Dej kolo sem.

Put the bicycle here.

Breakdown of Dej kolo sem.

• kolo: the bike
• dát: to put
• sem: here (towards the speaker)

Questions & Answers about Dej kolo sem.

What does dej mean here?

Dej is the singular informal imperative of the verb dát, meaning to give / to put / to place, depending on context.

In Dej kolo sem, it means something like put or bring.

So dej is a command to one person:

• dej = give/put! addressed to you (singular, informal)

Why is it dej and not dáš or dát?

Because this sentence is a command.

• dát = infinitive, to give / to put
• dáš = you will give / you give
• dej = give! / put!

So if you want to tell someone to do something, Czech uses the imperative:

• Dej kolo sem. = Put the bike here.

Why is there no word for you in the sentence?

In Czech, the subject is often omitted when it is clear from the verb form.

The form dej already tells you that the speaker is talking to one person informally, so adding ty is usually unnecessary.

• Dej kolo sem. = Put the bike here.
• Ty dej kolo sem. = more emphatic, like You put the bike here.

What does kolo mean?