I can ask “who is it?” and “what is it?”, name a person and a thing, use ten, ta, or to and jeden, jedna, or jedno by gender, and talk about a woman: studentka, učitelka.
Kdo je to? Co je to? Ten, ta, to
Kdo je to? Co je to? Ten, ta, to
Kdo je to? asks about a person; Co je to? about a thing. The answer: To je … / To není …; to doesn't change here: Kdo je to? — To je Eva. Co je to? — To je kniha.
The ending almost always shows the gender (see the table): a consonant is masculine, -a feminine, -o neuter. Words in -e and -ě can be feminine (židle) or neuter (dítě): look at the tag in the lesson words.
ten / ta / to before a noun mean “this / that” and show its gender: ten stůl, ta židle, to auto. “One” works the same way: jeden / jedna / jedno.
Czech has no word for “a” or “the”: To je kniha. (That's a book.) jeden means “one”.
For a woman: student → studentka, učitel → učitelka. About yourself, use your own gender: Jsem student. / Jsem studentka.
dítě is one child, děti several; člověk is one person, lidé several.
žena means “woman” (a wife is manželka, module 2).
Common mistakes:
• × Já student. → Jsem student.
• × Jsem jeden student. → Jsem student.
• × ta stůl → ten stůl (stůl is masculine)
• × Ta je Eva. → To je Eva.
• × Co je to? — To je Ivan. → Kdo je to?
Gender by the end of the word
ten / ta / to and jeden / jedna / jedno show the gender of the word.
| End of the word | Gender | This | One | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| consonant | masculine | ten | jeden | ten stůl, ten muž |
| -a | feminine | ta | jedna | ta kniha, ta žena |
| -e (often) | feminine | ta | jedna | ta židle |
| -o | neuter | to | jedno | to auto |
| -ě (dítě) | neuter | to | jedno | to dítě |
Lesson notes
Kdo je to? Co je to? Ten, ta, to
Kdo je to? asks about a person; Co je to? about a thing. The answer: To je … / To není …; to doesn't change here: Kdo je to? — To je Eva. Co je to? — To je kniha.
The ending almost always shows the gender (see the table): a consonant is masculine, -a feminine, -o neuter. Words in -e and -ě can be feminine (židle) or neuter (dítě): look at the tag in the lesson words.
ten / ta / to before a noun mean “this / that” and show its gender: ten stůl, ta židle, to auto. “One” works the same way: jeden / jedna / jedno.
Czech has no word for “a” or “the”: To je kniha. (That's a book.) jeden means “one”.
For a woman: student → studentka, učitel → učitelka. About yourself, use your own gender: Jsem student. / Jsem studentka.
dítě is one child, děti several; člověk is one person, lidé several.
žena means “woman” (a wife is manželka, module 2).
Common mistakes:
• × Já student. → Jsem student.
• × Jsem jeden student. → Jsem student.
• × ta stůl → ten stůl (stůl is masculine)
• × Ta je Eva. → To je Eva.
• × Co je to? — To je Ivan. → Kdo je to?