Text: A Job Advertisement

A job advertisement is one of the densest pieces of everyday formal Czech you'll ever read: in a few lines it fires off requirement phrases, each dragging a noun into a specific case, and it addresses you in a carefully chosen register. This page reads a realistic posting slowly and pulls out the machinery — the masculine-animate accusative (why the company seeks programátora, not programátor), the instrumental of accompaniment in "with knowledge of…," the genitive that hangs off it, and the polite plural imperatives that tell you how to apply.

The text

Přijmeme programátora se znalostí angličtiny

Hledáme zkušeného programátora na plný úvazek. Požadujeme znalost jazyka Java a několik let praxe. Nabízíme práci v mladém kolektivu, pružnou pracovní dobu a možnost práce z domova. Nástup možný ihned.

Zašlete svůj životopis na adresu kariera@firma.cz a staňte se součástí našeho týmu. V případě dotazů nás neváhejte kontaktovat.

A close, natural rendering:

We're hiring a programmer with knowledge of English. We're looking for an experienced programmer for a full-time position. We require knowledge of Java and several years of experience. We offer work in a young team, flexible working hours, and the possibility of working from home. Start date: immediate. Send your CV to kariera@firma.cz and become part of our team. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.

Every content word here is doing case-government work. Let's dissect the four constructions the ad is built from.

1. The masculine-animate accusative: hledáme programátora

The single most important thing an English speaker learns from a Czech job ad is hiding in the very first line. The company writes Hledáme … programátora, not programátor. Why the extra -a?

Because programátor "programmer" is a masculine animate noun — it denotes a living being — and the direct object of hledáme "we're looking for" must be in the accusative. And here is the rule that catches everyone: for masculine animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive, not to the nominative. The paradigm:

So hledáme programátora = "we're looking for a programmer," with the -a ending flagging that the thing sought is animate. Compare a masculine inanimate object, where the accusative instead matches the nominative: hledáme byt "we're looking for a flat" (no ending change). This animacy split runs through the whole grammar; it's laid out on the accusative and animacy page.

Notice the adjective goes along for the ride: zkušený "experienced" becomes zkušeného to agree with the masculine-animate accusative. The ending on the adjective (-ého) is itself the animate-accusative signal — a double flag.

2. se znalostí angličtiny — instrumental of accompaniment + genitive

The headline requirement is se znalostí angličtiny "with knowledge of English." This little phrase chains two cases:

• se = s "with" (spelled se before an s/z-cluster for pronounceability), the preposition that governs the instrumental.
• znalostí = the instrumental singular of znalost "knowledge" (a feminine -ost noun). Its instrumental ends in -í.
• angličtiny = the genitive of angličtina "the English language" — knowledge of English.

So s forces znalost into the instrumental (se znalostí), and then znalost itself, like the English noun "knowledge," governs a genitive complement (angličtiny "of English"). Two case relations stacked in three words. The s + instrumental "accompaniment/having" pattern — a candidate with something — is on s + instrumental; the "X of Y" genitive is on the genitive of possession and relation.

The ad also states requirements as bare accusatives after požadujeme "we require": znalost jazyka Java "knowledge of the Java language" — here znalost is the accusative object of požadujeme, and jazyka is again a genitive complement ("knowledge of the language").

Note několik let praxe: the quantifier několik "several" pulls its noun into the genitive plural (let "of years"), and praxe is genitive too — a quantity chain typical of formal listings.

3. Fixed prepositional phrases: na plný úvazek, z domova, v kolektivu

Job ads are full of set phrases, each locking a noun into the case its preposition demands. The ad's examples:

Na plný úvazek is the standard collocation for "full-time"; its opposite is na částečný úvazek "part-time." Both take na + accusative. And práce "work" itself appears as an accusative object of nabízíme "we offer": nabízíme práci "we offer work" (feminine práce → práci in the accusative).

That last line, Nástup možný ihned, is the clipped verbless notice register — no je, just the essentials, the same telegraphic style you see on signs and in classifieds.

4. Formal register and the polite imperatives

How the ad addresses the reader is a register choice. It uses the vy-form throughout (the polite/plural "you"), which in a public ad addresses every reader respectfully. The calls to action come as vy-imperatives, formed with the ending -te:

The perfective verbs (zašlete, staňte se) are deliberate: an imperative aimed at a single completed action — send the CV once, become part of the team — takes the perfective, whereas neváhejte "don't hesitate" is imperfective, the default aspect for a negated general prohibition. The imperative formation (and the vy-ending -te) is on forming the imperative; the vy/ty formality choice is on tykání vs vykání.

Note svůj životopis "your (own) CV": Czech uses the reflexive possessive svůj — not váš — when the possessor is the subject being addressed (you are to send your own CV). And nás "us" is the short accusative clitic of my, sitting neatly in second position before neváhejte.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Masculine animate direct objects take the genitive-shaped accusative: hledáme programátora, with the adjective agreeing (zkušen*ého*). Inanimate objects don't change.
• s / se + instrumental expresses "with" (a candidate with knowledge): se znalostí; that znalost then governs a genitive complement (angličtiny).
• Job ads are chains of fixed preposition + case phrases: na plný úvazek (na + acc), z domova (z + gen), v kolektivu (v + loc).
• Public postings use the vy-form and -te imperatives — perfective for a one-off action (zašlete), imperfective for a negated instruction (neváhejte).
• The clipped, verbless notice style (Nástup možný ihned) drops the copula for compactness.