Declension of demonstrative pronouns – skloňování ukazovacích zájmen

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.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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