myslet / myslit — to think

Myslet is the everyday verb for thinking, believing, and holding an opinion — one of the first verbs you will reach for in a real conversation ("I think you're right," "I'm thinking about you," "What do you mean?"). The catch for English speakers is that the single English verb think fans out into several distinct Czech constructions, and which one you pick depends entirely on the little word that follows. Get the frame right and you sound native; get it wrong and you produce something that is grammatical-looking but unmistakably foreign.

Two spellings, one verb

The infinitive has two standard spellings: myslet (the preferred, more common form today) and myslit (also fully correct). They reflect an old overlap between the -et and -it infinitive types that both feed the same -í- present conjugation. The variation is invisible in the present tense (where both give myslím) and surfaces only in the infinitive and the past participle.

Present tense (Class IV, -í-)

Myslet is a regular Class IV -í- verb, built on the stem mysl-.

Note that the 3rd-person singular and plural are identical: myslí. The standard 3rd-person plural is myslí, not myslejí — the -ejí form you may hear in casual speech is non-standard.

Past tense and imperative

The past participle follows the spelling you chose: myslel (from myslet) or myslil (from myslit), with myslel preferred. It declines for gender and number like any l-participle: myslel (he), myslela (she), myslelo (it), mysleli (they, masculine animate), myslely (they, feminine/inanimate), myslela (they, neuter). The imperative is mysli! (singular), myslete! (plural), mysleme! ("let's think").

The constructions: where English "think" splits apart

This is the heart of the page. Myslet takes three different frames, and they are not interchangeable.

myslet si, že — to be of the opinion that

To report a belief or opinion, use the reflexive myslet si plus a že-clause. The dative reflexive si gives it the flavour of "in my own view." In practice you will hear it both with si (more personal, "if you ask me") and without (more neutral) — both are correct.

Remember that Czech always puts a comma before že. To ask someone's opinion about a thing, the frame is myslet si o + locative:

myslet na + accusative — to think about / of someone

When you have someone or something in your thoughts — missing them, keeping them in mind, not forgetting — the frame is myslet na + accusative. This is the construction English speakers most often get wrong, because the English preposition is "about/of," which tempts a calque with o.

There is a clean division of labour here that is worth memorising: myslet na + accusative means to direct your thoughts toward / keep in mind, while myslet si o + locative means to hold an opinion about. So "I'm thinking of you" is Myslím na tebe, but "What do you think of him?" is Co si o něm myslíš? — never the reverse.

myslet to vážně / dobře — to mean it

Myslet with a neuter to and an adverb expresses how something is meant. Myslet to vážně = "to mean it seriously," myslet to dobře = "to mean well." Don't drop the to.

And the indispensable conversational repair, asking what someone means:

The perfectives

Myslet is imperfective, and — honestly — it does not have one tidy "empty" perfective partner the way psát has napsat. Instead, different prefixes give different perfective verbs, each with its own shade of meaning. You learn them as separate items:

For genuine reflection — pondering, mulling something over as a process — Czech often prefers the separate verb přemýšlet o + locative (Přemýšlím o tom celý den, "I've been thinking about it all day"). Keep it in your back pocket: myslet states a position, přemýšlet describes the mental work of getting there.

How "think" maps from English

Common mistakes

The pattern behind these errors is preposition transfer: English funnels everything through "think + about/of/that," while Czech sorts the meanings into separate frames (si že, na + accusative, o + locative, to + adverb). Learn the frame together with the meaning, not the verb in isolation.