jet — to go (by vehicle) | Czech Grammar

jet is the verb for going somewhere by vehicle — by car, bus, train, tram, bike, anything with wheels or an engine. Where English says "I'm going to Brno" no matter how, Czech makes you commit: if you're not on your own two feet, you almost certainly need jet, not jít. This page covers every form, including the irregular future pojedu, and shows how to say what you're travelling by.

On foot or by vehicle — the obligatory split

Czech has no neutral "go." You choose between two whole verbs depending on mode of transport:

jít — on foot (see jít)
jet — by vehicle

This split is not stylistic; it's grammatical. Saying Jdu do Prahy ("I'm walking to Prague") when you mean a train trip is simply wrong, the way "I am foot to Prague" would be wrong in English.

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Rule of thumb: if your feet are doing the work, use jít. If something else is carrying you — wheels, rails, an engine — use jet. A cyclist uses jet; a horse rider uses jet. Only walking is jít.

What kind of verb jet is

Like jít, the verb jet is the determinate member of a motion pair: one specific journey, in progress, in one direction. Its indeterminate partner is jezdit (habitual or repeated trips). Both are imperfective.

Present tense

The present stem is jed-, conjugating like a Class I (-e-) verb.

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	jedu	jedeme
2nd	jedeš	jedete
3rd	jede	jedou

Kam jedeš o víkendu?

Where are you going (by vehicle) this weekend?

Jedu domů, autobus mi jede za deset minut.

I'm heading home, my bus leaves in ten minutes.

Jede tahle tramvaj na hlavní nádraží?

Does this tram go to the main station?

Saying what you travel by — the instrumental

To name the means of transport, Czech uses the instrumental case with no preposition. This is the "by-what" case, and jet is the verb that triggers it most often.

Vehicle (nom.)	Instrumental (means)	Meaning
vlak	vlakem	by train
autobus	autobusem	by bus
auto	autem	by car
tramvaj	tramvají	by tram
metro	metrem	by metro
kolo	na kole	by bike (here na + locative)

Jedu do Brna vlakem.

I'm going to Brno by train.

Jezdíme do práce autem, je to rychlejší.

We drive to work by car, it's faster.

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"By bike" breaks the pattern: Czechs say na kole (na + locative), literally "on the bike," not kolem (which means "around / past"). For everything else, the bare instrumental is the default.

Past tense

The past is regular for this verb — built straightforwardly on jel- with the být auxiliary in second position.

Subject	l-participle	Full past form (1st person)
masculine sg.	jel	jel jsem
feminine sg.	jela	jela jsem
neuter sg.	jelo	jelo
masc. animate pl.	jeli	jeli jsme
feminine / masc. inan. pl.	jely	jely jsme
neuter pl.	jela	auta jela (the cars went)

V létě jsem jel autem k moři.

In summer I drove to the seaside (said by a man).

Jela jsem domů poslední tramvají.

I went home on the last tram (said by a woman).

Future tense (the irregular pojedu)

Just like jít → půjdu, the verb jet does not take budu jet. Its future is the special prefixed form built with po-:

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	pojedu	pojedeme
2nd	pojedeš	pojedete
3rd	pojede	pojedou

Note the spelling contrast with jít: foot-going has půjdu (with ů), but vehicle-going has pojedu (plain o). They are siblings, not twins.

Zítra pojedu do Prahy na konferenci.

Tomorrow I'll go to Prague for a conference.

Pojedeme tam taxíkem, je to daleko.

We'll go there by taxi, it's far.

Imperative

Built on the present stem jed-, the imperative softens d before the ending, giving jeď.

Form	Imperative
2nd sg. (ty)	jeď
1st pl. (let's)	jeďme
2nd pl. / formal (vy)	jeďte

Jeď opatrně, prší.

Drive carefully, it's raining.

Pojeďme radši autem, nechce se mi čekat na bus.

Let's go by car instead, I don't feel like waiting for the bus.

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As with jít, the natural "let's go" form is pojeď / pojeďme (with po-), echoing the future pojedu. The bare jeď is more of a sharp instruction to a driver.

The partner verb jezdit

Repeated or habitual trips by vehicle switch to jezdit:

Teď jedu do centra.

I'm on my way to the centre right now.

Každý den jezdím do centra metrem.

Every day I take the metro to the centre.

Watch the contrast in tense, too: a habit in the past stays jezdit (jezdil jsem, "I used to go"), while a single past trip uses jet (jel jsem, "I went"). For the full pair, see jet / jezdit.

Prefixed perfectives

Prefixing jet yields perfective verbs of arriving and leaving by vehicle, keeping the -jet / -jel shape:

Verb	Meaning	Past
přijet	to arrive (by vehicle)	přijel, přijela
odjet	to leave, depart	odjel, odjela
přejet	to drive across / to run over	přejel, přejela

Vlak přijede na druhé nástupiště v 15:20.

The train arrives at platform 2 at 15:20.

Common Mistakes

❌ Zítra budu jet do Prahy.

Incorrect — jet does not form its future with budu.

✅ Zítra pojedu do Prahy.

Tomorrow I'll go to Prague.

❌ Jedu do školy pěšky.

Incorrect — on foot requires jít, not jet.

✅ Jdu do školy pěšky.

I'm walking to school.

❌ Jedu do Brna vlak.

Incorrect — the means of transport must be in the instrumental.

✅ Jedu do Brna vlakem.

I'm going to Brno by train.

❌ Každý den jedu do práce autem.

Incorrect — a daily habit needs the indeterminate jezdit.

✅ Každý den jezdím do práce autem.

Every day I drive to work.

❌ Pujedu tam taxíkem.

Incorrect — vehicle-future is pojedu (plain o), not *pujedu; půjdu is the foot verb.

✅ Pojedu tam taxíkem.

I'll go there by taxi.

Key Takeaways

Present jedu, jedeš, jede, jedeme, jedete, jedou — one trip by vehicle, now, one way.
Means of transport goes in the instrumental: vlakem, autem, autobusem (but na kole for bikes).
Future is the irregular pojedu, pojedeš, pojede… — never budu jet. Note pojedu (o) vs the foot verb's půjdu (ů).
A habit switches the verb to jezdit.
On foot vs by vehicle is a grammatical choice you cannot skip.

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