Learn about grammatical gender in the Czech language
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Intro |
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| Antoni: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Veronika: And how do you determine a noun's gender in Czech? |
| Antoni: At CzechClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen Lee is in a flower shop with her friend, Šárka Švehlíková. She says to Šárka, |
| "Look, a red rose, a red tulip, and a red flower bud." |
| Karen Lee : Podívej, červená růže, červený tulipán a červené poupě. |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Podívej, červená růže, červený tulipán a červené poupě. |
| Šárka Švehlíková: Hezké! |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Podívej, červená růže, červený tulipán a červené poupě. |
| Antoni: "Look, a red rose, a red tulip, and a red flower bud." |
| Šárka Švehlíková: Hezké! |
| Antoni: "Pretty!" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: Perhaps you noticed that the nouns, |
| Veronika: růže, |
| Antoni: or "rose," |
| Veronika: tulipán |
| Antoni: or "tulip," and |
| Veronika: poupě |
| Antoni: or "flower bud," are preceded by different-sounding versions of the word "red." That’s because, in Czech, nouns have genders, and the adjectives that modify them change to match that gender. Czech has three genders: |
| Veronika: maskulinum |
| Antoni: or "masculine," |
| Veronika: femininum |
| Antoni: or "feminine," and |
| Veronika: neutrum |
| Antoni: or "neuter." |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Karen says "Look, a red rose, a red tulip, and a red flower bud?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Veronika as Karen: Podívej, červená růže, červený tulipán a červené poupě. |
| Antoni: Here, we encounter three different versions of the Czech adjective "red." The first one is |
| Veronika: červená |
| Antoni: In Czech grammar, the ending of the adjective will depend on the gender of the noun it modifies. If the noun is feminine, the adjective ends in |
| Veronika: á |
| Antoni: That is the case with the first item on the list, which is |
| Veronika: růže |
| Antoni: a feminine noun. For the second item on the list, the ending of the adjective changes to |
| Veronika: ý |
| Antoni: This is the case if the noun is masculine, which is the case for the word, |
| Veronika: tulipán |
| Antoni: or "tulip." It is modified by the adjective, |
| Veronika: červený |
| Antoni: Finally, the ending of the adjective changes to |
| Veronika: é |
| Antoni: if the noun is neuter, which is the case for the word, |
| Veronika: poupě |
| Antoni: or "flower bud," as modified by the adjective, |
| Veronika: červené |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: So far, we’ve learned that there are three genders in Czech. These are |
| Veronika: maskulinum |
| Antoni: or "masculine," |
| Veronika: femininum |
| Antoni: or "feminine," and |
| Veronika: neutrum |
| Antoni: or "neuter." We also learned that the adjective modifying a noun in a sentence changes in spelling depending on the gender of the noun it modifies. If the noun is masculine, the ending of the adjective becomes |
| Veronika: ý |
| Antoni: If the noun is feminine, the ending of the adjective becomes |
| Veronika: á |
| Antoni: And, finally, if the noun is neuter, the ending of the adjective becomes |
| Veronika: é |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: You may be asking, "How do we know the gender of Czech words?" Genders of nouns in the Czech language must be learned by heart. One thing you can be sure, though, is that more than half of Czech nouns are masculine. Common examples are the words |
| Veronika: muž |
| Antoni: or "man" |
| Veronika: pan |
| Antoni: or "gentleman," and |
| Veronika: dům |
| Antoni: or "house." Identifying feminine and neuter nouns is not that difficult as well. Most words that end in "a" are feminine. For instance, you have the words |
| Veronika: kočka |
| Antoni: or "cat," |
| Veronika: škola |
| Antoni: or "school," and |
| Veronika: kniha |
| Antoni: or "book." As for neuter nouns, most of these words end in the letters |
| Veronika: o, í, and ý |
| Antoni: For example, you have the words |
| Veronika: město |
| Antoni: "city," |
| Veronika: nádraží |
| Antoni: "station," |
| Veronika: úterý |
| Antoni: and "Tuesday." |
| However, these tricks may be useful, but they're not real rules, as there are many exceptions from these, such as the word |
| Veronika: kolega |
| Antoni: meaning "colleague." Which despite ending in an |
| Veronika: -a, |
| Antoni: is a masculine noun. |
| Expansion |
| Antoni: Some types of adjectives in Czech do not change their spelling regardless of the gender of the noun. These are adjectives ending in |
| Veronika: í |
| Antoni: There are not too many of them, so it’s easy to just memorize them by heart. One example is the word |
| Veronika: moderní |
| Antoni: or "modern." If you want say "Modern car," you can say |
| Veronika: Moderní auto |
| Antoni: You don’t have to change the ending of the adjective to |
| Veronika: é |
| Antoni: even though "car" is a neuter noun. Other adjectives that belong to this category are |
| Veronika: kvalitní |
| Antoni: or "quality," |
| Veronika: lepší |
| Antoni: or "better," and, |
| Veronika: zahraniční |
| Antoni: or "foreign." |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Veronika: Na shledanou! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Veronika Ageiwa (Czech, Prague), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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