Declension of Personal Pronouns

In English, me, him, her, us, them are single frozen words. Czech personal pronouns, by contrast, are among the most heavily inflected words in the language: each one has a different form in each of the cases, and several cases offer two forms — a long, stressed one and a short, unstressed clitic. On top of that, the third-person pronouns grow an initial n- after a preposition. So me in Czech is not one word but a small paradigm. This page is the master reference table; the two big complications — long vs short, and the n- forms — each get a dedicated page, so here we map the whole landscape and point you to them.

The master table

The vocative does not apply to pronouns, so we list the six functional cases. Where a cell shows two forms, the first is the long/stressed form and the second is the short clitic.

A few things to read off this table at once. The first and second person (já, ty, my, vy) never take an n-; only the third person does. The plural my and vy are beautifully simple — nás, nám, nás, námi and vás, vám, vás, vámi — no doublets at all. And the feminine ona funnels four of its forms into the single syllable jí/ní, distinguished only by the surrounding preposition and context.

Several cells have two forms

The biggest complication is the long/short split. The long form (mně, tebe, jemu, jeho) is stressed: you use it at the start of a clause, after a preposition, or for emphasis and contrast. The short clitic (mi, tě, mu, ho) is unstressed and slots into the second position of the clause, leaning on the preceding word. Compare:

Choosing between mi and mně, ho and jeho, tě and tebe is the heart of Czech pronoun usage and has its own page: clitic vs long. The short forms also obey strict word-order rules, drilled on clitic placement.

Third-person pronouns take n- after a preposition

The single most distinctive rule of Czech personal pronouns: a third-person pronoun (on, ona, ono, oni) acquires an initial n- whenever it directly follows a preposition. So jemu becomes němu, jí becomes ní, jimi becomes nimi, jeho becomes něho/něj.

The locative is special: it exists only after a preposition (o, na, v…), so it always carries the n- — there simply is no preposition-less locative form. Everything about this n- rule is collected on n- forms after prepositions.

Pronouns at work in different cases

A register note on the doublets

Within the doublets, register varies. For on in the genitive/accusative, ho is the everyday neutral clitic, jeho is the stressed/emphatic long form, and jej is (literary) or formal — common in writing but old-fashioned in speech. For já, the genitive/accusative mne is the fuller, more (formal) variant, while mě is the standard everyday form (note they are pronounced almost the same, which is exactly why native writers confuse mě and mně).

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Every personal pronoun is a whole paradigm: me is mě / mne / mně / mi / mnou, not one word.
• The plurals my and vy are the easy ones — nás, nám, nás, námi / vás, vám, vás, vámi, no doublets.
• Many cells have a long/stressed form and a short clitic; the clitic sits in second position and never starts a clause or follows a preposition.
• Third-person pronouns take an initial n- after a preposition: k němu, o ní, s nimi.
• The locative exists only after a preposition, so it is always the n- form: o mně, o něm, o nich.