Czeck - Univerzita Karlova

1 CzechAn Essential GrammarCzech: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the corestructures and features of modern presents a fresh and accessible description of the language and setsout the complexities of Czech in short, readable sections. Explanationsare clear and free from jargon. Throughout, the emphasis is on Czechas used by native speakers Grammar is suitable for either independent study or for studentsin schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all include: focus on the morphology, basic syntax and word formation clear explanations of grammatical terms plentiful illustrative examples detailed contents list and index for easy access to : An Essential Grammar will help you read, speak and writeCzech with greater Naughton is Lecturer at the University of Oxford, Essential GrammarsEssential Grammars are available for the following languages.

2 ChineseCzechDanishDutchEnglishFinnishMod ern GreekModern HebrewHungarianNorwegianPolishPortuguese SerbianSpanishSwedishThaiUrduOther titles of related interest published by Routledge:Colloquial CroatianColloquial CzechColloquial SerbianCzechAn Essential GrammarJames NaughtonFirst published 2005by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4 RNSimultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group 2005 James NaughtonAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced orutilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, nowknown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or inany information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writingfrom the Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataA catalog record for this book has been requestedISBN 0 415 28784 7 (hbk)ISBN 0 415 28785 5 (pbk)This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

3 To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge scollection of thousands of eBooks please go to ContentsAbbreviationsixChapter 1 versus non-standard usage1 Chapter 2 Pronunciation and orthography vPslovnost a samohl souhl I versus hard before h and I/ and Czech13 Chapter 3 Nouns podstatn jm plural mnofn a p and soft miscellaneous nouns zpodstatnbl pd davn jm nouns podstatn jm na pomnofn nouns nesklonn jm na47vviContentsChapter 4 Adjectives and adverbs pD davn jm na a pD adjective pd davn jm noun adjectives hard and soft r adjectives jmennp adjectives pdivlastcovac pd davn jm adverb pd adverbs ending in - ending in -cky, ending in happy/sad , place and adverbs of place and forms of of adjectives stupcov n of adverbs70 Chapter 5 Pronouns z pronouns osobn z pronoun se zvratn z ukazovac z pdivlastcovac z t zac z jmena pronouns vztafn z jmena and their m and etc.

4 Other, , veechno each, only, dnp no, not any112 Chapter 6 Numerals and quantifiers A numerals z kladn a numerals dadov a times x-kr adjectives with about numbered and quantifiers neurait a the of the week, months and or set numerals souborov a numerals druhov a slovky130 Chapter 7 The verb forms and infinitive verbs zvratn present tense pd tomnp past tense minulp and perfective aspect nedokonavpa dokonavp present and future budouc aas conditional tense kondicion l /podmicovac of main conditional kondicion l pdedminulp /indirect speech nepd m imperative imperativ/rozkazovac and passive nouns podstatn jm no slovesn slovesa opakovac verbs mod ln verbs start and of motion slovesa /irregular verbs190 Chapter 8 Cases and prepositions p dy nominative 9 Syntax and conjunctions syntax

5 Vbta a souvbt and ot zvolac order a marks speech nepd m meaning of coordinating of subordinating conjunctions228 Chapter 10 Word Prefixes with other parts of speech268 Index273viiiContentsAbbreviations*non-st andard spoken usage (esp. Prague, Bohemia)**markedly vulgar>arrow head pointing forward to the perfective verb<arrow head pointing back to the perfective verb+separates determinate and indeterminate verbs of , casem., masc. masculine inanimaten., caseixAllie1A HeadChapter 1 IntroductionThis is styled an essential grammar, and is certainly not anything likea comprehensive grammar (mluvnice) of Czech (aeetina) the Czechlanguage (aeskp jazyk), with its strong tradition of writing from the latethirteenth century kinds of choices have had to be made especially about what toexclude!

6 Either simply for reasons of space, or in order to try not tooverburden readers who may still be at an elementary level in theirknowledge of the language. (The dangers of over-simplification are ofcourse ever-present, and the author is all too aware that he may havesuccumbed to these at times he hopes not too often.)Efforts have been made to separate the basic, core elements fromthose which are less central and of morphology (declension and conjugation) has beeninterspersed with material on usage. A work designed for trainedlinguists would arrange this material somewhat differently, no doubt,but it is hoped that the approach adopted here will be helpful to thegeneral reader as well as informative for the more academic have tried to take account of readers likely unfamiliarity withvarious grammatical categories, and with linguistic grammatical terms have been infiltrated into the text as well,for those who go on to encounter them in their further studies or hearthem from their author has no particular theoretical or systematic approach to offer this may or may not be a weakness.

7 He has simply tried to steer areasonably pragmatic course through the often thorny jungle of thislanguage wielding, as he hopes, a not too crude machete in his versus non-standard usageA few words ought perhaps to be said at the outset about how non-standard spoken Czech is presented here alongside the standard standard written language (spisovn aeetina) differs in various,at times rather obvious, respects from most Czechs everyday this book refers to non-standard forms of everyday col-loquial language, it is broadly the spoken language of Prague andBohemia that is being referred may refer to this variety as hovorov aeetina colloquial Czech ,while linguists often call it obecn aeetina common Czech (the formerterm has sometimes been used for a slightly relaxed version of thestandard language, avoiding the more literary or bookish features, butstill more or less standard in phonetics and grammar).

8 Non-standard forms are often found in literature in the texts, espe-cially dialogues, of fiction and plays. They also occur on the radio andTV, especially in less formal contexts, and anyone living in the CzechRepublic will soon notice these non-standard features even if they onlyhave a rather basic command of the between written and colloquial usage will be pointed outthroughout this book, rather than being hived off into a separate chapter.(Non-standard usage is marked by an asterisk.)Much less attention is devoted to features which readers would mainlyencounter when reading older texts, of the nineteenth century andearlier. Seventeenth-century Czech writings, such as those of Comenius(Komenskc) are still very accessible to present-day Czech readers, butthis grammar focuses mainly on the present-day language, which isspoken by around 10 million people in the Czech Republic, as well asby lesser numbers scattered over the 2 Pronunciation andorthography vpslovnosta pravopisThe relationship between standard Czech spelling and Czech pronun-ciation is relatively straightforward, compared with a language , as with all languages, the beginner who wants to beable to pronounce the language properly will benefit from access to anative speaker or at least to some sound following is designed more for the layman than the trained lin-guist.

9 The reader who wants a more specialised approach will need toconsult other rules about punctuation and capital letters are slightly differ-ent from the conventions of English, but the main features are not hardto samohl skyVowel letters a, e, i/y, o, u represent sounds which are quite close tothe English vowel sounds in tuck, tech, tick, tock, took s no difference in sound between i and y, but the spellingaffects the pronunciation of preceding d, t, n see acute signs added ( , , /p, , ) these vowels are pronouncedwith longer duration: roughly like English ah, eh, ee, aw, oo .The long vowel is normally spelt r (with a kroufek little circle )except as the first letter in a stress is on the first vowel (long or short).

10 42 Pronuncia-tion andorthographyA, :ano, ale, dal, d l, m lo, mal E, :ne, den, nese, kr m, mal , mil I, /Y, O: byl/bil, syn, sPr, b lP, milP, malPO, :ona, slovo, doma, g l, m da, hal U, /Q:ruka, ruku, domu, dRm, loha, domRThere are also three diphthongs (diftongy, sequences of two vowelswithin a single syllable) in which the first vowel, pronounced as above,moves into a very short u or w commonest is OU:OU: bouda, malou, n hodou, nesouThe other two diphthongs appear in loanwords:AU: auto car, automobile, autobus bus , restaurace restaurant EU:pneumatika (pneumatic) tyre , neutralita neutrality Other vowel letter sequences are pronounced as two syllables:IE:Anglie England , as if spelt -ije (for J see below)IO:r dio radio , as if spelt -ijoAO: a-o kakao cocoa souhl skyConsonant letters b, d, f, g (as in good ), h, k, l, m, n, p, s (as in sun ),t (as in stop ), x and z are pronounced much the same as in :K, P, and T lack the typical English post-aspiration , a slight puff of airfollowing them, unless they come at the end of a word:kilo, ruka, pil, koupil, ten, to, tabut are post-aspirated in final position in words like: buk, lup, m is pronounced further back, more deeply, hollowly, than the Eng-lish equivalent.