Explaining the declension of demonstrative pronouns in Czech to native English speakers can be challenging, as English doesn’t have a similarly complex system of declension, and also doesn’t use grammatical gender.
Similar to English, Czech has a three-level system of demonstrative pronouns.
The – This – That
We can say that the English THE corresponds to the Czech TEN TA TO in the following table.
case |
masculine singular |
feminine singular |
neuter singular |
masculine plural |
feminine plural |
neuter plural |
1. |
ten |
ta |
to |
ti , ty |
ty |
ta |
2. |
toho |
té |
toho |
těch |
těch |
těch |
3. |
tomu |
té |
tomu |
těm |
těm |
těm |
4. |
toho , ten |
tu |
to |
ty |
ty |
ta |
6. |
tom |
té |
tom |
těch |
těch |
těch |
7. |
tím |
tou |
tím |
těmi |
těmi |
těmi |
As we can see, Czech demonstrative pronouns change according to gender and case.
For example, “ten” (masculine) changes differently in different cases: “toho” (genitive – 2th case), “tomu” (dative – 3. case), etc.
Equivalents of English THIS – THAT in Czech are formed by adding -TO (or -HLE) in the case of THIS or by putting TEN- at the beginning of the word in the case of THAT.
Examples
Nominative (who? what?):
– Masculine: “Tento muž je vysoký.” (This man is tall.)
– Feminine: “Tato žena je vysoká.” (This woman is tall.)
– Neuter: “Toto auto je rychlé.” (This car is fast.)