Milion korun je hodně peněz.

to be

Breakdown of Milion korun je hodně peněz.

• peníze: the money
• hodně: a lot
• koruna: the Czech crown

Questions & Answers about Milion korun je hodně peněz.

Why is the verb je singular? Shouldn’t it be plural because korun refers to many crowns?

The verb agrees with milion, not with korun.

In Milion korun je hodně peněz, the grammatical head of the subject is milion = million, which is singular. So Czech uses je = is.

A helpful way to think about it is:

• milion = the main noun
• korun = dependent noun, meaning of crowns

So the structure is basically A million of crowns is a lot of money.

This is similar to English, where A million crowns is a lot of money also sounds natural when we mean one total amount.

Why is it korun and not koruna or koruny?

Because after milion, Czech normally uses the genitive plural of the counted noun.

The base noun is:

• koruna = crown / koruna

Its genitive plural form is:

• korun

So:

• milion korun = a million crowns

This is a very common pattern with quantity words and large numbers:

• sto korun = one hundred crowns
• tisíc korun = one thousand crowns
• milion korun = one million crowns

So korun is not random; it is the required case form after a quantity expression like milion.

Why is it peněz and not peníze?