Functional Text: A Newspaper Editorial

An editorial is an argument in prose, and Czech builds its arguments with a small kit of connectives, a conditional "what if we accepted this?" move, and word order that puts the contested idea up front. What trips up English speakers is not the vocabulary but the placement: the pivotal word však ("however") almost never starts the sentence, and the conditional auxiliary bychom ("we would") clings to second position like the clitic it is. This page close-reads a compact editorial passage so that the machinery of Czech argumentation — its hinges, its hedges, and its emphatic fronting — becomes visible.

The text

Je zřejmé, že současný systém financování školství naráží na své hranice. Prostředků je málo a rozdělují se nespravedlivě.

Na druhou stranu však nelze tvrdit, že by řešením bylo pouhé navýšení rozpočtu. Peníze samy o sobě kvalitu výuky nezajistí.

Pokud bychom přijali tento názor, museli bychom připustit, že za výsledky žáků nemůže nikdo jiný než učitelé. A to je zjevně nesmysl.

Read it as a debater's turn: it is evident that (concede the problem), however, on the other hand (block the easy fix), if we accepted that view, we would have to (reduce the opponent's position to an absurdity). Each move has a grammatical signature, and we will take them in the order the reader meets them.

Je zřejmé, že — the impersonal evaluative opener

The passage opens with Je zřejmé, že... — "It is evident that...". This is an impersonal evaluative frame: the neuter je ("it is") plus a short-form adjective zřejmé ("evident, clear", neuter), with the že-clause supplying what is evident. There is no personal subject — the writer does not say myslím ("I think") but lets the claim stand as if self-evident, which is exactly the rhetorical effect an editorialist wants. The family is large and worth stockpiling: je zřejmé ("it is evident"), je jasné ("it is clear"), je pravda ("it is true"), je třeba ("it is necessary"), je nutné ("it is necessary").

The rhetorical value is that the writer asserts without owning the assertion. English editorials do this too ("It is clear that..."), but Czech makes it a tidy neuter formula you can reach for instinctively. Note the short-form adjective zřejmé, not the long attributive zřejmý — impersonal je + evaluative always takes the short neuter.

rozdělují se nespravedlivě — the reflexive passive in argument

Even in an opinion piece, Czech reaches for the reflexive passive to state a state of affairs impersonally: rozdělují se nespravedlivě ("they are distributed unfairly"). The verb rozdělovat ("to distribute") plus se becomes agentless — the funds are distributed unfairly, with no need to name who distributes them. This keeps the focus on the phenomenon, not the actor, which suits an argument about a system.

Notice also prostředků je málo — "of funds there is little": the quantity word málo ("little, few") governs the genitive (prostředků, genitive plural of prostředek), and the fronting of the genitive noun topicalises it ("as for funds, there aren't enough"). Quantity-plus-genitive is a standard Czech pattern, and fronting it is a mild emphatic move.

Na druhou stranu však — the hinge, and the second-position však

Now the turn. The passage pivots with Na druhou stranu však nelze tvrdit... — "On the other hand, however, one cannot claim...". Two connectives stack here, and the second is the one English speakers get wrong.

Na druhou stranu ("on the other hand") is a fixed adverbial phrase (literally "to the second side") that signals a counter-move; it sits comfortably at the front.

Však ("however, yet") is the pivot proper — but it is a second-position particle. It does not begin the sentence the way English "however" can. Instead it slots in after the first stressed unit. Here the first unit is the phrase na druhou stranu, so však comes right after it: Na druhou stranu *však nelze tvrdit.... You will never see *Však na druhou stranu... at the head of a clause — that placement is ungrammatical in standard Czech (though však can end a colloquial sentence as an emphatic tag, a separate use).

The frame nelze tvrdit, že by... ("one cannot claim that...") is itself an argumentative staple: impersonal nelze ("it is not possible to"), plus — crucially — a subordinate clause with by in it (že by řešením bylo). Czech uses the conditional in the subordinate clause after a negated or doubted claim: "one cannot claim that the solution would be..." — the by marks the embedded proposition as hypothetical/rejected, not asserted.

že by řešením bylo — the instrumental predicate under doubt

Inside that clause: že by řešením bylo pouhé navýšení rozpočtu — "that the solution would be a mere increase of the budget". Two points. First, řešení ("solution") appears in the instrumental — řešením — because it is a defining predicate noun after být (the same rule as the academic abstract's cílem bylo). Second, the whole clause is conditional (by... bylo), because the writer is reporting a view in order to reject it, not asserting it.

Pokud bychom přijali… museli bychom — the conditional reductio

The passage lands its argument with a two-clause conditional: Pokud bychom přijali tento názor, museli bychom připustit... — "If we accepted this view, we would have to concede...". This is the classic reductio: take the opponent's premise and show where it leads. Grammatically it hinges on bychom, the first-person-plural conditional auxiliary ("we would"), and it appears twice — once in the if-clause, once in the main clause.

Bychom is a clitic: it must sit in second position, after the first stressed word of its clause.

• In the pokud-clause, pokud ("if") is a conjunction that does not count as the first "slot", so bychom attaches to the first content word, the verb participle přijali: Pokud *bychom přijali.... (Colloquially you also hear *Kdybychom přijali, folding the conditional into kdyby
  • -chom.)
• In the main clause, the first word is the modal participle museli ("would have to"), so bychom clings right behind it: museli *bychom připustit*.

The person endings of the conditional auxiliary run: bych (I), bys (you sg.), by (he/she/it), bychom (we), byste (you pl./formal), by (they). The two you most need for editorial "we"-argumentation are bychom and byste; the mechanics and placement are on bych in second position, and the kdyby/pokud clause itself on kdyby conditional clauses.

museli bychom připustit — the conditional of obligation

The main clause pairs the conditional with a modal: museli bychom připustit — "we would have to concede". The modal muset ("must, have to") appears as the l-participle museli, and the conditional bychom wraps it into "would have to". This museli/musel bychom + infinitive pattern is how Czech expresses a hypothetical obligation — the very engine of a reductio, since it forces the reader toward an unacceptable "we would have to admit...".

A to je zjevně nesmysl — the emphatic verdict

The passage closes with a short, emphatic sentence: A to je zjevně nesmysl — "And that is plainly nonsense". The initial A ("and") is not the sloppy conjunction it would be at the start of an English sentence; in Czech argumentation, a sentence-initial A is a legitimate emphatic connector that drives the conclusion home. The demonstrative to ("that") sums up the whole preceding proposition, zjevně ("plainly, evidently") is the evaluative adverb, and nesmysl ("nonsense") delivers the verdict. The brevity is deliberate — after the long conditional build-up, a curt one-liner lands the point. Fronting to to sum up and pin the verdict is part of the wider apparatus of emphatic word order covered on fronting and emphasis, and the argumentative connectors (tedy, tak, takže) on tak and takže.

The register of the whole piece — the impersonal je zřejmé, the second-position však, the bychom-argumentation — is the standard-literary journalistic register, distinct from both bureaucratic legalese and everyday speech; it is characterised on journalistic style.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Open with an impersonal evaluative frame: je zřejmé/jasné, že... (neuter je
  • short adjective) asserts without owning the claim.
• Však ("however") is a second-position particle — it follows the first stressed word or phrase, never leads the clause. Contrast ale/avšak, which can lead.
• Build the reductio on the conditional: Pokud/Kdyby bychom přijali... museli bychom... — with bychom ("we would") glued to second position in each clause.
• Use bychom, not the colloquial bysme, in written register.
• A defining predicate noun goes in the instrumental even under doubt: že by řešením bylo....
• Land the verdict with fronting and a curt sentence: sentence-initial A, summarising to, evaluative zjevně.