Genitive Plural Noun Forms Used After Numbers | Czech Grammar

The previous page established the rule: from pět upward, the counted noun must be in the genitive plural (see Cardinal Numbers 5+). But knowing you need pět korun is useless if you can't actually produce korun from koruna. This is exactly where learners stall — so this page is a practical workshop in forming the genitive plural, paradigm by paradigm. The good news: there are only three shapes to learn (a masculine ending, a feminine/neuter zero, and a soft -í), plus a short list of irregulars worth memorising outright.

Masculine nouns → -ů

This is the easy one. Almost every masculine noun, hard or soft, animate or inanimate, takes -ů in the genitive plural. Drop the nominative ending (if any) and add -ů.

Nominative sg.	Genitive pl.	After a number
muž	mužů	pět mužů
strom	stromů	dvacet stromů
dům	domů	deset domů
klíč	klíčů	pět klíčů

Na sídlišti postavili deset nových domů.

They built ten new blocks of flats on the estate.

Před školou roste dvacet stromů.

Twenty trees grow in front of the school.

Feminine and neuter → bare stem (zero ending)

Here is the form that surprises English speakers most: many feminine and neuter nouns drop their ending and add nothing at all. The genitive plural is just the bare stem. Žena loses its -a and becomes žen; okno loses its -o and becomes oken.

Nominative sg.	Genitive pl.	After a number
žena	žen	pět žen
koruna	korun	deset korun
hodina	hodin	šest hodin
slovo	slov	pět slov
auto	aut	sto aut
pivo	piv	pět piv

Vstupenka stojí sto korun.

A ticket costs a hundred crowns.

Dej mi pět minut, hned jsem hotová.

Give me five minutes, I'll be done right away. (minuta → minut)

Objednali jsme pět piv a dvě kávy.

We ordered five beers and two coffees.

The tricky bit: the inserted -e-

The zero ending sometimes leaves behind a consonant cluster that Czech cannot pronounce — sestr-, okn-, matk-. To fix it, the language slips a "helper" vowel -e- into the gap (linguists call it an epenthetic or fleeting vowel). This is the single trickiest corner of the genitive plural, and it is unavoidable, because so many everyday words land here.

Nominative sg.	Genitive pl.	What the -e- breaks up
sestra	sester	-str- → -ster-
matka	matek	-tk- → -tek-
okno	oken	-kn- → -ken-
číslo	čísel	-sl- → -sel-
jablko	jablek	-lk- → -lek-

Mám pět sester a žádného bratra.

I have five sisters and no brother.

V tom sále je deset oken.

That hall has ten windows.

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You can't always predict the inserted -e- by ear, but you can flag the danger: whenever dropping the ending would leave two consonants jammed together (sestr-, matk-, okn-), expect an -e- to appear between them. Learn the high-frequency ones — sester, matek, oken, dívek, karet — as fixed words.

Soft feminines and neuters → -í

Nouns of the soft "růže" and "moře" types don't go to zero; they take -í in the genitive plural.

Nominative sg.	Genitive pl.	After a number
růže	růží	pět růží
restaurace	restaurací	deset restaurací
moře	moří	pět moří
pole	polí	deset polí

Koupil jí kytici pěti červených růží.

He bought her a bouquet of five red roses.

The irregulars worth memorising

A few of the most frequent counted nouns have a genitive plural you could never derive from the rules above. These come up constantly — money, people, years, children — so learn them as vocabulary.

Nominative sg.	Genitive pl.	After a number
člověk (person)	lidí	deset lidí
dítě (child)	dětí	pět dětí
rok (year)	let	sto let
peníze (money)	peněz	málo peněz
kůň (horse)	koní	pět koní

Two of these are suppletive — they borrow their plural from a different word entirely. Člověk ("person") switches to the root lid- in the plural (lidé → lidí), and rok ("year") borrows from léto ("summer"), giving let. So "he is five years old" is je mu pět let, never pět roků in everyday speech.

Na oslavu přišlo deset lidí.

Ten people came to the party. (člověk → lidí)

Naší dceři je dneska pět let.

Our daughter is five years old today. (rok → let)

Máme pět dětí, takže je u nás pořád rušno.

We have five children, so it's always lively at our place.

How this differs from English

English forms the plural one way — add -s — and reuses that single form after every number: "five crowns", "ten people", "a hundred years". Czech makes you reach for a special case form that often looks nothing like the nominative plural you already learned: koruna → koruny (nom. pl.) but pět korun (gen. pl.); dítě → děti but pět dětí. The trap is obvious once you name it — learners default to the familiar nominative plural after a number, producing pět koruny or deset člověků. Whenever a number from five up sits in front of a noun, stop and ask: what is the genitive plural?

Common Mistakes

❌ pět ženy

Incorrect — 'ženy' is the nominative plural; after a number you need the genitive plural žen.

✅ pět žen

five women

❌ deset oknů

Incorrect — neuter okno takes a zero ending with an inserted -e-, not -ů: oken.

✅ deset oken

ten windows

❌ pět sestr

Incorrect — the cluster needs the helper vowel -e-: sester.

✅ pět sester

five sisters

❌ deset člověků

Incorrect — člověk is suppletive in the plural: deset lidí.

✅ deset lidí

ten people

❌ Je mu pět roků.

Incorrect for stating age — the standard genitive plural of rok after numbers is let.

✅ Je mu pět let.

He is five years old.

Key Takeaways

Masculine → -ů: mužů, stromů, domů — the reliable, easy ending.
Feminine/neuter → zero: žen, korun, slov, aut — drop the ending, add nothing.
A consonant cluster triggers an inserted -e-: sestra → sester, okno → oken, matka → matek.
Soft types → -í: růže → růží, moře → moří.
Memorise the irregulars: lidí, dětí, let, peněz, koní — they appear in the most common counting contexts.

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