Czech Language/Verbs

Learn and practice the following, frequently-used, Czech verbs. In many languages, the most important verbs are often completely irregular, and so must be learned individually and carefully. Many of these verbs, particularly být, are frequently used as auxillary verbs, and are thus doubly important.

Být - To Be
"To be" is the most irregular verb in the Czech language, as indeed it is in English and many other languages. It is also the most important, because it is used as an auxillary verb to form both the past and future tense, and features in other grammatical constructions as well.

Present conjugation
Být has an irregular present-tense conjugation, in that both the stem (js-) and the conjugal suffixes don't follow any of the usual, regular rules for present conjugation in Czech.

Past participle
byl, byla, bylo; byli, byly, byla. When talking about a singular subject, you need only know the (grammatical) gender of the subject... ... but things are a little different when you want to say "they were".

Future tense
budu, budeš, bude; budeme, budete, budou. For the future imperfect ("I will do such-and-such") aspect, one uses the infinitive (dictionary) form of the verb with the appropriate future tense form of být, which functions like the English future auxillary verb "will". Predictably, the future tense of být by itself, expresses "I/you/he/etc. will be".

Imperative mood
buď, buďte, buďme! There are three ways to order people about in Czech. When it comes to být, the stem for the imperative, buď-, is irregular. If you're talking to one person, you can use the second-person-singular: buď! If there are more than one person, or you wish to be more formal, use the plural: buďte! Finally, if you want to include yourself in the group, there's the first-person-plural: buďme!

Conditional mood
The conditional mood in Czech is constructed from the past participle and special forms of být. We use conditionals whenever we use the phrase "I would..." to say what might have occured had things been otherwise (had some condition prevailed). The most familiar and useful of conditional expressions is "I would like... ": Chtěl bych...

Passive voice
One of two ways to form the passive voice in Czech involves the verb být. English speakers also use "to be" when forming a passive sentence, such as the following one. A passive sentence is formed from the approriate tense of být, followed by the passive participle of the main verb. Být does not itself have such a participle, as it cannot meaningfully be used in the passive voice.

Dělat - To Do or Make
Dělat is not an irregular verb (is is in fact a class-V or á-type verb), but it is a very frequently used and useful one.

Past participle
šel, šla, šlo; šli, šli, šla. Jít has an irregular set of past participles.

jel, jela, jelo; jeli, jely, jela. Jet has a rather more regular past tense.

Future tense
půjdu, půjdeš, půjde; půjdeme, půjdete, půjdou. Jít like some other verbs expressing movement, possesses an irregular future tense, instead of using auxillary být. The future tense is constructed from the prefix pů-, and the present conjugation, as shown below.

pojedu, pojedeš, pojede; pojedeme, pojedete, pojedou. Jet, similarly, posesses a future tense constructed from the present tense, preceded by the prefix po-.