Verbs Governing the Accusative | Czech Grammar

Every Czech verb is filed in the dictionary with the case it forces on its object — its government. The good news for an English speaker is that one case dominates: the accusative is the default object case, the one you should assume unless you have a specific reason not to. When a verb simply does something to a thing or a person — sees it, has it, reads it, buys it, looks for it — that thing lands in the accusative. This page treats the accusative as a valency class: the big, open, "normal" class that almost any new transitive verb you meet will belong to.

The default object case

In English the direct object is unmarked — I see the dog, I have the dog, I'm looking for the dog all leave the dog in the same plain form. Czech also has a single "normal" object slot, but it is a real morphological case, the accusative. The practical upshot is a default rule you can lean on hard: if a verb takes a direct object and nothing tells you otherwise, that object is accusative. The mechanics of the endings — kniha → knihu, pes → psa — belong to the declension pages; here the point is simply which verbs select this case, and the answer is "most of them."

Verb	Meaning	Example
vid ět	to see	Vidím tě. — I see you.
mít	to have	Mám nový mobil. — I have a new phone.
číst	to read	Čtu zajímavou knihu. — I'm reading an interesting book.
psát	to write	Píšu dopis. — I'm writing a letter.
kupovat	to buy	Kupuju lístky. — I'm buying tickets.
dělat	to do, make	Dělám večeři. — I'm making dinner.
hledat	to look for	Hledám klíče. — I'm looking for the keys.
potkat	to meet	Potkal jsem kamaráda. — I met a friend.

Mám nový mobil, ale pořád hledám nabíječku.

I have a new phone, but I'm still looking for the charger. (mít + acc; hledat + acc)

Čteš tu knihu, co jsem ti půjčila?

Are you reading that book I lent you? (číst + acc tu knihu)

Dnes vařím já, dělám svíčkovou.

I'm cooking today, I'm making svíčková. (dělat + acc; svíčková is a classic Czech beef dish)

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Make the accusative your default and only deviate when a verb specifically tells you to. The dative, genitive, and instrumental verbs are a closed list you memorise one by one; the accusative is the open class everything else falls into. When you learn a brand-new transitive verb, assume "+ acc" until proven otherwise.

Why the accusative is the "affected object"

There is a semantic core under the rule, and it helps you predict membership. The accusative typically marks the patient — the entity that the action directly affects, creates, consumes, or targets. You see something (it enters your perception), you write a letter (you bring it into existence), you eat soup (you consume it), you love someone (your feeling targets them). Whenever the object is the thing the verb "happens to," Czech reaches for the accusative.

Miluju tě, i když mě někdy dohání k šílenství.

I love you, even though you sometimes drive me crazy. (milovat + acc tě)

Celé odpoledne jsme hledali byt, ale nic jsme nenašli.

We spent the whole afternoon looking for a flat, but we didn't find anything. (hledat + acc byt; najít + acc)

This patient logic is why the accusative is also the case that "passivises": the accusative object of an active sentence becomes the subject of a passive one. Dative and genitive objects cannot do that, which is one more sign that the accusative object is the structurally central one.

Animate masculine objects look different

There is one wrinkle that trips up every learner, and it is worth flagging here even though the full story lives on the animacy page. For feminine, neuter, and inanimate-masculine nouns the accusative is easy: feminines change their ending (kniha → knihu), while neuters and inanimate masculines look exactly like the nominative (Mám mobil, Čtu město… the object equals the dictionary form).

But animate masculine nouns — men, boys, animals, named people — take a special accusative that is identical to the genitive, with an -a (or -e) ending. This is the single place where the accusative is visibly marked on a masculine noun.

Noun (nom.)	Type	Accusative object
pes (dog)	masc. animate	Vidím psa.
Petr	masc. animate	Vidím Petra.
doktor	masc. animate	Hledám doktora.
mobil (phone)	masc. inanimate	Mám mobil. (= nom.)

Včera jsem potkal Petra a jeho psa na procházce.

Yesterday I met Petr and his dog on a walk. (animate masc. acc: Petra, psa)

Hledáme zkušeného právníka, ne začátečníka.

We're looking for an experienced lawyer, not a beginner. (animate masc. acc: právníka, začátečníka)

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Use a memory shortcut: for an animate masculine noun, the accusative object looks exactly like the genitive (the "of" form). If you can say bez psa ("without a dog"), you already know the object form — vidím psa. For everything else (feminine, neuter, inanimate masculine) the accusative does its own thing.

The accusative pronouns

Because the object is so often a person, you reach constantly for the accusative pronouns. As with all Czech pronouns, there is a short unstressed clitic (your default) and a longer stressed form for emphasis or after a preposition.

Person	Clitic (default)	Stressed / after preposition
me	mě	mě / mne
you (sg)	tě	tebe
him / it	ho	jeho / něho
her	ji	ji / ni
us	nás	nás
you (pl/formal)	vás	vás
them	je	je / ně

Neviděl jsi moje klíče? Hledám je už deset minut.

Have you seen my keys? I've been looking for them for ten minutes. (acc je)

Don't over-apply it: the marked classes exist

The whole reason this page is part of a government series is that the accusative is not automatic. A real, high-frequency minority of verbs governs another case, and you cannot guess which from the English — the case is a lexical property baked into each verb. Rozumět ("understand") and pomáhat ("help") take the dative; bát se ("be afraid of") and všímat si ("notice") take the genitive; být + a profession or stát se ("become") take the instrumental. These are covered on the dative-verbs page and its siblings.

Vidím tě, ale nerozumím ti.

I can see you, but I don't understand you. (vidět + acc tě, BUT rozumět + dat ti)

So the working model is: accusative by default, with a memorised list of exceptions. Treat the dative/genitive/instrumental verbs as the marked cases to learn deliberately, and let everything else fall into the accusative.

A note on negation

In older and more formal Czech, negating a transitive verb could shift its accusative object into the genitive of negation — Nemám času instead of Nemám čas. In modern everyday Czech this is largely receding: the object normally stays in the accusative under negation (Nevidím tě, Nečtu tu knihu, Nemám čas). The genitive of negation now survives mainly in fixed expressions (Není času nazbyt — "There's no time to spare") and in elevated or literary register. For A2 you can safely keep the accusative when you negate.

Nemám čas, musím utíkat na vlak.

I don't have time, I have to run for the train. (modern: accusative čas kept under negation)

Common Mistakes

❌ Vidím Petr na ulici.

Incorrect — Petr is animate masculine, so the accusative object must be Petra, not the nominative.

✅ Vidím Petra na ulici.

I see Petr on the street.

❌ Hledám můj pes.

Incorrect — the animate masculine object takes the -a accusative, and because you (the subject) are the owner, the possessive is the reflexive svého: svého psa.

✅ Hledám svého psa.

I'm looking for my dog.

❌ Mám novou mobil.

Incorrect — mobil is masculine; the accusative equals the nominative and the adjective is nový mobil.

✅ Mám nový mobil.

I have a new phone.

❌ Rozumím tě.

Incorrect — rozumět is one of the marked dative verbs, not accusative; it must be ti.

✅ Rozumím ti.

I understand you.

Key Takeaways

The accusative is the default, open-class object case: assume "+ acc" for any new transitive verb unless you've learned otherwise.
It marks the affected object — what the action sees, makes, consumes, or targets — and it is the case that passivises.
Feminines change their ending (knihu); neuters and inanimate masculines look like the nominative; animate masculines take the special genitive-shaped -a/-e form (psa, Petra).
The marked dative, genitive, and instrumental verbs are a memorised minority — learn them one by one; everything else is accusative.
In modern Czech the object stays accusative under negation; the genitive of negation is now mostly literary or fixed.

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