Learn Hardcore Czech: Hodina skončí brzy.

The lesson ends early / ends soon (according to the timetable) – a regular fact, or a scheduled end time, not so much a one‑off “it’s about to be over”.

So:

skončí – one concrete future finishing
končí – describes the general/typical behaviour or schedule

Is skončí a future tense? What is the infinitive and aspect?

The infinitive is skončit.

Aspect: perfective
Conjugation: present forms of perfective verbs usually refer to the future.

So skončit has forms:

já skončím – I will finish
ty skončíš – you will finish
on/ona/ono skončí – he/she/it will finish
my skončíme – we will finish
vy skončíte – you (pl./formal) will finish
oni skončí – they will finish

These forms look like the present, but with perfective verbs they are future in meaning. There is no extra auxiliary (like být = “to be”) needed.

Why is there no subject pronoun like ona or to? Shouldn’t it be Ona hodina skončí brzy?

Czech normally drops subject pronouns when they are clear from context or verb endings. This is called a pro‑drop language.

Hodina skončí brzy. – fully natural
Ona hodina skončí brzy. – possible, but sounds marked (you’d be emphasizing that particular lesson).

The subject here is hodina; the verb ending -í agrees with a 3rd person singular subject. The pronoun ona (she/it) is not needed and would sound unusual unless you want to stress contrast:

Tahle hodina skončí brzy, ale příští ne.
(This lesson will end soon, but the next one won’t.)

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Brzy skončí hodina or Hodina brzy skončí?

Czech word order is fairly flexible, but changes can affect emphasis and style.

All of these are grammatically correct:

Hodina skončí brzy.
– Neutral; simple statement: The lesson will end soon.
Hodina brzy skončí.
– Very similar; maybe a bit more focus on the fact of finishing soon. Quite natural in speech.
Brzy skončí hodina.
– This puts brzy first, so it stylistically emphasizes “soon”:
Soon, the lesson will end. (as a sort of announcement).

In everyday language, (1) and (2) are most common; (3) sounds a bit more formal or dramatic, depending on context.

What case and gender is hodina, and how can I tell?

Hodina in this sentence is:

Gender: feminine
Case: nominative singular (the subject of the sentence)

Indicators:

The ending ‑a is typical for many feminine nouns (e.g. škola, kniha, hodina).
The subject in a basic sentence is usually in nominative. Here hodina is performing the action (skončí).

If you changed the case, the form changes:

Vidím hodinu. – I see an hour/lesson. (accusative)
O hodině mluvíme. – We are talking about the hour/lesson. (locative)

What is the difference between brzy and brzo?

Both brzy and brzo mean soon or early, and both are correct.

brzy – often feels a bit more standard / neutral / literary
brzo – often feels a bit more colloquial / casual, and is very common in speech

Examples:

Přijdu brzy. / Přijdu brzo. – I’ll come soon.
Vstáváš brzy/brzo. – You get up early.

In your sentence, you could also say:

Hodina skončí brzo. – completely fine in everyday Czech.

Can I say Hodina se skončí brzy?

No, that is not correct in standard Czech.

The verb skončit is not reflexive in this meaning. You just say:

Hodina skončí brzy. – The lesson will end soon.

Using se would be appropriate with verbs that are reflexive or where se is part of the verb, e.g.:

Hodina se přesouvá. – The lesson is being moved.
Hodina se ruší. – The lesson is being cancelled.

But skončit se is not used here.

How would I say The lessons will end soon (plural)?

You make both the noun and the verb plural:

Hodiny skončí brzy.
= The lessons will end soon. / The hours will end soon.

Details:

hodiny – nominative plural feminine of hodina
skončí – 3rd person plural and also singular, same form; you know it’s plural because the subject is plural.

Context will decide if hodiny is understood as lessons or hours.

How would I say The lesson is ending soon or is about to end?

Often, Czech uses the same simple future as in your sentence:

Hodina skončí brzy.
– This can cover will end soon, is going to end soon, and often also is about to end.

If you want to make the “about to / very soon now” nuance stronger, you can say:

Hodina za chvíli skončí. – The lesson will end in a moment.
Hodina brzy skončí. – The lesson will soon end.
Hodina už skoro končí. – The lesson is almost ending / almost over.

To express a process rather than a completed event, you can use the imperfective:

Hodina bude brzy končit. – The lesson will soon be ending (more like describing the phase, less common in everyday speech).

How do you pronounce Hodina skončí brzy and where is the stress?

Czech stress is almost always on the first syllable of each word.

Approximate pronunciation (IPA):

hodina – [ˈɦodɪna]
skončí – [ˈskontʃiː]
brzy – [ˈbrzɪ]

So together:

Hodina skončí brzy.
[ˈɦodɪna ˈskontʃiː ˈbrzɪ]

Notes:

ch doesn’t appear here, but č in skončí is like ch in “church”.
r in brzy is tapped or trilled, not like the English r.
Vowels are short except the long í [iː] in skončí.

Could I use another verb instead of skončí, like dopadne or přestane?

For the meaning to end / to be over, the most natural verbs with hodina are:

skončit – Hodina skončí brzy.
končit – Hodina brzy končí. (schedule / general ending time)

Other verbs:

přestat (to stop): Hodina přestane brzy. – grammatically possible but unusual; you normally say that music, rain, pain etc. stop, not lessons.
dopadnout (to turn out / to end up): used about results/ways something turns out, not about finishing in time:
- Jak ta hodina dopadla? – How did that lesson turn out? (for example, did it go well?)

So for a simple will end soon, skončit (or končit in the right context) is the natural choice.