Mít — To Have (Introduction)

After být ("to be"), the verb you will reach for most often is mít ("to have"). On the surface it is the simple verb of possession — mám auto ("I have a car") — but mít does far more work than English have. It expresses relationships, bodily and emotional states, obligation, and a long list of fixed idioms where English would use a completely different verb. Learning mít well means learning to stop translating word-for-word, because Czech routinely says "I have hunger" where English says "I am hungry."

The conjugation is mercifully easy. Despite its short infinitive mít, the verb behaves like a regular member of the -á- class: mám, máš, má, máme, máte, mají. Negation is regular too — just prefix ne-: nemám, nemáš, nemá... So all your effort can go into meaning rather than form.

This page is the conceptual overview of what mít does. For the present forms drilled with their negatives, see the present tense of mít; for the complete paradigm across all tenses, see the mít reference page.

The present forms

The object of mít is in the accusative

Whatever you "have" is a direct object, and direct objects in Czech stand in the accusative case. With mít this is your daily training ground for case endings, because the thing possessed must take the right form. Watch how nový pes ("a new dog," dictionary/nominative form) becomes nového psa after mám:

For masculine animate nouns like pes the accusative looks different from the nominative; for many other nouns it looks the same. Don't worry about mastering all the endings now — just notice that mít is always followed by the accusative. See the accusative as direct object for the full picture.

Possession and relationships

The core meaning is straightforward ownership, and it extends naturally to family and relationships — Czech, like English, "has" a sister or a friend.

States: where Czech "has" what English "is"

This is the most important conceptual shift for English speakers. A whole family of physical and mental states are expressed in Czech with mít plus a noun, where English uses "to be" plus an adjective. You don't are hungry in Czech — you have hunger.

Obligation: mít as "be supposed to"

Mít followed by an infinitive expresses a soft obligation or expectation — "to be supposed to," "to be meant to." It is gentler than muset ("must"): it reports what should happen, often on someone else's instruction.

Two idioms you'll use immediately: mít rád and mít se

Two mít expressions are so frequent that you should treat them as core vocabulary from day one.

Mít rád ("to like / to be fond of") is the standard way to say you like a person or thing in a general, lasting way. Literally it is "to have glad" — the word rád / ráda / rádi agrees with the subject's gender and number, not the object's.

Mít se ("to be doing / to feel") is how Czechs ask and answer "How are you?" It pairs mít with the reflexive se.

More fixed expressions are collected on the mít idioms page.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Mít ("to have") conjugates like a regular -á- verb: mám, máš, má, máme, máte, mají; negatives nemám....
• Its object is always accusative (Mám nového psa).
• Czech "has" states that English "is": mám hlad (hungry), mám žízeň (thirsty), mám pravdu (right).
• Mít
  • infinitive = soft obligation, "be supposed to" (Máš to udělat dnes).
• Mít rád is the standard "to like"; mít se is "to be doing/feel" (Jak se máš?).