Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele is the Czech "first come, first served". Word for word it says "Who comes earlier, that one grinds earlier" — an image straight out of the old village watermill, where whoever showed up first with their sack of grain got it ground first. In six short words the proverb packs three of the most useful patterns in Czech grammar: the kdo…ten correlative that stitches two clauses together, a perfective verb that points to the future even though it looks present, and a comparative adverb. Read it slowly and you walk away with structures you will use every day.
Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
First come, first served. (literally: who comes earlier, that one grinds earlier)
Word by word
| Word | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| kdo | relative/indefinite pronoun, nominative — subject of the first clause | who(ever) |
| dřív | comparative adverb (from brzy "soon") | earlier, sooner |
| přijde | 3rd sg. perfective present of přijít "to arrive" | comes / will come |
| ten | demonstrative pronoun, nominative masc. — resumes kdo | that one |
| dřív | the same comparative adverb again | earlier, sooner |
| mele | 3rd sg. imperfective present of mlít "to grind" | grinds |
The kdo…ten correlative
The backbone of the proverb is a two-part frame: kdo opens a subordinate clause that defines a person ("whoever comes first"), and ten picks that person back up in the main clause ("that one grinds first"). The pronoun ten is resumptive — it stands in the main clause as a pointer back to the kdo-clause, the way you might gesture at someone you just described.
English does not normally double up like this. We say "Whoever comes first grinds first" with a single relative word and no echo. Czech prefers the balanced kdo … ten … skeleton, and you will meet it across the whole proverb tradition:
Kdo šetří, má za tři.
A penny saved is a penny earned. (literally: who saves, has for three)
Kdo jinému jámu kopá, sám do ní padá.
He who digs a pit for another falls into it himself.
Kdo pozdě chodí, sám sobě škodí.
Those who come late only hurt themselves.
In the last two the resumptive slot is filled by sám ("himself") rather than ten, but the architecture is the same: a kdo-clause names a generic person, and the main clause says what becomes of them. The correlative is also where Czech overlaps with the related ten … který relativiser system, which the dedicated page on correlatives covers in full.
Why přijde is perfective — and points to the future
přijde is the present-tense form of the perfective verb přijít ("to arrive"). This is one of Czech's great traps for English speakers. A perfective verb has no present-time meaning at all: you cannot use přijde to describe an arrival happening right now. Conjugated in the "present", a perfective verb refers to a single, complete future event — přijde means "(he) will come / will have come", not "(he) is coming".
In a proverb, that future is gnomic: it is timeless, generic, true of any occasion. Kdo dřív přijde means "whoever (on any given day) shows up earlier" — each arrival pictured as a single, finished act of getting there.
| Person | přijít (perfective present = future) |
|---|---|
| já | přijdu |
| ty | přijdeš |
| on/ona/ono | přijde |
| my | přijdeme |
| vy | přijdete |
| oni/ony | přijdou |
Přijď dřív, ať máme čas si popovídat.
Come earlier so we have time to chat. (přijít, the single bounded arrival)
Zavolej mi, až přijdeš domů.
Call me when you get home. (přijdeš — perfective present, future in meaning)
The full logic of why perfective "present" forms read as future lives on the page about the perfective present as future.
Why mele is imperfective
The second verb, mele, is the present of mlít ("to grind"), and it is imperfective — a genuine present describing an ongoing, durative process. Grinding is not a point in time; it is something the mill does, on and on, while the grain pours through. The proverb's craft is in the pairing: arriving is a bounded event (perfective přijde), but milling is a stretched-out activity (imperfective mele). The two aspects are chosen deliberately, and the contrast is the whole picture — you arrive once, then you grind for a while.
The verb mlít is mildly irregular; its present stem is mel-:
| Person | mlít (imperfective present) |
|---|---|
| já | melu |
| ty | meleš |
| on/ona/ono | mele |
| my | meleme |
| vy | melete |
| oni/ony | melou |
Babička si doma mele kávu ručně.
Grandma grinds her coffee by hand at home. (mlít — an ongoing, repeated activity)
Ten starý mlýn už dávno nemele.
That old mill hasn't ground anything in ages.
The choice between these two aspects is the everyday decision Czech speakers make before they even pick a tense; the perfective vs. imperfective page lays out how to make it.
The comparative adverb dřív
dřív ("earlier, sooner") is the comparative of the adverb brzy ("soon"). Its fuller, more formal twin is dříve; both are correct, with dřív the more spoken, dříve the more written. Czech comparative adverbs end in -(ej)i / -e, and several common ones have a short colloquial form alongside the long one — více / víc ("more"), dříve / dřív, déle / dýl ("longer"), lépe / líp ("better").
Přišel jsem dřív než všichni ostatní.
I arrived earlier than everyone else. (dřív — comparative, with než for 'than')
Měl bys chodit spát dřív.
You should go to bed earlier.
The proverb uses dřív twice, once in each clause, so the comparison rings out on both sides: earlier in, earlier out. More on building and using these forms is on the comparison of adverbs page.
The milling metaphor and how Czechs use it
The image is rural and old. Before electricity, a village shared a single watermill, and the mlynář (miller) worked through the customers in the order they arrived. There was no ticket system — your place in line was simply when you got there with your grain. Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele: come early, grind early; come late, wait your turn. Today Czechs reach for it exactly where English uses "first come, first served" — limited tickets, unreserved seats, free seating, a sale with no holds.
Místa nerezervujeme, kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
We don't reserve seats — first come, first served.
Vstupenky jsou jen pro prvních sto lidí. Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
Tickets are only for the first hundred people. First come, first served.
A thematic cousin worth knowing is Ranní ptáče dál doskáče ("the early bird hops farther") — the same praise of getting in early, with a bird instead of a mill.
Common Mistakes
❌ Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mlít.
Incorrect — the second verb must be conjugated: mele, not the infinitive mlít.
✅ Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
First come, first served.
❌ Kdo brzy přijde, ten brzy mele.
Off — the proverb needs the comparative 'sooner/earlier' (dřív), not the plain 'soon' (brzy).
✅ Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
First come, first served.
❌ Kdo dřív přichází, ten dřív mele.
Loses the point — přichází (imperfective) describes a process of arriving; the proverb wants the bounded perfective přijde.
✅ Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
First come, first served.
❌ Kdo dřív přijde, dřív mele.
Marked — the fixed proverb keeps the resumptive 'ten' for balance; dropping it sounds incomplete.
✅ Kdo dřív přijde, ten dřív mele.
First come, first served.
Key Takeaways
- The proverb runs on the kdo…ten correlative: kdo names a generic person, ten resumes it in the main clause. English uses a single "whoever".
- přijde is a perfective present — no present meaning, it points to a single, completed (here gnomic/timeless) event.
- mele is an imperfective present from mlít — an ongoing process. The aspect pairing (bounded arrival vs. durative grinding) is the proverb's whole logic.
- dřív is the comparative adverb "earlier/sooner" (long form dříve), repeated in both clauses.
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- kdo and co: Who and WhatA2 — The pronouns kdo (who) and co (what) as both question words and relatives, with their full declension and their fixed singular agreement.
- The Correlative ten ... kterýB1 — Building relative clauses with a ten antecedent and a který relative pronoun.
- Choosing Between Perfective and ImperfectiveB1 — A decision tree for picking the right aspect for any verb situation.
- Perfective Present = Future MeaningA2 — Why conjugating a perfective verb in the present yields a future meaning.
- Comparison of AdverbsB1 — Comparative and superlative adverbs, including the irregulars.