtesy. Mohl byste…? ("Could you…?") is built from the conditional of moci plus an infinitive, exactly the politeness pattern in Conditional for Polite Requests. The verb for "to pass on (a message)" is vyřídit, and the verb for "to relay that…" is vzkázat; both take a dative for the person ("to him" = mu).

The host may offer first: Chcete mu nechat vzkaz? — "Would you like to leave him a message?" To which you might reply Ne, děkuji, zavolám později. ("No thanks, I'll call later.")

When the line is bad

Czech describes a bad connection with a neat impersonal construction. "I can't hear you" is most idiomatically Není tě slyšet — literally "there is no hearing you" — not a modal "I can't". And "we got cut off" is the reflexive Přerušilo se to.

How English speakers go wrong

Two transfer errors dominate. First, English "speak with him" makes you forget that s triggers a case change, so learners leave the name in the nominative. Second, "this is X speaking" gets translated literally as toto je X, which a Czech ear hears as a clumsy identification of an object rather than a self-introduction. Reach for Tady X or U telefonu X instead. And when you cannot hear, resist the modal: Czech says Není tě slyšet, not "I can't hear you" verb-for-verb.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Answer with Haló? / Prosím? or your surname; identify yourself with Tady… or U telefonu…, never Toto je….
• Ask for someone with mluvit s
  • instrumental (s panem Novákem, s Petrem, s kým) — or sidestep the case with Je tam…?.
• Make requests polite with the conditional: Mohl byste mu vyřídit, že…?
• A bad line is Není tě slyšet and Přerušilo se to, not literal "I can't hear you".