A good proverb is a grammar lesson you can carry in your pocket. Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu — "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" — packs three high-value mechanics into five words: how Czech glues negation onto the verb, how the preposition od pulls its noun into the genitive, and why a timeless truth is told in the imperfective. Learn the sentence and you've learned patterns you'll reuse in a hundred everyday clauses.
The text
Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" — children turn out like their parents. The grammar is reassuringly plain: a neuter subject, one negated verb, an adverb, and a prepositional phrase.
Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. (children take after their parents)
Word by word
| Word | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| jablko | nominative sg., neuter (město-type) | (the) apple |
| nepadá | ne-
| does not fall |
| daleko | adverb | far |
| od stromu | od
| from the tree |
The frame is subject (jablko) → verb (nepadá) → adverb + prepositional phrase (daleko od stromu) — the same order an English speaker expects, which lets you concentrate on the forms.
Grammar in action 1: ne- — negation welded to the verb
Here is the first big lesson. English negates a verb with a separate word — "does not fall," "is not coming." Czech does it with a prefix: ne- is glued straight onto the front of the verb and written as one word. So padá "falls" → nepadá "doesn't fall." There is no auxiliary "do," no separate "not" floating in the clause — just one negated verb.
This is utterly regular. Every verb negates the same way:
| Affirmative | Negated | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| padá | nepadá | falls / doesn't fall |
| vím | nevím | I know / I don't know |
| mám | nemám | I have / I don't have |
| chci | nechci | I want / I don't want |
| přišel | nepřišel | came / didn't come |
Nevím, kde bydlí.
I don't know where he lives.
Promiň, dnes nemám čas.
Sorry, I don't have time today.
The mechanics, including where the stress lands, are on the ne- prefix on verbs.
Grammar in action 2: od stromu — "away from" in the genitive
The preposition od means "(away) from" — a starting point, an origin, the place you move away from — and it always governs the genitive. The proverb measures distance away from a reference point, so we get od stromu.
The noun strom ("tree") is masculine inanimate, and most nouns of this class take -u in the genitive singular: strom → stromu. That's the form you'll meet again and again with od:
| od + genitive | Dictionary form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| od stromu | strom (masc.) | from the tree |
| od domu | dům (masc.) | from the house |
| od okna | okno (neut.) | from the window |
| od řeky | řeka (fem.) | from the river |
| od bratra | bratr (masc. anim.) | from (my) brother |
A small honesty note: not every masculine inanimate noun takes -u. A handful take -a instead (les → lesa "forest," kostel → kostela "church"), and you simply learn those individually. Strom, though, is a textbook -u noun.
Bydlíme kousek od nádraží.
We live a short way from the station.
Od rána do večera pršelo.
It rained from morning till evening. (od marks the starting point in time, too)
The spatial uses of od, z, do and friends are gathered on genitive prepositions of place; the masculine -u/-a split has its own page, the masculine inanimate genitive split.
Grammar in action 3: nepadá — the imperfective of timeless truth
Why padá (imperfective) and not the perfective spadne "falls (once)"? Because a proverb states a general, timeless truth, not a single event. The imperfective present is Czech's tense for the gnomic and the habitual — for what is always the case. Apples don't fall far from trees — as a rule, in general, forever. Reach for the perfective and you'd be describing one specific apple's one specific tumble, which is not what a proverb is about.
| Imperfective (general / habitual) | Perfective (one event) |
|---|---|
| Jablko nepadá daleko… (as a rule) | Jablko spadlo. (one apple fell) |
| Listí padá na podzim. (every autumn) | Spadl mi telefon. (my phone fell — once) |
Listí padá na podzim.
Leaves fall in autumn. (a general, recurring truth — imperfective)
Pozor, ať nespadneš z žebříku!
Careful you don't fall off the ladder! (one specific, perfective event)
What "imperfective" really captures — process, repetition, timeless validity — is unpacked on what the imperfective means.
Grammar in action 4: jablko and the neuter subject
The subject jablko is neuter (the -o ending is a strong clue), and the verb agrees with it in the third person singular: nepadá. You won't see the neuter ending move in this sentence, but the moment jablko takes a case it behaves like město — jablka in the genitive, jablku in the dative. In the past tense the neuter participle would show its -o too: jablko spadlo, not spadl.
To jablko spadlo přímo pod strom.
That apple fell right under the tree. (neuter past participle: spadlo)
Daleko od domova mu bylo smutno.
Far from home he felt sad. (daleko od + genitive again)
The metaphor, and how Czechs use it
The picture is homely and clear: an apple drops more or less straight down, landing close to the trunk that grew it — so a child ends up resembling the parents. Czechs reach for it exactly like English speakers reach for "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," and usually with the same faintly critical edge: it most often comments on an inherited fault — a temper, a stubbornness, a vice — passed quietly from parent to child. The same image runs across Europe (German Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm), which is why it feels so familiar.
Krade úplně jako jeho táta — jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
He steals exactly like his dad — the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jablko ne padá daleko od stromu.
Incorrect — the negation ne- is glued to the verb and written as one word: nepadá.
✅ Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
❌ Jablko nepadá daleko od strom.
Incorrect — od governs the genitive, so strom becomes stromu.
✅ Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
❌ Jablko nespadne daleko od stromu.
Wrong aspect — a timeless truth needs the imperfective nepadá; the perfective nespadne describes one specific fall.
✅ Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
❌ Jablko nepadají daleko od stromu.
Incorrect — jablko is singular, so the verb is singular nepadá, not the plural nepadají.
✅ Jablko nepadá daleko od stromu.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Key Takeaways
- Negate any verb with the prefix ne-, written as one word: padá → nepadá. No separate "not," no "do."
- od means "(away) from" and takes the genitive: od stromu, od domu, od řeky.
- Most masculine inanimate nouns take -u in the genitive singular (strom → stromu); a few take -a (les → lesa).
- A proverb's general truth is told in the imperfective (nepadá); the perfective (spadne) would describe one event.
- Neuter subjects like jablko agree as 3sg and show -o in the past participle (spadlo).
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Negating the Verb with ne-A1 — How Czech negates a clause by gluing ne- onto the verb — no 'do/does/did', no separate word for 'not'.
- More Genitive Prepositions: vedle, kolem, podle, místo, kroměA2 — Genitive prepositions of position, manner, and exception.
- What 'Imperfective' Really MeansA2 — Process, repetition, and general validity as the heart of the imperfective.
- The -u vs -a Genitive of Inanimate MasculinesB2 — Why some inanimate masculines take genitive -a (lesa) while most take -u (hradu).
- Prepositions That Take the GenitiveA2 — The large family of genitive prepositions — do, z, od, bez, u, vedle, podle, kolem, během, místo, kromě, uprostřed — and why the case is fixed no matter what they mean.