In the singular, the Czech past participle agrees with its subject in a way English speakers find odd but manageable: byl, byla, bylo. In the plural the system gets subtler, because there are three plural endings — -li, -ly and -la — and choosing the right one depends not only on gender and number but, for masculine subjects, on animacy. This page is dedicated to that plural choice and to its most famous twist: a single masculine animate noun in the subject can override everything else. The general mechanics of participle agreement are covered on the l-participle agreement page; here we zoom in on the plural.
The three plural endings
For a plural subject, the ending of the -l participle is decided like this:
| Subject (plural) | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine animate | -li | muži přišli, studenti psali |
| masculine inanimate or feminine | -ly | stoly stály, ženy přišly |
| neuter | -la | města rostla, auta stála |
Notice that -ly does double duty: it covers masculine inanimate nouns (tables, chairs, trees) and all feminine nouns. And the neuter plural is -la — the very same letter as the feminine singular (žena byla), which trips people up constantly. The neuter plural is never -ly.
Kluci celé odpoledne hráli fotbal na hřišti.
The boys played football on the pitch all afternoon. (masculine animate → -li)
Holky si hrály na zahradě s panenkami.
The girls were playing in the garden with dolls. (feminine → -ly)
Auta stála v koloně skoro hodinu.
The cars stood in the traffic jam for almost an hour. (neuter → -la)
Why animacy decides the masculine
Czech masculine nouns split into animate (people and animals: muž, student, pes) and inanimate (objects: stůl, strom, dům). This split, introduced for the accusative in animacy, reaches into the past tense too. Masculine animate plurals take -li; masculine inanimate plurals join the feminines in -ly. The logic is the same one that runs through the whole grammar: Czech treats "a crowd of men" and "a pile of tables" as grammatically different kinds of plural, and the participle has to honour that.
Stromy v parku už kvetly, byl konec dubna.
The trees in the park were already in bloom; it was the end of April. (masculine inanimate → -ly)
Studenti odevzdali práce včas a šli domů.
The students handed in their papers on time and went home. (masculine animate → -li)
The mixed-group rule: one man changes everything
Here is the part that surprises English speakers most. When a subject contains several nouns of different genders, you do not average them or pick the nearest one. You scan for animacy, and the hierarchy is strict:
- If any member is masculine animate → the whole verb takes -li.
- Otherwise, if any member is masculine inanimate or feminine → -ly.
- Otherwise (everything is neuter) → -la.
So a single masculine animate noun outranks any number of feminine and neuter ones. Petr (one man) plus Eva (a woman) plus, say, three girls still produces -li, because Petr is in the group.
Petr a Eva přišli pozdě, vlak měl zpoždění.
Petr and Eva arrived late; the train was delayed. (mixed group with a masculine animate → -li)
Rodiče se na nás vůbec nezlobili.
Our parents weren't cross with us at all. (rodiče 'parents' is masculine animate → -li)
Studenti a studentky společně napsali petici.
The male and female students wrote a petition together. (the masculine animate studenti pulls the whole verb to -li)
This is a genuinely "social" rule baked into the grammar, and Czechs simply absorb it. There is no way to soften it: even if the women and children vastly outnumber the men, the presence of one masculine animate noun forces -li.
Two famous traps: děti and lidé
Two extremely common plural nouns have a gender that does not match their meaning, and they catch nearly everyone.
- lidé "people" is grammatically masculine animate, so it takes -li: Lidé přišli.
- děti "children" is grammatically feminine, so it takes -ly: Děti přišly — even though the children may well include boys.
You have to track the grammatical gender of the noun, not the real-world sex of the people involved.
Lidé na náměstí dlouho tleskali a skandovali.
The people in the square clapped and chanted for a long time. (lidé is masculine animate → -li)
Děti celé odpoledne běhaly po hřišti.
The children ran around the playground all afternoon. (děti is feminine → -ly)
Putting it together
To pick a plural participle ending, ask yourself three questions in order: Is the subject plural? What is its gender? And if it is masculine, is it animate? Run a mixed subject through the animacy filter first. With practice the scan becomes automatic, but until then it pays to slow down — this is exactly the spot where an otherwise fluent sentence reveals a learner.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ženy přišli pozdě.
Incorrect — a feminine subject takes -ly, not -li.
✅ Ženy přišly pozdě.
The women arrived late.
❌ Auta stáli v koloně.
Incorrect — a neuter plural is -la; it is never -li or -ly.
✅ Auta stála v koloně.
The cars stood in the traffic jam.
❌ Petr a Eva přišly.
Incorrect — the masculine animate Petr forces -li on the whole group.
✅ Petr a Eva přišli.
Petr and Eva arrived.
❌ Děti si hráli na dvoře.
Incorrect — děti is feminine, so the ending is -ly.
✅ Děti si hrály na dvoře.
The children were playing in the yard.
❌ Stoly byli ve skladu.
Incorrect — stoly is masculine inanimate, which patterns with the feminine -ly.
✅ Stoly byly ve skladu.
The tables were in the storeroom.
If you remember only one thing, make it this: the neuter plural is -la (you can hear it), and a lone masculine animate noun drags the whole verb to -li (you cannot hear it, so you must reason about it). Everything else is the comfortable middle ground of -ly.
Now practice Czech
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- 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.
- Forming the l-ParticipleA1 — Building the past-tense participle from the infinitive stem.
- Masculine Animacy: Životná vs NeživotnáA2 — Why Czech masculine nouns split into animate (living) and inanimate, and how that split changes the accusative singular, the nominative plural, and all the agreement around them.
- Animacy in the Accusative (vidím psa vs vidím hrad)A2 — The crucial rule that animate masculine accusatives copy the genitive while inanimate masculines copy the nominative.
- The Past Auxiliary (jsem, jsi)A1 — How the past tense combines the l-participle with present-tense forms of být for the 1st and 2nd persons.