přinášet / přinést — to bring

"To bring" is the aspect pair přinášet / přinést — what you say when you carry something to a place or to a person: bringing wine to a dinner, bringing a child good news, bringing fresh coffee to the table. The imperfective přinášet is for bringing as a habit or an unfolding process ("the postman brings packages every day," "she's bringing the food in now"); the perfective přinést is one completed delivery ("I'll bring you the keys," "he brought a cake"). The pair is a textbook example of the most common aspect architecture in Czech: a prefixed perfective built on a motion verb, paired with a secondary imperfective formed by the -ášet suffix.

Where the pair comes from

Both halves are built on nést ("to carry," determinate — see nést / nosit) plus the prefix při- ("to, toward, up to"). Adding the prefix to nést produces the perfective přinést — a single act of carrying-toward, i.e. bringing. But a prefixed perfective needs an imperfective partner so you can talk about bringing as a habit or in progress; Czech builds that partner with the -ášet suffix, giving přinášet. This is exactly the prefixed-motion-verb pattern: the perfective keeps the short motion root (-nes-), while the secondary imperfective stretches it out (-náš-).

The two halves, side by side

The perfective přinést conjugates like its base nést: Class I with the present stem přines- and the bare endings -u / -eš / -e / -eme / -ete / -ou. As always with a perfective, these present-shaped forms carry future meaning. The imperfective přinášet is a Class IV (-í-) verb on the stem přináš-, with the -ím / -íš / -í endings and a soft -ejí in the third-person plural.

The first is one finished act in the future (přinesu); the second is a recurring habit (přináší).

The náš- / nes- alternation

This is the shape to memorize. The two halves split into two stems, and the vowel of the root is the giveaway:

• Imperfective přináš- — long á, soft š, -í endings: přináším, přinášíš, přináší...
• Perfective přines- — short e, s, bare -u/-eš/-e endings: přinesu, přineseš, přinese...

The infinitives reflect this too: přinášet (imperfective, long á) versus přinést (perfective, the bare motion root). Writing přinesím or přinášu mixes the two stems — keep the long, soft imperfective firmly apart from the short, hard perfective.

Note the abstract use in the first sentence: přinášet is also the verb for what an event "brings" — změny ("changes"), radost ("joy"), problémy ("problems"). Here the ongoing, general sense calls for the imperfective.

What the verb governs: accusative + dative

Both halves take the thing brought in the accusative and the recipient in the dative — the same double-object frame as English "bring someone something," but Czech marks it with cases, not word order. The pattern is bring [dative recipient] [accusative thing].

In Přinesla jsem mámě kytku, kytku ("flowers") is accusative and mámě ("to mum") is the dative recipient — the same indirect-object dative you meet with dát ("to give") and poslat ("to send"). The recipient clitics are mi, ti, mu, jí, nám, vám, jim.

The imperative: přines vs přinášej

The imperative splits by aspect. The perfective přines / přineste keeps the motion stem and is the normal command for one act of bringing — note it ends in a bare consonant, exactly like nes from nést. The imperfective přinášej / přinášejte asks for a repeated or habitual bringing.

For a single "bring it!" use the perfective přines; the habitual přinášej means "keep bringing / make a habit of bringing."

The past tense

Both halves form the past from the l-participle plus the auxiliary, agreeing in gender and number. The perfective past is built on přinesl- (just like nesl from nést), the imperfective on přinášel-.

The imperfective přinášela paints a habit ("used to bring"), while the perfective přinesl reports one completed bringing.

The future tense

The two halves build the future differently, which is exactly where aspect earns its keep:

• Imperfective future = budu
  • the infinitive přinášet: budu přinášet, budeš přinášet... — bringing as an ongoing or repeated future activity.
• Perfective future = just přinesu. There is no budu; you never say budu přinést.

Common mistakes

The perfective is already future. Putting budu in front of it is ungrammatical; přinesu alone means "I will bring."

For an action happening at this moment, use the imperfective přináším; přinesu means "I will bring."

The recipient stands in the dative (ti, "to you"), not the accusative (tě). Přinesl jsem tě would absurdly mean "I carried you here" as an object.

There is no form přinesím: the perfective present is přinese (with bare -e) and the imperfective is přináší (with -í). For a daily habit of bringing, Czech often prefers the simple nosit ("Maminka mi nosí oběd"), reserving přinášet for the act of bringing-toward in fuller contexts.

Key takeaways

• přinášet = imperfective (habit, in progress); přinést = perfective (one completed bringing).
• Built from při- ("toward") + nést ("carry"): a prefixed perfective přinést with a secondary imperfective přinášet (the -ášet suffix).
• Two stems: perfective přines- (short e, bare -u/-eš/-e) vs imperfective přináš- (long á, soft -í).
• Government: přinést někomu (dative) něco (accusative) = bring someone something.
• Perfective future = just přinesu; imperfective future = budu přinášet. Never budu přinést.