This is the conjugation card for volat / zavolat ("to call"), one of the verbs you will reach for every single day — to phone someone, to call out across a room, to call a taxi or a doctor. Both halves are perfectly regular Class V (-á-) verbs, conjugated exactly like dělat, so the paradigm holds no surprises. The real lesson here is the case government: Czech uses two completely different cases depending on whether you are phoning a person or summoning one. Get that split wrong and you change the meaning of the sentence.
The two paradigms, side by side
volat is the imperfective — calling as an ongoing, repeated, or habitual action. zavolat is the perfective, built with the empty prefix za-: one single, completed call. As always with a perfective verb, its present-shaped forms carry future meaning.
| Person | volat (impf.) — present | zavolat (pf.) — future meaning |
|---|---|---|
| já | volám | zavolám |
| ty | voláš | zavoláš |
| on / ona / ono | volá | zavolá |
| my | voláme | zavoláme |
| vy | voláte | zavoláte |
| oni / ony / ona | volají | zavolají |
| Form | volat (impf.) | zavolat (pf.) |
|---|---|---|
| infinitive | volat | zavolat |
| past (m./f./n.) | volal / volala / volalo | zavolal / zavolala / zavolalo |
| past (anim. / fem. / neut. pl.) | volali / volaly / volala | zavolali / zavolaly / zavolala |
| future | budu volat | zavolám (no budu) |
| imperative | volej / volejme / volejte | zavolej / zavolejme / zavolejte |
Volám mámě každou neděli večer.
I call my mum every Sunday evening. (impf. — habitual)
Zavolám ti, až dorazím na nádraží.
I'll call you when I get to the station. (pf. — one future call)
The government split: dative to phone, accusative to summon
This is the part to drill. With volat / zavolat the case of the object tells you what kind of calling you mean:
| Construction | Case | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| zavolat někomu | dative | to phone someone |
| zavolat někoho | accusative | to summon / fetch someone, call out a service |
| volat na někoho | na + accusative | to call out to someone (to get their attention) |
| volat o pomoc | o + accusative | to call for help |
When you telephone a person, that person goes in the dative: Zavolám ti (I'll call you), Zavolej mi (call me), Volá mamince (he's phoning Mum). The standard mental model is "to make a call to someone" — and that "to" is the dative.
Zavolej mi, jakmile budeš mít čas.
Call me as soon as you've got time. (mi = dative — phoning)
Zavolejte mi prosím zítra dopoledne.
Please call me tomorrow morning. (formal/plural zavolejte + mi dative)
When you summon someone or call out a service — a doctor, the police, a taxi — the object goes in the accusative, because here you are calling the person as a direct object, the way you'd call a witness.
Není mu dobře, musíme zavolat lékaře.
He's not well, we have to call a doctor. (lékaře = accusative — summoning)
Zavolej taxi, ať nezmeškáme letadlo.
Call a taxi so we don't miss the plane. (taxi = accusative)
The na + accusative version is for shouting to someone across a distance — calling out, not phoning:
Volala jsem na tebe přes celé náměstí, ale neslyšel jsi.
I called out to you across the whole square, but you didn't hear. (volat na + accusative — female speaker)
Tonoucí zoufale volal o pomoc.
The drowning man called desperately for help. (volat o pomoc)
A note on real usage
Prescriptively, phoning a person takes the dative (volat někomu), and that is what you should write and what every textbook teaches. In casual spoken Czech, however, you will hear the accusative creeping in for phoning too — zavolám tě meaning "I'll call you" — by analogy with verbs like volat někoho in the summoning sense. It is widespread but still considered substandard; in any exam, letter, or careful speech, stick with zavolám ti. We flag it so you recognize it, not so you copy it.
The aspect contrast in the past
The same English "I called" splits in Czech by whether it was one call (zavolal) or a repeated/ongoing one (volal).
Hned jsem ti zavolal, ale měl jsi obsazeno.
I called you right away, but your line was busy. (one completed call — perfective)
Celé odpoledne volal do nemocnice, ale nikdo to nezvedal.
He kept calling the hospital all afternoon, but nobody picked up. (repeated, ongoing — imperfective)
How this differs from English
English has one verb, "call," that covers phoning, summoning, and shouting alike, and it marks all three with the same flat structure: "call me," "call a doctor," "call out to you." Czech keeps "call" as a single verb pair but forces you to encode which meaning through the case of the object — dative for phoning, accusative for summoning, na + accusative for shouting. There is no logical shortcut: you simply learn that the person you phone is dative and the person or service you fetch is accusative. Anchor it on the one sentence everybody uses — Zavolám ti — and the dative will start to feel automatic.
Common Mistakes
❌ Budu ti zavolat zítra.
Incorrect — perfective zavolat has no budu-future; zavolám is already future.
✅ Zavolám ti zítra.
I'll call you tomorrow.
❌ Zavolám tě, až přijdu domů.
Substandard for phoning — the person you phone goes in the dative: ti, not tě.
✅ Zavolám ti, až přijdu domů.
I'll call you when I get home.
❌ Musíme zavolat lékaři, je to vážné.
Incorrect here — summoning a doctor takes the accusative (lékaře); the dative lékaři would mean 'phone the doctor'.
✅ Musíme zavolat lékaře, je to vážné.
We have to call a doctor, it's serious.
❌ Volal jsem ti hned, jen jednou.
Mismatched aspect — for a single completed call use the perfective zavolal.
✅ Zavolal jsem ti hned, jen jednou.
I called you right away, just once.
Key Takeaways
- volat = imperfective (ongoing/habitual), zavolat = perfective (one completed call); both conjugate like dělat.
- zavolat has no budu-future — zavolám already means "I will call."
- Phone a person → dative (Zavolám ti); summon / fetch a person or service → accusative (zavolat lékaře, taxi).
- volat na
- accusative = call out to someone; volat o pomoc = call for help.
- Spoken Czech sometimes uses the accusative for phoning (zavolám tě), but it stays substandard — write the dative.
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Class V (-á-): the dělat patternA2 — Full reference table for the Class V -á- conjugation, modelled on the verb dělat, plus the -at infinitives that follow it and the ones that don't.
- Forming Perfectives with PrefixesB1 — How a prefix turns an imperfective into its perfective partner.
- Verbs That Govern the DativeA2 — The important class of Czech verbs whose only object stands in the dative, even though English uses a direct object.
- Aspect Pairs: The Core SystemA2 — How most Czech verbs come as a two-member aspect pair — one imperfective, one perfective — and how to learn, look up, and choose between them.
- On the TelephoneB1 — The Czech phone routine — answering, asking for someone with mluvit s + instrumental, identifying yourself, leaving a message, and handling a bad line.