Minulý rok jsem měl dovolenou a počasí bylo teplé.

Last year I had a vacation and the weather was warm.

Breakdown of Minulý rok jsem měl dovolenou a počasí bylo teplé.

• já: I
• být: to be
• mít: to have
• a: and

Questions & Answers about Minulý rok jsem měl dovolenou a počasí bylo teplé.

Why is Minulý rok used without any preposition?

Czech often uses time expressions in the bare accusative (which for inanimate masculine singular looks identical to the nominative). Here minulý rok functions as an adverbial accusative of time. You can also say v minulém roce (with the preposition v + locative), but the bare form is more colloquial and common in everyday speech.

Why does minulý end with -ý and agree with rok?

Czech adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number and case. Rok is masculine inanimate, singular, accusative (here indistinguishable from nominative), so the adjective takes the masculine singular ending -ý, giving minulý rok.

How is the past tense formed in jsem měl?

The Czech past tense is built with the auxiliary verb být (to be) plus the past participle of the main verb. For first person singular you use jsem (I am in past) plus the past participle of mít, which for a male speaker is měl (for a female speaker it would be měla). Thus jsem měl = I had.

Why is dovolenou in the accusative case and ends with -ou?