Verb forms and patterns

In this article we discuss mainly the present tense conjugation-wise, so whenever you see something as 2. person plural or 3. person singular it's always within the present tense.

What to remember?

When it comes to Czech these three forms of a verb are the most important ones:

• Infinitive (always ends with -t)
• 1. person singular (ends with u or m)
• l-form (always ends with l)

When encountering a new verb, always take a look at it's 1. person singular form and the l-form. Few basic verbs to start with:

to be: být - jsem - byl
to have: mít - mám - měl
to do: dělat - dělám - dělal
to go: jít - jdu - š(e)l

Note that these three forms may look very different from each other.

Irregular verbs

In Czech we have only 2 verbs that are truly irregular. One of them is "to be":

The second one is irregular only in the 1. person singular and the 3. person plural, it is "to want":

Note that some other verbs have also irregular form in the 3. person plural, yet those forms are coexisting with newer forms that act in the regular way. Those verbs are:

• to eat: jíst - jím - jedl
  • 3. person plural irregular form jedí coexists with the regular form jí
• to know: vědět - vím - věděl
  • 3. person plural irregular form vědí coexists with the regular form ví

Endings

For 2. person singular, 3. person singular, 1. person plural and 2. person plural (marked in bold in the table) the endings are always the same for every verb. The 1. person singular and 3. person plural have a little variation in their endings.

Note the ø symbol stands for adding nothing to the stem of the verb. The 3. person singular is marked by not adding anything to the stem of the verb.

Verb conjugation patterns

In czech we have exactly three verb patterns, yet there is no simple way of determining the pattern from the infinitive form of the verb, mainly because the stem for the present tense may change drastically from the infinitive form. Note examples such as: brát (to take) -> beru, péct (to bake) -> peču or trpět (to suffer) -> trpím.

However the conjugation pattern of the verb can be easily decided by the 1. person singular form, which is the reason for remembering the 1. person singular alongside the infinitive during the process of acquiring a new verb. The verb patterns derive their names from the vowel, that is added to the root of the verb (in bold) to form the stem of the present tense. The endings are then added to the stem.

-e- pattern (for verbs ending with -u in 1. p. sg.)
i.e.: začít - začnu - začal (to start)

Note that the stem "začne" loses the ending e in the 1. person singular and 3. person plural form.

-í- pattern (for verbs ending with -ím in 1. p. sg.)
i.e.: prosit - prosím - prosil (to beg)

-á- pattern (for verbs ending with -ám in 1. p. sg.)
i.e.: dělat - dělám - dělal (to do)

Note that in the third person plural the á added to the root looses it's prolongation and becomes a simple a.

Also note that the -e- pattern allows an informal form in it's 1. person plural i.e. začnem (without the final e). Notice that the other two patterns wouldn't allow such a thing, since the result would then collide with their's 1. person singular forms.

Assuming the 1. person singular from the infinitive

The process of unraveling the 1. person singular form from the infinitve is actually mostly regular, yet it so complex (it offers around 15 different patterns with most of them not having explicit marking, so you'd have to memorize the pattern affiliation as well), that it pays of more to treat the system as if it was irregular and simply learn the 1. by hearth.

However there are some honorable mentions - patterns that occur often enough, so that it is worthy taking a look at them.

• -ovat:
  • pracovat (to work) -> pracuju (the -e- pattern)
• -nout:
  • tisknout (to print) -> tisknu (the -e- pattern)
• -it:
  • mluvit (to talk) -> mluvím (the -í- pattern)
• -ět:
  • vidět (to see) -> vídím (the -í- pattern)
• -at:
  • dělat (to do) -> dělám (the -á- pattern)

Assuming the l-form from the infinitive

Whilst assuming the 1. person singular being an incredibly difficult process, determining the l-form from the infinitive is in most cases very straightforward. The final -t of the infinitive needs to be replaced with -l and that's it.

• pracovat (to work) -> pracoval
• mluvit (to talk) -> mluvil
• dělat (to do) -> dělal

However sometimes the l-form may vary a lot from the infinitive leaving us with no other option other remembering it by hearth. Here are the most notorious examples of it:

• být (to be) -> byl
• jít (to go) -> š(e)l
• mít (to have) -> měl
• chtít (to want) -> chtěl
• jíst (to eat) -> jedl
• moct (can) -> mohl
• pít (to drink) -> pil (the í becomes i)
• znát (to know) -> znal (the á becomes a)

Conclusion

The czech system of verb conjugation shows a lot of regularity and irregularity at the same time. We stated in the beggining that Czech has only two truly irregular verbs: být (to be) and chtít (to want). By the true irregularity we meant that their present tense paradigmes don't fit into any of the three conjugation patterns provided. As curiosity we can remark that the system tends to be so regular that even those irregularities are being fixed in some dialects to correspond the regular patterns. Note these examples:

• jsem -> jsu
  • 1. person singular of být (to be) changed to correspond the -e- pattern
• chci -> chcu, chtějí -> chcou
  • 1. person singular and 3. person plural of chtít (to want) changed to correspond the -e- pattern

The great irregularity of the system of the verbs is that the stem of the present tense may change a lot from the infinitive form and the learner needs to mostly learn the forms by hearth, that is why we strongly encourage to always take a look at the 1. person singular alongside the infinitive when taking a look at a new verb and ideally the l-form as well.