Person and Number | Czech Grammar

Every Czech verb in the present tense changes its ending to match its subject. There are six slots to fill — three persons (I / you / he-she-it) times two numbers (singular and plural) — and each slot has its own ending. This is the backbone of the verb system: once the ending is right, the sentence already knows who the subject is, which is why Czech can leave the subject pronoun out entirely.

For an English speaker this is a big mental shift. English barely marks person at all: I work, you work, we work, they work are identical, and only the third-person singular adds anything (he works). Czech marks all six slots distinctly, so the ending carries far more weight. Choosing the wrong ending isn't a small slip — it can attach your sentence to the wrong subject.

The six person-number slots

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	já (I)	my (we)
2nd	ty (you)	vy (you all / polite you)
3rd	on / ona / ono (he / she / it)	oni / ony / ona (they)

The third person is the only one that distinguishes gender: on (he, masculine), ona (she, feminine), ono (it, neuter). In the plural, careful written Czech even splits they by gender — oni (animate masculine), ony (feminine and inanimate masculine), ona (neuter) — though in speech this surfaces only in the participle, not the present-tense ending.

The model verb: dělat "to do, to make"

dělat is the cleanest model in the language. Drop the infinitive -t, keep the stem děl- with its linking vowel, and add the present endings:

Pronoun	Form	Ending	Meaning
já	dělám	-ám	I do
ty	děláš	-áš	you do
on/ona/ono	dělá	-á	he/she/it does
my	děláme	-áme	we do
vy	děláte	-áte	you (pl./formal) do
oni/ony/ona	dělají	-ají	they do

Read the endings out loud — -ám, -áš, -á, -áme, -áte, -ají — and you will start to hear the person inside the word. Other verb classes have different vowels (you will meet -ím, -íš, -í… and -u, -eš, -e… on the conjugation classes page), but the six-slot grid is identical for every Czech verb.

Pracuju v Praze.

I work in Prague. (-u ending = já, no pronoun needed)

Pracuješ moc.

You work too much. (-eš ending = ty)

Bydlíme blízko centra.

We live near the center. (-íme ending = my)

The ending alone identifies the subject

Because each ending is unique, the subject pronoun is usually unnecessary — and including it sounds heavy or emphatic. Native speakers drop it by default:

Mluvíš anglicky?

Do you speak English? (the -íš ending already means 'you')

Nevím.

I don't know. (the -ím ending already means 'I')

Hned to uděláme.

We'll do it right away. (the -áme ending already means 'we')

The full story of when to keep or drop the pronoun is on the dropping subject pronouns page. The key point here is simply why you can drop it: the ending has already done the pronoun's job.

💡

Think of the verb ending as a built-in pronoun. Vím isn't "know" waiting for a subject — it already means "I know." Adding já in front is like underlining the "I."

vy: plural and polite at the same time

The 2nd-person plural vy does double duty. It is the literal plural ("you all"), and it is also the polite singular — the form you use to address one person formally, a stranger, an older person, or anyone you are on respectful terms with. This is vykání, the formal mode, and it is a major social distinction in Czech.

Co děláte dnes večer?

What are you doing this evening? (could be 'you all', or one person you address formally)

When you address one person with vy, the verb still takes the plural -te ending, even though you mean a single individual. The contrast with informal ty (one person you are close to) is covered in detail on the polite vy page — for now, just register that -te is not always "you all."

💡

Choosing ty vs vy for one person is a social decision, not a grammatical one. Use vy with anyone you wouldn't immediately call by their first name; it is the safe default with strangers.

Why getting the ending right is non-negotiable

In English you can mumble the verb and the subject pronoun still carries the meaning. In Czech, since the pronoun is usually absent, the ending is the only thing telling the listener who the subject is. Swap -ím for -íš and you have changed "I" into "you." There is no backup pronoun to fall back on.

Vařím večeři.

I'm cooking dinner. (-ím = I)

Vaříš večeři?

Are you cooking dinner? (-íš = you — a different question entirely)

Common Mistakes

❌ Já dělají to.

Incorrect — -ají is the 'they' ending; it doesn't match já.

✅ Dělám to. / Já to dělám.

I do it. (-ám is the já ending)

❌ On dělají.

Incorrect — singular on needs the singular -á, not plural -ají.

✅ On dělá.

He does / is doing.

❌ Mluvíte ty?

Incorrect — mixing the polite vy ending -íte with the informal pronoun ty.

✅ Mluvíš ty? / Mluvíte vy?

Do you speak? (match ty with -íš, vy with -íte)

❌ My dělá společně.

Incorrect — plural my needs -áme, not the singular -á.

✅ Děláme to společně.

We do it together.

Key Takeaways

Czech verbs mark six person-number slots: já, ty, on/ona/ono in the singular; my, vy, oni/ony/ona in the plural.
The model is dělat: -ám, -áš, -á, -áme, -áte, -ají. The vowel changes by class, but the six-slot grid never does.
The ending alone identifies the subject, which is why the pronoun is normally dropped.
vy is both the plural "you" and the polite singular "you" (vykání) — it always takes the -te ending.
Because there's usually no pronoun, the right ending is essential: it is the subject.

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