Telling someone the date is one of the most frequent things you do, and Czech does it in a way that has no English parallel. English says on the first of January with two little words, on and of. Czech uses no preposition at all — it just puts the day-ordinal and the month both into the genitive: prvního ledna. The genitive endings already mean "on the …th of …". This page shows you the ordinal forms, the month names, the full spoken pattern, the question Kolikátého?, and how years are read off as plain cardinals.
The pattern: ordinal + month, both genitive
A Czech date is two words, and both end up in the genitive:
- the day, said as an ordinal (první "first" → prvního "of the first"),
- the month, in its genitive (leden "January" → ledna "of January").
No on, no of — the endings carry both. Read it as a frozen "of-the-Nth of-the-month."
Přijedu prvního ledna.
I'll arrive on the first of January. (prvního ledna — both genitive, no preposition)
Schůzka je dvacátého třetího prosince.
The meeting is on the twenty-third of December. (a two-word ordinal — both parts genitive)
Vrátím se pátého května.
I'll be back on the fifth of May. (pátého května)
Notice in the second example that a two-word ordinal puts both words in the genitive: dvacátý třetí → dvacátého třetího. You can't bend only the first half.
Ordinal numbers you need for dates
Days run 1 to 31, so you need the ordinals up to thirty-first. Here are the building blocks in the nominative and the genitive form you actually say in a date.
| Day | Ordinal (nominative) | In a date (genitive) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | první | prvního |
| 2nd | druhý | druhého |
| 3rd | třetí | třetího |
| 4th | čtvrtý | čtvrtého |
| 5th | pátý | pátého |
| 7th | sedmý | sedmého |
| 13th | třináctý | třináctého |
| 20th | dvacátý | dvacátého |
| 21st | dvacátý první | dvacátého prvního |
| 30th | třicátý | třicátého |
| 31st | třicátý první | třicátého prvního |
The genitive ending is -ého for the hard ordinals (druhý → druhého) and -ího for the soft one (třetí → třetího). For the full declension of ordinals see forming and declining ordinals.
The month names
Czech months are native words, not Latin borrowings, and they are lowercase. In a date they appear in the genitive. A few change their stem in ways you simply memorize.
| Month | Nominative | Genitive (in dates) |
|---|---|---|
| January | leden | ledna |
| February | únor | února |
| March | březen | března |
| April | duben | dubna |
| May | květen | května |
| June | červen | června |
| July | červenec | července |
| August | srpen | srpna |
| September | září | září |
| October | říjen | října |
| November | listopad | listopadu |
| December | prosinec | prosince |
Saying a full date
Put the genitive ordinal and the genitive month together and you have a spoken date. To state today's date, Czech says Dnes je … and keeps the date in the genitive — it is elliptical for "today is [the day] of the …th."
Dnes je prvního ledna.
Today is the first of January. (the date stays genitive even as an answer)
Narodil jsem se třináctého března.
I was born on the thirteenth of March.
Mám narozeniny dvacátého prvního června.
My birthday is on the twenty-first of June.
"What's the date?" — Kolikátého
Czech asks for the date with the genitive of kolikátý ("the how-many-eth"): Kolikátého je dnes? — literally "of-the-how-many-eth is today?" You answer with the same genitive.
Kolikátého je dnes?
What's the date today? (literally 'of-the-how-manieth is today')
Je třetího května.
It's the third of May.
Kolikátého máme?
What's the date? (literally 'of-the-how-manieth do we have')
Máme dvacátého — ne, dvacátého prvního.
It's the twentieth — no, the twenty-first.
Genitive for "on," nominative for a label
The genitive is for when something happens. But when the date is itself the grammatical subject or a name/label — not the time of an event — it appears in the nominative, the dictionary form.
Prvního ledna se slaví Nový rok.
New Year is celebrated on the first of January. (genitive — when)
První leden je státní svátek.
The first of January is a public holiday. (nominative — the date is the subject)
The difference is real and worth feeling: in the first sentence the date answers when?, so it is genitive; in the second the date is the thing being talked about, so it is nominative.
Writing dates: 3. 5. 2024
In writing, Czech puts the day first, then the month, then the year, each followed by a period because the numbers are ordinals: 3. 5. 2024 = "the third of May 2024." The dots are not decoration — they mark třetího, pátého as ordinals. Read aloud, 3. 5. 2024 becomes třetího května dva tisíce dvacet čtyři.
You can also spell the month out: 3. května 2024. In formal letters you often see dne in front: V Praze dne 3. května 2024. Note that the comma is reserved for decimals in Czech — never write a date as "3,5." — so the date dots and the decimal comma never collide. See dates, numbers and the decimal comma.
Years are read as cardinals
The day is an ordinal, but the year is a plain cardinal number — you do not say "the 1990th." 1990 is tisíc devět set devadesát ("one thousand nine hundred ninety"); 2024 is dva tisíce dvacet čtyři.
Narodil jsem se třináctého března tisíc devět set devadesát.
I was born on the thirteenth of March 1990. (the year is a cardinal)
Bylo to dvacátého listopadu dva tisíce čtyři.
It was on the twentieth of November 2004.
In casual speech you'll also hear 1990 said as devatenáct set devadesát (informal). For in the year … phrasings such as v roce 2024, see years.
Common mistakes
❌ Přijedu na první ledna.
Incorrect — no preposition; the bare genitive already means 'on'.
✅ Přijedu prvního ledna.
I'll arrive on the first of January.
❌ Dnes je první leden.
Incorrect when stating the date of today — this names the day as a label, not 'today is the 1st'.
✅ Dnes je prvního ledna.
Today is the first of January.
❌ Schůzka je dvacátého tři prosince.
Incorrect — a compound ordinal must be fully ordinal: 'dvacátého třetího'.
✅ Schůzka je dvacátého třetího prosince.
The meeting is on the twenty-third of December.
❌ Narodil jsem se v třetího května.
Incorrect — no 'v' before a date; the genitive stands alone.
✅ Narodil jsem se třetího května.
I was born on the third of May.
Key takeaways
For the case theory behind why both parts go genitive, read the genitive in dates; to handle clock times like ve tři hodiny, see telling time with ordinals.
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- The Genitive in DatesA2 — Why Czech puts both the day-ordinal and the month name in the genitive to say a calendar date — and the irregular month stems you need to read figures aloud.
- Ordinal NumbersA2 — první, druhý, třetí … — how Czech ordinals decline like adjectives, how compound ordinals are built, and the digit-plus-period notation.
- Reading YearsB1 — How Czech says years (devatenáct set, dva tisíce dvacet čtyři) and the 'in the year' construction.
- Telling the TimeA2 — Hodin/hodiny agreement, half/quarter expressions (půl, čtvrt), and the 24-hour system.
- Numbers, Time, and Dates in UseA2 — Ready-made templates for telling the time, saying the date with the ordinal genitive, naming the year, and counting nouns with the 1 / 2–4 / 5+ agreement split.
- Writing Dates, Numbers, and the Decimal CommaA2 — Czech conventions for dates, thousands separators, and decimals.