Every language has a phrase that means "a story is about to begin." English has "Once upon a time." Czech has Byl jednou jeden... — and, like its English cousin, it is a tiny grammar lesson dressed up as a formula. The classical Czech fairy tale, as collected and written down by Karel Jaromír Erben (1811–1870) and Božena Němcová, opens with a handful of moves that do enormous work: they conjure a person out of nowhere, then point at that person as though the listener could already see them, and they set the whole scene in a soft, timeless past. This page reads a real Erben opening closely, because these three moves — indefinite introduction, the resumptive ten, and the imperfective past — are exactly how Czech, a language with no articles, manages the "a" / "the" distinction that English does with little words.
The text
The opening of Erben's tale Dlouhý, Široký a Bystrozraký ("Long, Broad and Sharp-Eyes"):
Byl jeden král, a byl už starý a neměl než jednoho syna.
Byl jeden král, a byl už starý a neměl než jednoho syna.
There was a king, and he was already old and had only one son.
(Verbatim from Karel Jaromír Erben, Dlouhý, Široký a Bystrozraký, first published 1855; public domain — Erben died in 1870.)
And the fuller storyteller's formula, in the shape every Czech child hears it, resuming the just-named king with ten:
Byl jednou jeden král a ten měl tři dcery.
Byl jednou jeden král a ten měl tři dcery.
Once upon a time there was a king, and he (that one) had three daughters.
Let us take the formula apart move by move.
Move 1: Byl jednou jeden král — conjuring "a king" from nothing
The opening does something English marks with the indefinite article. Byl jednou jeden král is, word for word, "was once one king" — and the little jeden ("one") is doing the job of English "a." Because Czech has no articles at all, it recruits the numeral jeden to signal first mention, brand-new, not-previously-known referent. This is the germ of an article: jeden here does not stress that there was exactly one king rather than two — it flags him as a fresh, indefinite figure stepping onto the stage.
The verb-first order — Byl ("there was") before its subject král — is also part of the formula. Fronting the verb být is Czech's standard way of saying "there exists / there was," the equivalent of English "there was...". It signals: hold on, a new participant is being introduced.
Byl jednou jeden král.
Once upon a time there was a king. (jeden = the indefinite 'a'; verb-first Byl = 'there was')
Byla jednou jedna princezna.
Once upon a time there was a princess. (feminine agreement: byla ... jedna)
Bylo jednou jedno království.
Once upon a time there was a kingdom. (neuter agreement: bylo ... jedno)
Move 2: a ten měl — the resumptive demonstrative as a quasi-article
Now the second move, and it is the jewel of the formula. Having introduced the king with jeden, the storyteller refers back to him with ten — "and that one had three daughters." Ten is the masculine demonstrative "that," but here it is not pointing at anything in the room; it is resuming a referent just named in the previous clause. In English we would simply say "and he had" or "and the king had." Czech reaches for ten to mean, roughly, "that same one I just told you about."
This is the mirror image of Move 1. Where jeden marked the king as new (≈ indefinite "a"), ten now marks him as known, established, definite (≈ definite "the / that"). Together they trace the exact arc English draws with a → the: a king ... and that/the king had... This resumptive, article-like ten is everywhere in Czech narration and casual speech, and mastering it is how you make your Czech sound like storytelling rather than a word list.
Byl jednou jeden král a ten měl tři dcery.
Once there was a king, and that one (= he) had three daughters. (ten resumes the just-introduced king)
Potkal jsem souseda a ten mi řekl novinku.
I met the neighbour, and he (that one) told me a piece of news. (the same resumptive ten in everyday speech)
Koupili starý dům. Ten dům pak celý přestavěli.
They bought an old house. That house they then rebuilt completely. (ten dům = 'the house' — pinning down an established referent)
The full range of this article-like use — when ten means "the," when it means "that (over there)," and when it is pure emphasis — is on ten as an article.
Move 3: byl / měl / žila — the imperfective past that paints the scene
Notice the tense. The whole opening is in the imperfective past: byl ("was"), měl ("had"), and in the sister-formula žila v lese stará babička ("an old woman lived in the forest") the verb žila ("lived"). Fairy tales open in the imperfective because the opening does not narrate an event — it sets a stable, ongoing state of affairs: the king existed, he was old, he had children, all as background scenery. The imperfective is Czech's aspect for durative, descriptive, "this is how things stood" material. Only later, when something happens — the son sets off, the dragon strikes — does the story switch to perfective verbs for the completed events that drive the plot.
Byl jeden král a měl tři dcery.
There was a king and he had three daughters. (imperfective byl, měl — a standing state, the backdrop)
Kdysi dávno žila v lese stará babička.
Long, long ago an old woman lived in the forest. (imperfective žila — ongoing scene-setting)
Jednoho dne se král rozhodl a poslal syna do světa.
One day the king decided and sent his son out into the world. (perfective rozhodl se, poslal — the events that start the plot)
Move 4: byl ... měl ... žila — the l-participle agrees in gender
Every past-tense verb here is an l-participle, and it silently agrees with the gender of its subject — a point English, which has one past form for all subjects, never has to think about:
- král byl — masculine subject → participle byl ("was");
- babička žila — feminine subject → participle žila ("lived") with feminine -a;
- a neuter subject (dítě, "child") would give žilo.
So the very ending of the verb tells you the gender of who is being talked about. In Bylo jednou jedno království the neuter -o runs right through — bylo, jedno, království — an agreement chain a Czech ear reads instantly.
| Subject | Gender | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| král (king) | masculine | byl, měl |
| babička (old woman) | feminine | byla, žila |
| dítě (child) | neuter | bylo, žilo |
| králové (kings) | masc. animate plural | byli, měli |
Byla jednou jedna chudá vdova a ta měla tři syny.
Once there was a poor widow, and she (that one) had three sons. (feminine byla, měla; resumptive ta)
The full rules for how the participle tracks gender and number are on l-participle agreement.
Move 5: tři dcery — the numeral 2–4 with a plain plural
The daughters give us a small case lesson. Tři dcery is "three daughters," and after the low numerals 2, 3, 4 (and oba "both") Czech keeps the noun in the ordinary nominative/accusative plural — dcery, just as if you were saying "the daughters." This is unlike the numerals 5 and up, which force the counted noun into the genitive plural (pět dcer, "five daughters," literally "five of daughters"). So the fairy-tale trio tři dcery / tři synové / tři přání ("three daughters / sons / wishes") is a textbook 2–4 phrase.
Ten měl tři dcery.
He had three daughters. (tři + plain accusative plural dcery)
Král dal synovi tři přání.
The king gave his son three wishes. (tři + plural přání)
Ale pět dcer už by bylo pět dcer.
But five daughters would already be 'five of daughters'. (5+ forces the genitive plural dcer)
The 2–4 versus 5+ split is set out on numerals two to four.
Move 6: the iterative bývalo — the timeless "used to be"
Some openings reach past the plain imperfective for an even mistier past: the iterative (frequentative) verb. Standard být "to be" has an iterative cousin bývat "to be (habitually, repeatedly, as a rule)," whose past bývalo means "there used to be / it was customarily so." Storytellers use it to push the tale into a vague, recurring, half-legendary time — Bývalo, nebývalo ("there used to be, there used not to be") is a real folk opening. English can only approximate it with "used to."
Za starých časů bývalo v každé vsi strašidlo.
In the old days there used to be a ghost in every village. (iterative bývalo — habitual, repeated past)
Babička nám vždycky vyprávěla pohádky.
Grandma always used to tell us fairy tales. (imperfective vyprávěla with vždycky = a habit)
The set of these "used-to" verbs — bývat, chodívat, dělávat, říkávat — is on iterative and frequentative verbs.
Common Mistakes
❌ Byl jednou král a on měl tři dcery.
Flat — using on ('he') for the resumptive is grammatical but loses the storytelling ring; narration wants the demonstrative ten.
✅ Byl jednou jeden král a ten měl tři dcery.
Once upon a time there was a king, and that one (he) had three daughters.
❌ Byl jednou jeden král a ta měl tři dcery.
Agreement error — král is masculine, so the resumptive demonstrative must be masculine ten, not feminine ta.
✅ Byl jednou jeden král a ten měl tři dcery.
Once upon a time there was a king, and he had three daughters.
❌ Ten měl tři dcer.
Wrong case — after tři the noun stays nominative/accusative plural dcery; the genitive dcer is for 5 and up.
✅ Ten měl tři dcery.
He had three daughters.
❌ Kdysi dávno žil v lese stará babička.
Gender clash — babička is feminine, so the past participle must be žila, not masculine žil.
✅ Kdysi dávno žila v lese stará babička.
Long ago an old woman lived in the forest.
❌ Jednoho dne byl král starý a měl syna. (jako začátek)
Wrong aspect for the plot beat — 'one day' introduces an event and wants a perfective; the imperfective byl/měl only sets the standing scene.
✅ Byl jednou jeden starý král. Jednoho dne poslal syna do světa.
Once there was an old king. One day he sent his son out into the world.
Key Takeaways
- Byl jednou jeden... = "Once upon a time there was a...": verb-first byl ("there was") + jeden doing the work of the indefinite "a."
- The resumptive ten / ta / to ("that one") refers back to a just-introduced noun ≈ English "he/she/the" — the definite counterpart to indefinite jeden. It is the sound of Czech narration.
- Fairy-tale openings use the imperfective past (byl, měl, žila) to set a standing scene; the switch to perfective verbs starts the plot.
- The past l-participle agrees in gender: král byl, babička žila, dítě žilo.
- After 2–4 the counted noun stays in the plain nominative/accusative plural (tři dcery); 5+ forces the genitive plural (pět dcer).
- The iterative bývalo ("used to be") pushes the tale into a vague, habitual past English renders only with "used to."
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- ten as a Near-Article and Definiteness MarkerB1 — How the article-less language uses ten to signal 'the' / 'that one we know'.
- Gender and Number Agreement of the l-ParticipleA2 — How the Czech past-tense participle changes its ending to match the subject's gender and number — including marking your own gender in the first person.
- Iterative and Frequentative VerbsB2 — The -ávat/-ívat verbs that mark habitual repetition and 'used to'.
- Cardinal Numbers 0–4 and Nominative Plural AgreementA1 — jeden/dva/tři/čtyři, their gender forms, and why they take the nominative plural noun.
- Definiteness Without ArticlesA2 — Czech has no 'a' or 'the' — here's how word order, the demonstrative ten, and context do an article's work instead.