Functional Text: An Academic Abstract | Czech Grammar

Academic Czech has one overriding ambition: to keep the researcher out of the sentence. Where English will happily write "I found that..." or "we investigated...", scholarly Czech prefers to let the study, the results, and the data appear to act on their own — the study deals with, it was found that, the results show. To pull this off it relies on two different passive strategies and a dense layer of abstract verbal nouns. This page close-reads a realistic abstract so you can see exactly how a Czech researcher depersonalises a claim, and reproduce the moves in your own writing.

The text

Tato studie se zabývá vlivem sociálních médií na koncentraci studentů. Cílem výzkumu bylo ověřit, zda se doba strávená online projevuje na výsledcích ve studiu.
Bylo zjištěno, že mezi délkou používání a zhoršením koncentrace existuje statisticky významná souvislost. Výsledky rovněž naznačují, že tento vztah může být ovlivněn dalšími faktory.
Lze tedy předpokládat, že omezení používání sociálních médií by mohlo mít pozitivní dopad, ačkoliv tato hypotéza vyžaduje další ověření.

Notice what is absent: there is no já ("I") and no my ("we") anywhere. The researcher never appears as a grammatical subject. Instead the subjects are studie ("study"), výsledky ("results"), and impersonal frames like bylo zjištěno ("it was found") and lze předpokládat ("one may assume"). Every device below serves that single goal of agentless objectivity.

se zabývá vlivem — the reflexive verb and its instrumental object

The abstract opens with Tato studie se zabývá vlivem... — "This study deals with the influence...". Two things here are pure academic Czech.

First, zabývat se ("to deal with, to concern oneself with, to study") is a reflexive verb — the se is inseparable from it. It is the standard verb for stating what a piece of research is about, far more formal than je o ("is about").

Second — and this is the trap for English speakers — zabývat se governs the instrumental case. You deal with something, and that "with" is not the preposition s; it is baked into the case. So "the influence" (vliv) appears not as vliv but as the instrumental vlivem. English marks the relationship with a preposition ("deals with the influence"); Czech marks it with a case ending, and no preposition at all.

Tato studie se zabývá vlivem sociálních médií na koncentraci.

This study deals with the influence of social media on concentration. (zabývat se governs the instrumental: vliv → vlivem, with no preposition)

Práce se zabývá otázkou rovného přístupu ke vzdělání.

The thesis deals with the question of equal access to education. (otázka → instrumental otázkou)

Autoři se zabývají problematikou migrace v regionu.

The authors address the issue of migration in the region. (problematika → instrumental problematikou)

A whole family of research verbs behaves this way — zabývat se (deal with), zaobírat se (concern oneself with), řídit se (be governed by) — and each one demands the instrumental of its object with no preposition. The full set is on instrumental-governing verbs. Get the case right and the sentence sounds like a scholar; use a preposition and it sounds like a translation from English.

💡

When a Czech verb "means with" — zabývat se (deal with), zacházet s (handle), stát se (become) — check whether the "with" is a preposition or the bare instrumental case. Zabývat se takes the bare instrumental (vlivem), no s. This is one of the highest-value patterns in academic Czech.

Cílem výzkumu bylo — the instrumental predicate of purpose

The next sentence, Cílem výzkumu bylo ověřit, zda... ("The aim of the research was to verify whether..."), hides another instrumental. The predicate noun cíl ("aim, goal") stands in the instrumental — cílem — because Czech puts a defining predicate noun into the instrumental after být: "the aim was to verify" becomes cílem bylo ověřit. The verb bylo is neuter to agree with the neuter infinitive-clause subject. This cílem [práce/výzkumu] bylo + infinitive is a fixed abstract opener for stating a study's objective.

Cílem výzkumu bylo ověřit, zda spánek ovlivňuje paměť.

The aim of the research was to verify whether sleep affects memory. (cílem = instrumental predicate of cíl)

Úkolem této práce je zmapovat současný stav.

The task of this thesis is to map the current situation. (úkolem = instrumental of úkol, 'task')

Bylo zjištěno, že — the impersonal participial passive

Here is the signature move of the whole genre: Bylo zjištěno, že... — "It was found that...". This is the impersonal participial passive, and it is the Czech scholar's favourite way to report a finding without saying who found it.

It is built from bylo (the neuter past of být, "it was") plus zjištěno (the short passive participle of zjistit, "to find out, to ascertain", in the neuter singular form). Why neuter? Because there is no real subject at all — the participle takes the default, subjectless neuter ending -o. The clause že... ("that...") is not the grammatical subject; it is what was found. So the frame is genuinely impersonal: bylo zjištěno ("it was ascertained"), bylo prokázáno ("it was demonstrated"), bylo pozorováno ("it was observed").

Bylo zjištěno, že mezi proměnnými existuje souvislost.

It was found that there is a correlation between the variables. (bylo zjištěno = neuter impersonal passive; no agent named)

Bylo prokázáno, že léčba je účinná.

It was demonstrated that the treatment is effective. (bylo prokázáno — the same impersonal frame)

V experimentu bylo pozorováno několik anomálií.

Several anomalies were observed in the experiment. (bylo pozorováno — impersonal, agentless)

Contrast this with the concrete participial passive of a contract (bude uložena pokuta, where the participle agrees with a real subject) — here there is no subject to agree with, so the participle sits in the neuter by default. The contract clause uses the agreeing version; the abstract uses the impersonal one. The frame itself is detailed on the participial passive.

💡

The agentless reporting frame of Czech science is bylo + neuter participle + že…: bylo zjištěno, že… ("it was found that…"), bylo prokázáno, že… ("it was shown that…"). The participle is always neuter -o because there is no subject — it is the closest Czech comes to English "it was found that". Memorise it as a unit.

se projevuje / se doba strávená — the reflexive passive as the second strategy

The abstract does not rely on the participial passive alone. In the opening it uses the reflexive passive — the other depersonalising strategy — in zda se doba strávená online projevuje ("whether the time spent online manifests itself"). Here projevovat se ("to manifest, to show up") carries se, and the effect is again to state a general process without an agent.

Czech thus has two passives, and academic writing exploits both:

The reflexive passive (verb + se): general, rule-like, process-oriented. Zkoumá se vliv... ("the influence is being examined").
The participial passive (být
- participle): result-oriented, can name an agent, and in the neuter serves as the impersonal bylo zjištěno.

Zkoumá se, zda doba strávená online ovlivňuje výsledky.

It is being examined whether the time spent online affects results. (reflexive passive zkoumá se — agentless, ongoing)

V této kapitole se analyzují dostupná data.

In this chapter the available data are analysed. (reflexive passive: se analyzují, plural to agree with data)

A rule of thumb: use the reflexive passive for the ongoing activity of the research (zkoumá se, analyzuje se, uvádí se) and the impersonal participial passive for its concrete findings (bylo zjištěno, bylo prokázáno). Both are laid out on the reflexive passive and the impersonal se. Note too that doba strávená online uses an attributive participle — strávená ("spent", agreeing with feminine doba) — the same participle-as-adjective compression that pervades formal Czech.

Nominalisation: vlivem, používání, zhoršením, ověření

Read the abstract again and count the abstract nouns ending in -í / -ní / -tí: používání ("usage/using"), zhoršení ("worsening"), omezení ("restriction/limiting"), ověření ("verification"). These are verbal nouns — nouns coined directly from verbs — and they are the connective tissue of academic Czech. Where speech says když se to používá dlouho ("when it's used for a long time"), the abstract nominalises it into délka používání ("the length of usage"). Where speech says když se to omezí ("when it's restricted"), the abstract writes omezení používání ("the restriction of usage").

Délka používání sociálních médií souvisí se zhoršením koncentrace.

The length of social-media usage is linked to a worsening of concentration. (používání, zhoršení = verbal nouns; se zhoršením is instrumental after souviset s)

Omezení používání by mohlo mít pozitivní dopad.

Restricting usage could have a positive impact. (omezení, používání — a whole verb phrase packed into two nouns)

This nominalising density is the stylistic marker of scholarly and legal Czech alike, and it is developed fully on verbal nouns and nominalization. It lets a writer stack ideas without a chain of finite verbs, and it is what makes an abstract read as an abstract.

Hedging: naznačují, může být, lze předpokládat, ačkoliv

A good abstract never overclaims, and Czech has a precise vocabulary of hedging that downgrades a finding from fact to suggestion. The text stacks several:

naznačují ("suggest, indicate") — weaker than ukazují ("show") or dokazují ("prove"). Výsledky naznačují, že... concedes the finding is only indicative.
může být ovlivněn ("may be influenced") — the modal moci ("can/may") plus a passive participle, marking the relationship as possible rather than certain.
lze předpokládat, že ("one may assume that") — the impersonal lze ("it is possible to") is the classic academic hedge: it advances a claim while attributing it to no one.
ačkoliv... vyžaduje další ověření ("although... requires further verification") — the concessive ačkoliv ("although") plus the ritual admission that more research is needed.

Výsledky naznačují, že tento vztah může být ovlivněn dalšími faktory.

The results suggest that this relationship may be influenced by other factors. (naznačují hedges 'suggest'; může být ovlivněn = 'may be influenced', a hedged passive)

Lze předpokládat, že omezení používání by mělo pozitivní dopad.

One may assume that restricting usage would have a positive impact. (lze předpokládat = impersonal 'one may assume', a standard hedge)

Tato hypotéza však vyžaduje další ověření.

This hypothesis, however, requires further verification. (the ritual hedge closing an abstract)

💡

Calibrate your verb to your confidence: dokazují (prove) > ukazují (show) > naznačují (suggest/indicate). English speakers tend to over-assert; Czech abstracts default to the cautious naznačují and the impersonal lze předpokládat. Overclaiming reads as unscholarly.

Common mistakes

❌ Tato studie se zabývá s vlivem sociálních médií.

Case error — zabývat se takes the BARE instrumental (vlivem); adding the preposition s is a calque from English 'deals with'.

✅ Tato studie se zabývá vlivem sociálních médií.

This study deals with the influence of social media.

❌ Bylo zjištěna souvislost mezi proměnnými.

Agreement error — in the impersonal frame the participle is neuter (zjištěno), not feminine; there is no subject for it to agree with.

✅ Bylo zjištěno, že mezi proměnnými existuje souvislost.

It was found that there is a correlation between the variables.

❌ V této studii jsem zjistil, že...

✅ V této studii bylo zjištěno, že...

In this study it was found that...

❌ Cíl výzkumu bylo ověřit hypotézu.

Case error — a defining predicate noun after být goes in the instrumental: cílem, not the nominative cíl.

✅ Cílem výzkumu bylo ověřit hypotézu.

The aim of the research was to verify the hypothesis.

❌ Výsledky dokazují, že vztah možná existuje.

Overclaim clash — dokazují (prove) is too strong for a merely possible relationship; a hedged finding takes naznačují (suggest).

✅ Výsledky naznačují, že tento vztah existuje.

The results suggest that this relationship exists.

Key takeaways

Research verbs like zabývat se take the bare instrumental (vlivem), never the preposition s.
A defining predicate noun after být goes in the instrumental: cílem bylo ověřit.
The agentless reporting frame is the impersonal participial passive: bylo
- neuter participle + že (bylo zjištěno, že...).
Czech uses two passives — the reflexive se passive for ongoing activity (zkoumá se) and the participial passive for concrete results (bylo prokázáno).
Verbal nouns in -ní/-tí (používání, zhoršení, omezení) nominalise whole clauses and give the abstract its density.
Hedge deliberately: naznačují over dokazují, lze předpokládat, and close with vyžaduje další ověření.

Now practice Czech

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Czech→