Nominative & Genitive Cases

In this article, you'll learn about Czech cases and how they work. We'll look at one Czech case as an example: Genitive case, which you use to talk about things that belong to you and others.

Basically, cases are endings you add to nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in Czech. They tell you about the relationships between different words.

Cases are one of the most important topics in the Czech language. But you definitely don't need to know everything all the way back to Cyril and Methodius!

What are Cases?Back to top

Many languages use cases, including German, Russian, and even old English! In English, you use prepositions: words like for, of, by, about, around, etc.

In Czech you can often replace for, by, around, etc. with a specific ending on a word. You use the word in a certain case.

In modern English, you use prepositions and word order, to explain who is doing what.

For example:

• The father's daughter (the daughter of the father) is rich: Otcova dcera je bohatá / Dcera otcova je bohatá
• The daughter's father (the father of the daughter) is rich: Otec dcery je bohatý / Dcery otec je bohatý
• The dog is under the blanket: Pes je pod dekou
• The blanket is under the dog: Deka je pod psa

You can see here that the words father, daughter, dog, and blanket must be in a certain order in English.

The daughter of the father and The father of the daughter mean different things. In The daughter of the father, the daughter is the subject of the sentence, the person we are talking about. In The father of the daughter, the father is the subject.

In Czech, the case tells you who is the subject of the sentence.

So you can say Otcova dcera or Dcera otcova – the meaning is the same. The daughter is the subject in both sentences.

Nominative Case – The Dictionary FormBack to top

The nominative case shows who is the subject of a sentence, the entity performing the action. You can also call it "the dictionary form of the word". It is the most simple case.

In Czech, it is the default form for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns when they are the subject of a sentence. All the nouns you learn in the very beginning are in nominative case. We recommend that you always learn new words in this form (the dictionary form).

Let's look at a few sentences and find the nouns in nominative case. Try to guess which Czech word is in nominative case before looking below!

• 1: This is a dog: To je pes.
• 2: This is a woman: To je žena.
• 3: A woman without a dog: Žena bez psa.
• 4: A dog without a woman: Pes bez ženy.

Now, take a look at the answers:

• 1: This is a dog: To je pes.
• 2: This is a woman: To je žena.
• 3: A woman without a dog: Žena bez psa.
• 4: A dog without a woman: Pes bez ženy.

Now we have pes, žena – nominative case. What about psa and ženy? In English it is still just dog and woman in every sentence. For us to understand the idea in sentences 3 and 4 we just need to add preposition "without" (bez).

But in Czech this is not enough. We need to change the noun's ending as well.

Let's look at another example:

If we just translate directly from English (and don't give the word dog a case) we get:

Cases are crucial because they convey information about what a noun is doing in a sentence. They provide context and clarity.

Not using the correct case is confusing for Czechs. They won't be able to understand what you're trying to say.

Czech language has seven cases, each impacting different aspects of grammar:

• 1: Nominative (dictionary form)
• 2: Genitive
• 3: Dative
• 4: Accusative
• 5: Vocative
• 6: Locative
• 7: Instrumental

The Czech word for case is pád. So you can call cases in Czech: první (1st) pád, druhý (2nd) pád, čtvrtý (4th) pád, etc.

Nominative case shows the subject of a sentence, as we already know. Let's look at one more case as an example: Genitive case.

Genitive Case – Unveiling PossessivesBack to top

The genitive case in Czech serves to express possession or association. It answers the question "whose? (Koho? Čeho?)" and is commonly used with prepositions indicating possession or a source.

The genitive is also always used with prepositions "do", "z", and "od".

"Do" (into, to)

The preposition "do" is used to express motion towards a destination. When "do" is employed, the noun following it takes the genitive case.

"Z" (from)

The preposition "z" denotes the origin or source of an action or object. When using "z," the noun following it takes the genitive case.

"Od" (from, since)

Similar to "z," the preposition "od" indicates the origin or starting point of an action. The noun following "od" takes the genitive case.

Genitive is perhaps the most common Czech case. It's used with a lot of other prepositions, too:

• během (during)
• bez (without)
• do (into, until)
• kolem (around)
• okolo (around the time of)
• kromě (besides)
• místo (instead of, in place of)
• namísto (instead of, in place of)
• od (out of, from/since)
• ohledně (concerning, regarding)
• podél (along)
• podle (according to)
• dle (according to, abbreviated form)
• pomocí (with the help of)
• prostřednictvím (with the help of)
• u (at)
• vedle (next to)
• vlivem (due to)
• využitím (with the use of)
• z (out of)

Using Genitive CaseBack to top

To form the genitive case, nouns or pronouns (I, you, he, etc.) change their endings, reflecting possession or relationship.

To use genitive case correctly you need to know:

• Is the noun male, female, or neuter?
• If it's male, is it living or not? (animate/inanimate)

And, adjectives must also be used in genitive case, if they are describing a genitive noun.

Examples with adjectives:

Adjectives change endings based on the noun:

• The gender of the noun (the word "dům" has male inanimate gender, so "starý" must use a male inanimate ending)
• The case of the noun (with "ze", "dům" must be in genitive case, so "starý" must also be in genitive case)

Genitive Noun EndingsBack to top

As you've seen, "forming the genitive case" means changing the endings of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns.

But forget memorizing tables! Just practice using genitive case here!

You can also listen to Czechs speaking and play games. Any Czech media (reading or speaking) will help you memorize the correct endings.

With some practice, using the wrong case will just sound wrong…like using bad grammar in your own language!

It's good to understand the grammar at a basic level. But normal Czechs are not thinking in terms of grammar or rules when they need to communicate.

We recommend working on one case at a time, before starting to practice a new case. Make sure you've memorized it really thoroughly! That way, you won't mix up the cases with each other.

If you do need it, here's a table of the genitive noun endings:

Genitive Adjective EndingsBack to top

Here are the genitive endings for Czech adjectives:

Genitive PronounsBack to top

Here are the genitive forms of the Czech pronouns:

Cases are challenging, but we can do it together!

Happy learning!