Third-Person Commands with ať

The Czech imperative has a hole in it. It gives you direct forms for "you" (jdi! "go!"), "you-plural" (jděte!), and "let's" (pojďme! "let's go!") — but there is no ending for "let him go," "let them wait," or "may she succeed." English plugs that hole with helper words: let, have, may. Czech plugs it with a single small particle: ať. Put ať in front of an ordinary present-tense verb and you have a third-person command, a relayed order, or a wish.

How ať works: ať + ordinary present tense

The mechanics are refreshingly simple. Ať sits at the front of the clause, and the verb stays in its normal present-tense form — there is no special "imperative" ending to learn. With a perfective verb, that present form carries future meaning (see the present tense of perfectives), which is what gives the command its forward push.

So the recipe is ať + subject (often just implied by the verb ending) + present-tense verb. The person giving the order and the person carrying it out are different — you are telling A that B should do something, or simply declaring that B should do it.

Where the clitics go

Czech "little words" — se, si, mi, ti, to, mu — cluster in the second position of the clause. Since ať takes first position, the clitics line up right after it:

That reflexive si in Ať si dělá, co chce adds a shrug — "for all I care." Ať si jdou "let them go (I won't stop them)" carries the same dismissive tone.

Relayed (indirect) commands

This is where ať earns its keep in daily speech. When you pass on an order — "tell him to wait," "ask her to call me" — Czech reaches for ať + present tense:

English uses an infinitive here ("tell him to wait"), but Czech has no infinitive that can carry a different subject in this slot, so it uses a finite ať-clause: literally "tell him that he should wait."

There is a near-synonym: aby + the past-participle (conditional) form — Řekni mu, aby počkal. The two overlap heavily, but with a difference in flavour: ať + present relays the order almost as a direct quote, brisk and colloquial, while aby + -l form is the more neutral, slightly more formal default. Compare:

If in doubt, aby is the safe choice in writing; ať is what you will hear. The full machinery of aby lives on the aby conjunction page.

Wishes and optatives: "may…", "long live…"

The same ať expresses wishes — things you hope come true rather than order someone to do. This is the optative use, and it produces some of the most recognisable phrases in the language:

Wishes can even point at "you" — Ať se ti to povede! "May you pull it off! / Good luck with it!" — because a wish, unlike a real command, can be aimed at anyone. Ať se daří is an extremely common sign-off, the Czech equivalent of "take it easy."

Negative ať: prohibitions and "don't let…"

Negating the verb turns ať into a third-person prohibition — "he shouldn't," "don't let them":

This is how a manager relays a rule about a third party, or how you tell one person what another must not do.

Common Mistakes

Czech does have nechat "to let/allow," but for a plain third-person command the natural form is ať + present, not nechat + infinitive.

Second, putting the verb into a special "imperative" shape after ať — there is none; use the ordinary present:

Third, misplacing the clitic instead of slotting it right after ať:

Fourth, using an infinitive for a relayed command, as English does:

Key Takeaways

• Czech has no third-person imperative ending — ať
  • present tense fills the gap.
• The verb stays in its ordinary present (perfective present = future); clitics go right after ať.
• Uses span commands (Ať přijde!), relayed orders (Řekni mu, ať počká), wishes/optatives (Ať žije král!), and prohibitions (Ať tu nekouří).
• ať (brisk, spoken) often overlaps with aby (neutral, written); nechť is its literary/archaic twin.