Publikum tleská kapele.

The audience is applauding the band.

Breakdown of Publikum tleská kapele.

• kapela: the band
• publikum: the audience
• tleskat: to clap; applaud

Questions & Answers about Publikum tleská kapele.

Why is it publikum and not a plural word if it refers to many people?

Publikum is a collective noun in Czech. Grammatically, it is singular, even though it refers to a group of people.

So Czech treats it like one unit:

• Publikum tleská. = The audience is applauding.

That is why the verb is also singular: tleská, not a plural form.

What form is tleská?

Tleská is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb tleskat, meaning to clap or to applaud.

Because publikum is grammatically singular, the verb must also be singular:

• publikum tleská = the audience applauds / is applauding

You can think of the pattern as:

• já tleskám = I clap
• ty tleskáš = you clap
• on/ona/ono tleská = he/she/it claps

Why is it kapele and not kapela?