vyjít / vycházet — to go out, to come out, to turn out

The pair vyjít / vycházet is built by adding the prefix vy- ("out, up, forth") to the base motion verbs jít / chodit. Its core meaning is "to go out, exit, step out," but the vy- prefix has spread the pair into a surprising range of idioms — the sun rises, a book comes out, money runs out (or doesn't), and people get along. This page lays out the forms and the senses so you can recognize vyjít and vycházet wherever they turn up.

Forms at a glance

vyjít is the perfective member: one completed exit, one event. Because it is perfective, its present-looking forms carry future meaning (see the perfective future). vycházet is the imperfective member: a repeated, habitual, or ongoing going-out, and the one you use for present-tense statements.

Note the past stem of vyjít: it is vyšel / vyšla, with the same -šel/-šla alternation you see in šel/šla from plain jít. The neuter plural l-participle is vyšla — identical in spelling to the feminine singular, but used for neuter-plural subjects (e.g. ta díla vyšla, "those works came out").

Sense 1: literal — to go out, to exit

The plainest meaning is leaving an enclosed space. The thing you leave is in the genitive with z ("out of").

The third example uses the imperfective vycházíme precisely because it is a daily habit ("every morning"). The first two are single events, so they take the perfective.

Sense 2: vy- as "up" — the sun rises

Because vy- also means "upward," vycházet is the standard verb for the sun and moon rising. This is fixed idiom: the sun "comes up/out."

The rising sun is treated as a recurring natural event, so you will almost always meet it as the imperfective vychází, paired with its opposite zapadá ("sets").

Sense 3: to come out, to be published

Books, magazines, films, and records "come out" with this pair — vyjít for a single release, vycházet for a serial or repeated one.

Again the aspect does real work: vyšla (perfective past) reports one publication event; vychází (imperfective present) describes the regular monthly schedule.

Sense 4: vyjít s penězi — to make ends meet

A high-frequency idiom: vyjít s penězi literally "to come out with the money," i.e. to have enough, to make ends meet. The money is in the instrumental after s.

Sense 5: vycházet s někým — to get along with someone

With a person in the instrumental after s, the imperfective vycházet means "to get along with." This is the everyday verb for describing relationships.

Both of these phrases use the instrumental of accompaniment with s — see the instrumental with s. The difference between sense 4 and 5 is just what follows s: money (make ends meet) versus a person (get along).

Sense 6: to turn out / to result

Vyjít also means "to turn out, to come out (a certain way)" — a plan, a calculation, a photo.

How vyjít compares to its siblings

The same base verb takes different prefixes to point in different directions. It is worth seeing vyjít in its family.

For the contrast with "leaving (away from)," compare odejít / odcházet; for "arriving," see přijít / přicházet. The whole prefixed-motion system is laid out at prefixed motion verbs.

Common mistakes

A frequent slip is using the perfective vyjdu for a habitual action, where the imperfective is required.

The "get along" sense is inherently ongoing, so it lives in the imperfective vycházím; the perfective vyjdu would be heard as a future "make ends meet," not a relationship.

That last error is the one to watch: learners build the past by adding -la to the present stem vyjd-, producing the non-word vyjdla. The real past stem is vyšel / vyšla, with the -šel/-šla alternation inherited from plain šel/šla. Future vyjde and past vyšla belong to the same verb but look quite different.