Czech sorts its verbs into five conjugation classes by the vowel that appears in the third-person plural present. Class II is the -ne- class: its present tense is built on -ne- (singular) and -nou (plural). The model verb is tisknout ("to print, to press"). This class is enormously productive — Czech keeps minting new -nout verbs — and it contains nearly all the "momentary" perfectives that name a single, instantaneous change: sednout si (sit down), vstát (stand up), rozhodnout se (decide).
What makes this class trickier than it looks is a three-way split inside one verb: the -nou- of the infinitive becomes -ne- in the present, and then in the past it often vanishes entirely. Tisknout → tiskne → tiskl. Getting that past form right is the whole game on this page.
The model: tisknout in full
| Form | Czech | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | tisknout | the -nou- stem |
| 1 sg. | tisknu | já tisknu |
| 2 sg. | tiskneš | ty tiskneš |
| 3 sg. | tiskne | on/ona/ono tiskne |
| 1 pl. | tiskneme | my tiskneme |
| 2 pl. | tisknete | vy tisknete |
| 3 pl. | tisknou | oni tisknou |
| Imperative | tiskni / tiskněme / tiskněte | -i after the consonant cluster |
| Verbal noun | tisknutí | "printing" |
Nová tiskárna tiskne barevně i oboustranně.
The new printer prints in color and double-sided too.
Tiskni to potvrzení a vezmi ho s sebou.
Print that confirmation and take it with you.
The l-participle (past): note where the -n- goes
The past tense uses the l-participle, and here is the famous wrinkle. The model tisknout has a consonant-final root (tisk-), and in standard written Czech such verbs drop the whole -nu- in the past: not tisknul but tiskl. The neuter plural ending deserves special attention — it is -a (tiskla, like "the printers were printing"), a separate cell that must never be folded into the -y row.
| Gender / number | Form |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | tiskl |
| feminine singular | tiskla |
| neuter singular | tisklo |
| masculine animate plural | tiskli |
| masc. inanimate & feminine plural | tiskly |
| neuter plural | tiskla |
Stará tiskárna tiskla nahlas a pořád se zasekávala.
The old printer printed loudly and kept jamming.
The colloquial language disagrees with the books here. In everyday speech you will very often hear tisknul, sednul, padnul — the -nu- kept. These are perfectly common but stay (informal); in writing and careful speech, use tiskl, sedl, padl.
Sednul si na lavičku a chvíli jen tak odpočíval.
He sat down on the bench and just rested for a while. (informal — careful speech: sedl si)
The past-tense split: tiskl vs minul
Not every Class II verb drops the -nu-. The dividing line is what the root ends in:
- Consonant-final root → drops -nu- (standard): tisk-nout → tiskl, pad-nout → padl, sed-nout → sedl, vlád-nout → vládl, rozhod-nout → rozhodl.
- Vowel-final root → keeps -nu-: mi-nout → minul, ply-nout → plynul, vi-nout → vinul.
This is why minout ("to miss, to pass by") is treated as its own sub-model: its past is minul, minula, minulo, minuli, minuly, minula — the -nu- stays put, because the root mi- ends in a vowel and dropping it would leave nothing pronounceable.
| tisknout (consonant root) | minout (vowel root) | |
|---|---|---|
| infinitive | tisknout | minout |
| 3 sg. present | tiskne | mine |
| masc. sg. past | tiskl | minul |
| fem. sg. past | tiskla | minula |
| neut. pl. past | tiskla | minula |
Promiň, asi jsem tu odbočku o kousek minul.
Sorry, I think I missed that turn by a bit.
Strom se v té vichřici nahnul a nakonec spadl přes cestu.
The tree leaned in the gale and finally fell across the road.
Notice spadl (perfective spadnout, consonant root → drops -nu-) standing right next to minul (vowel root → keeps it). Same class, opposite past tense — the root vowel/consonant is what decides.
Momentary perfectives: the heart of the class
Class II is where Czech keeps its instantaneous, "one-flick" perfectives. Each names a single bounded event: a sitting-down, a standing-up, a decision. Conjugated in the present, they read as future (a perfective never has present meaning).
| Verb | Meaning | 3 sg. present | masc. sg. past |
|---|---|---|---|
| sednout si | to sit down | sedne si | sedl si |
| vstát | to stand / get up | vstane | vstal |
| začít | to begin | začne | začal |
| rozhodnout se | to decide | rozhodne se | rozhodl se |
| padnout | to fall | padne | padl |
Two of these are irregular at the edges and worth singling out:
- vstát keeps the -n- only in the present (vstanu, vstaneš, vstane...); the infinitive is vstát (no -nout) and the past is plain vstal. It belongs to Class II by its present, not its infinitive.
- začít likewise has a -ne- present (začnu, začneš, začne...) but a vowel past začal, začala — and the infinitive začít, not začnout.
Pojď dál a sedni si, hned to bude.
Come on in and sit down, it'll be ready in a moment.
Film začne v osm, tak ať tam nedorazíme pozdě.
The film starts at eight, so let's not show up late.
Zítra vstanu brzo — mám ranní vlak do Brna.
Tomorrow I'll get up early — I've got an early train to Brno.
Až se rozhodneš, dej mi vědět, ať můžu koupit lístky.
Once you decide, let me know so I can buy the tickets.
Imperfective members, and a wavering past
Not every Class II verb is a momentary perfective. Plenty are imperfective and name ongoing processes — vládnout ("to rule, to govern") and stárnout ("to grow old") are two everyday examples. Vládnout is a clean consonant-root verb: present vládnu, vládneš, vládne..., past vládl, vládla (dropping the -nu- in standard Czech), imperative vládni.
Tehdy vládl zemi mladý a ctižádostivý král.
At that time a young and ambitious king ruled the country.
Stárnout is the honest complication of this class. Although its root stár- ends in a consonant, the past wavers: the older, tidier standard form is stárl, but in contemporary Czech stárnul is at least as common and is now widely accepted. The denominal verbs of becoming (stárnout, slábnout, blednout) lean this way, so don't be surprised to meet both forms in print.
Děda v posledních letech hodně zestárnul.
Grandpa has aged a lot in recent years. (the -nul past is now standard for this verb)
The one true irregular: zapomenout
Zapomenout ("to forget") belongs to Class II — present zapomenu, zapomeneš, zapomene, zapomeneme, zapomenete, zapomenou, imperative zapomeň — but its past is genuinely irregular: zapomněl, zapomněla, zapomnělo, zapomněli, zapomněly, zapomněla, with the -mně- cluster. There is no rule that predicts this; you simply learn it.
Úplně jsem zapomněl, že máme dneska večer sraz.
I completely forgot we have a get-together tonight.
Common mistakes
✅ Včera spadl ze schodů, ale nic se mu nestalo.
He fell down the stairs yesterday, but he wasn't hurt. (correct: consonant root drops -nu-)
The transfer error here is building the past straight off the infinitive — spadnul by analogy with spadnout. In standard Czech a consonant-root verb drops the -nu-: spadl, not spadnul (which is informal).
✅ Ve tmě jsem ten dům úplně minul a musel se vracet.
In the dark I missed the house entirely and had to turn back. (correct: vowel root keeps -nu-)
The mirror error is over-applying the dropping rule and producing minl. A vowel-root verb like minout keeps the -nu-: minul. You can't strand the -l on a bare vowel.
✅ Zapomněl jsem si doma klíče.
I forgot my keys at home. (correct: irregular -mně- past)
Don't regularize zapomenout to zapomenul — its past is the irregular zapomněl.
✅ Babička si vždycky sedne k oknu a dívá se ven.
Grandma always sits down by the window and looks out. (correct: -ne- present)
A common slip is conjugating the present as if the infinitive -nou- survived — sednou si for "(s)he sits." The singular present is -ne-: sedne si. Only the 3rd plural keeps -nou: sednou si = "they sit down."
✅ Začneme v devět a skončíme kolem poledne.
We'll start at nine and finish around noon. (correct: -ne- present, future meaning)
Because začít is perfective, začneme already means "we will start" — don't add budeme. There is no budeme začít.
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Czech Conjugation Classes: OverviewA2 — A reference index to the five present-tense conjugation classes — one lookup table mapping each class to its 3sg ending, model verb, and full paradigm page.
- Class I (-e-): the nést patternB1 — Reference table for the Class I -e- conjugation with the model verb nést.
- 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.
- Class II: -ne- Verbs (tisknout, minout)A2 — The -ne- conjugation, built mostly from -nout infinitives — predictable in the present, but full of perfectives whose 'present' actually means the future.
- sedat si / sednout si — to sit downB1 — Side-by-side conjugation of the reflexive pair sedat si / sednout si, the -ne- present of the perfective, the na + accusative government, and the crucial contrast with the stative sedět (to be sitting).
- Forming the Past Tense: the l-participleA1 — Reference for building the Czech past tense from the l-participle plus the present-tense být auxiliary, including gender/number agreement and clitic placement.