On the participial passive page you learned to build Dům byl postaven ("The house was built"). This page deals with the part that trips up every English speaker: the passive participle changes its ending to match the subject in gender and number. English says "was built" no matter what — the house was built, the books were built, the window was built. Czech does not have that luxury. The participle behaves like a predicate adjective and must agree, just as the l-participle of the past tense does. Get the ending wrong and the sentence is ungrammatical, not merely odd.
The short form is what agrees
The passive participle has two lives. As an attributive adjective before a noun it takes the long form — postavený dům ("a built house"), otevřené okno ("an open window") — and declines like any hard adjective. But in the actual passive, predicatively after být, it takes the short (nominal) form: Dům byl postaven. This short form is one of the last survivors of a once-large class of short adjectives, the same family as rád, zdráv, hoden (see short-form adjectives). It is the short form whose agreement endings we chart below.
The agreement endings
The short passive participle takes essentially the nominal (zero/short) adjective endings. Here is the full set for postaven ("built"):
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine animate | postaven | postaveni |
| Masculine inanimate | postaven | postaveny |
| Feminine | postavena | postaveny |
| Neuter | postaveno | postavena |
Read the singular column first: no ending (masculine), -a (feminine), -o (neuter). Then the plural: -i (masculine animate), -y (masculine inanimate and feminine), -a (neuter). These are the same gender/number signals you see across the Czech adjective and noun system — and the same that the past l-participle uses (byl, byla, bylo, byli, byly, byla).
The exact same pattern, on two other common verbs:
| udělán (done) | otevřen (opened) | |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine (sg.) | udělán | otevřen |
| Feminine (sg.) | udělána | otevřena |
| Neuter (sg.) | uděláno | otevřeno |
| Masc. animate (pl.) | uděláni | otevřeni |
| Masc. inanimate / fem. (pl.) | udělány | otevřeny |
| Neuter (pl.) | udělána | otevřena |
Seeing the agreement in action
The auxiliary být agrees too (byl / byla / bylo / byli / byly / byla), so subject, auxiliary, and participle all line up. Watch the participle ending track the subject's gender:
Dopis byl napsán dnes ráno.
The letter was written this morning. (dopis = masc. inanimate → napsán)
Kniha byla napsána před sto lety.
The book was written a hundred years ago. (kniha = fem. → napsána)
Okno bylo otevřeno celou noc.
The window was open all night. (okno = neut. → otevřeno)
Look at the masculine pair side by side — same verb, only the gender of the subject differs, and the participle (plus auxiliary) follows:
Dopis byl napsán perem.
The letter was written with a pen.
Kniha byla napsána perem.
The book was written with a pen.
Plural agreement — where animacy bites
The plural is the tricky bit, because masculine animate splits off with -i, while masculine inanimate and feminine share -y, and neuter takes -a. This is precisely the animacy distinction you already navigate in the l-participle:
Studenti byli přijati na univerzitu.
The students were admitted to the university. (masc. animate → přijati)
Dveře byly otevřeny dokořán.
The doors were wide open. (dveře = fem. plural-only → otevřeny)
Všechny úkoly byly splněny včas.
All the tasks were completed on time. (úkoly = masc. inanimate → splněny)
Okna byla otevřena.
The windows were open. (okna = neuter plural → otevřena)
That dveře example is worth a second look: even though dveře ("doors") has no singular, it is grammatically feminine plural, so it takes -y → otevřeny. The orthography matters: otevřeny (fem./masc.-inan. plural) and otevřeni (masc. animate plural) differ only by -y vs -i, and that final vowel is the whole grammatical signal.
The contrast English never makes
English has exactly one form. Lay the two languages side by side and the burden becomes obvious:
| English | Czech |
|---|---|
| The letter was written. | Dopis byl napsán. |
| The book was written. | Kniha byla napsána. |
| The poem was written. | Báseň byla napsána. |
| The window was opened. | Okno bylo otevřeno. |
| The students were admitted. | Studenti byli přijati. |
There is no shortcut and no logic to "fix" here — you simply track the subject's gender and number, exactly as you already do with the past tense. The good news is that if your past-tense l-participle agreement is solid, you already own this pattern; the endings are the same family.
Common mistakes
❌ Kniha byla napsán před sto lety.
Wrong — kniha is feminine, so the participle must be napsána, not the masculine napsán.
✅ Kniha byla napsána před sto lety.
The book was written a hundred years ago.
❌ Okno bylo otevřen celou noc.
Wrong — okno is neuter, so the participle must be otevřeno.
✅ Okno bylo otevřeno celou noc.
The window was open all night.
❌ Studenti byli přijaty na univerzitu.
Wrong — masculine animate plural takes -i (přijati), not -y.
✅ Studenti byli přijati na univerzitu.
The students were admitted to the university.
❌ Úkol byl udělaný.
Wrong form for reporting the event — the verbal passive needs the short form udělán.
✅ Úkol byl udělán.
The task was done.
❌ Dveře byly otevřeni.
Wrong — dveře is feminine, so -y (otevřeny), not the masculine-animate -i.
✅ Dveře byly otevřeny.
The doors were open.
Key takeaways
- The passive uses the short participle, and it agrees with the subject in gender and number.
- Singular: bare masc., -a fem., -o neut. (postaven, postavena, postaveno).
- Plural: -i masc. animate, -y masc. inanimate & fem., -a neut. (postaveni, postaveny, postavena).
- The auxiliary
býtagrees in parallel (byl/byla/bylo/byli/byly/byla). - Long form (postavený) before a noun; short form (postaven) in the passive.
- The endings are the same family you use for the past
l-participle — learn it once.
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- The Participial Passive (být + -n/-t participle)B2 — Forming the periphrastic passive with být and the passive participle.
- The Reflexive Passive (dělá se)B2 — Using se to form an agentless passive/impersonal.
- Short-Form Adjectives: rád, zdráv, hodenB1 — The small surviving set of short-form (nominal) adjectives that appear only as predicates — rád above all, plus zdráv, hoden, jist and the past-passive participles — and why they never stand before a noun.
- Gender and Number Agreement of the l-ParticipleA2 — How the Czech past-tense participle changes its ending to match the subject's gender and number — including marking your own gender in the first person.
- Attributive vs Predicative PositionA2 — An attributive adjective sits before its noun and takes the noun's full case; a predicative adjective follows a linking verb and stands in the nominative — except after stát se, which pulls the instrumental.