Questions & Answers about Účet jsem zaplatil se slevou.
Where is the subject “I” in the sentence, and why isn’t já used?
Czech often drops the personal pronoun because the verb form itself shows person and number. Here jsem zaplatil is first-person singular past, so já (I) is implied. You could say Já jsem účet zaplatil se slevou for emphasis, but it’s redundant.
Why is účet in the accusative case, not nominative?
Účet (bill) is the direct object of the verb zaplatit (to pay), and direct objects take the accusative case. In singular masculine animate/inanimate, the nominative and accusative forms look the same (účet), but grammatically it’s accusative here.
Why is the past participle zaplatil masculine singular, and how would a female speaker say it?
In Czech past tense the participle agrees with the subject’s gender and number. Zaplatil is masculine singular (speaker is male). A female speaker would use zaplatila:
• Účet jsem zaplatila se slevou.
Why is the preposition s written as se before slevou?
The preposition s (with) changes to se for easier pronunciation before words beginning with s, z, š, ž (and a few other consonants). Saying s slevou would create an awkward ss cluster, so Czech uses se slevou.