Editing Czech language (section)

===Declension===
{{Main|Czech declension}}
In Czech, nouns and adjectives are declined into one of seven [[grammatical case]]s which indicate their function in a sentence, two [[grammatical number|numbers]] (singular and plural) and three [[grammatical gender|genders]] (masculine, feminine and neuter). The masculine gender is further divided into [[animacy|animate and inanimate]] classes.

====Case====
[[File:Bozeny Nemcove Revnice 6258.JPG|thumb|right|A street sign in German (top) and Czech (bottom) for a street named after [[Božena Němcová]] with her name declined in the genitive case in Czech (a sign probably from the time of the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|Protectorate]]).]]
A [[nominative–accusative language]], Czech marks subject nouns of transitive and intransitive verbs in the nominative case, which is the form found in dictionaries, and [[direct object]]s of transitive verbs are declined in the accusative case.<ref name="n196" /> The vocative case is used to address people.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=201}}</ref> The remaining cases (genitive, dative, locative and instrumental) indicate semantic relationships, such as [[noun adjunct]]s (genitive), [[indirect object]]s (dative), or agents in passive constructions (instrumental).<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|pp=197–199}}</ref> Additionally [[preposition]]s and some verbs require their complements to be declined in a certain case.<ref name="n196">{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=196}}</ref> The locative case is only used after prepositions.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=199}}</ref> An adjective's case agrees with that of the noun it modifies. When Czech children learn their language's declension patterns, the cases are referred to by number:<ref name="Naughton 2005 25">{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=25}}</ref>
{{clear}}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Cases in Czech
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"| Ordinal name (Czech)
!scope="col"| Full name (Czech)
!scope="col"| Case
!scope="col"| Main usage
|-
|1. 
|''první pád''
| ''nominativ''
!scope="row"|[[nominative case|nominative]]
| Subjects
|-
|2.
|''druhý pád''
| ''genitiv''
!scope="row"|[[genitive case|genitive]]
| Noun adjuncts, possession, prepositions of motion, time and location
|-
|3.
| ''třetí pád''
| ''dativ''
!scope="row"|[[dative case|dative]]
| Indirect objects, prepositions of motion
|-
|4.
| ''čtvrtý pád''
| ''akuzativ''
!scope="row"|[[accusative case|accusative]]
| Direct objects, prepositions of motion and time
|-
|5.
|''pátý pád''
| ''vokativ''
!scope="row"|[[vocative case|vocative]]
| Addressing someone
|-
|6.
|''šestý pád''
| ''lokál''
!scope="row"|[[locative case|locative]]
| Prepositions of location, time and topic
|-
|7.
|''sedmý pád''
| ''instrumentál''
!scope="row"|[[instrumental case|instrumental]]
| Passive agents, instruments, prepositions of location
|}

Some prepositions require the nouns they modify to take a particular case. The cases assigned by each preposition are based on the physical (or metaphorical) direction, or location, conveyed by it. For example, ''[[wikt:od|od]]'' (from, away from) and ''[[wikt:z#Czech|z]]'' (out of, off) assign the genitive case. Other prepositions take one of several cases, with their meaning dependent on the case; ''[[wikt:na#Czech|na]]'' means "on to" or "for" with the accusative case, but "on" with the locative.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|pp=201–205}}</ref>

This is a glossed example of a sentence using several cases:

{{interlinear|indent=3|abbreviations=INS:instrumental case
|Nes-l js-em krabic-i do dom-u se sv-ým přítel-em.
|carry-SG.M.PST be-1.SG box-SG.ACC into house-SG.GEN with own-SG.INS friend-SG.INS
|I carried the box into the house with my friend.}}

====Gender====

Czech distinguishes three [[grammatical gender|genders]]—masculine, feminine, and neuter—and the masculine gender is subdivided into [[animacy|animate]] and inanimate. With few exceptions, feminine nouns in the nominative case end in ''-a'', ''-e'', or a consonant; neuter nouns in ''-o'', ''-e'', or ''-í'', and masculine nouns in a consonant.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|pp=22–24}}</ref> Adjectives, participles, most pronouns, and the numbers "one" and "two" are marked for gender and agree with the gender of the noun they modify or refer to.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=51}}</ref> Past tense verbs are also marked for gender, agreeing with the gender of the subject, e.g. ''dělal'' (he did, or made); ''dělala'' (she did, or made) and ''dělalo'' (it did, or made).<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=141}}</ref> Gender also plays a semantic role; most nouns that describe people and animals, including personal names, have separate masculine and feminine forms which are normally formed by adding a suffix to the stem, for example ''Čech'' (Czech man) has the feminine form ''Češka'' (Czech woman).<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=238}}</ref>

Nouns of different genders follow different declension patterns. Examples of declension patterns for noun phrases of various genders follow:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ 
! rowspan="2" | Case
! colspan="4" | Noun/adjective
|-
| Big dog (m. anim. sg.)
| Black backpack (m. inanim. sg.)
| Small cat (f. sg.)
| Hard wood (n. sg.)
|-
! Nom.
| ''velký pes''<br>(big dog)
|''černý batoh''<br>(black backpack)
| ''malá kočka''<br>(small cat)
| ''tvrdé dřevo''<br>(hard wood)
|-
! Gen.
| ''bez velkého psa''<br>(without the big dog)
| ''bez černého batohu''<br>(without the black backpack)
| ''bez malé kočky''<br>(without the small cat)
| ''bez tvrdého dřeva''<br>(without the hard wood)
|-
! Dat.
| ''k velkému psovi''<br>(to the big dog)
| ''k černému batohu''<br>(to the black backpack)
| ''k malé kočce''<br>(to the small cat)
| ''ke tvrdému dřevu''<br>(to the hard wood)
|-
! Acc.
| ''vidím velkého psa''<br>(I see the big dog)
| ''vidím černý batoh''<br>(I see the black backpack)
| ''vidím malou kočku''<br>(I see the small cat)
| ''vidím tvrdé dřevo''<br>(I see the hard wood)
|-
! Voc.
| ''velký pse!''<br>(big dog!)
| ''černý batohu!''<br>(black backpack!)
| ''malá kočko!''<br>(small cat!)
| ''tvrdé dřevo!''<br>(hard wood!)
|-
! Loc.
| ''o velkém psovi''<br>(about the big dog)
| ''o černém batohu''<br>(about the black backpack)
| ''o malé kočce''<br>(about the small cat)
| ''o tvrdém dřevě''<br>(about the hard wood)
|-
! Inst.
| ''s velkým psem''<br>(with the big dog)
| ''s černým batohem''<br>(with the black backpack)
| ''s malou kočkou''<br>(with the small cat)
| ''s tvrdým dřevem''<br>(with the hard wood)

|}

====Number====

Nouns are also inflected for [[grammatical number|number]], distinguishing between singular and plural. Typical of a Slavic language, Czech cardinal numbers one through four allow the nouns and adjectives they modify to take any case, but numbers over five require subject and direct object noun phrases to be declined in the genitive plural instead of the nominative or accusative, and when used as subjects these phrases take singular verbs. For example:<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=114}}</ref>
{|class=wikitable
|-
!English
!Czech
|-
| one Czech crown was...
| ''jedna koruna česká byla...''
|-
| two Czech crowns were...
| ''dvě koruny české byly...''
|-
| three Czech crowns were...
| ''tři koruny české byly...''
|-
| four Czech crowns were...
| ''čtyři koruny české byly...''
|-
| five Czech crowns were...
| ''pět korun českých bylo...''
|}

Numbers decline for case, and the numbers one and two are also inflected for gender. Numbers one through five are shown below as examples. The number one has declension patterns identical to those of the [[demonstrative pronoun]] ''[[wikt:ten#Czech|ten]]''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=83}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=117}}</ref>
{|class=wikitable
|-
!
!1
!2
!3
!4
!5
|-
!Nominative
|''jeden'' (masc)<br/>''jedna'' (fem)<br/>''jedno'' (neut)
|''dva'' (masc)<br/>''dvě'' (fem, neut)
|''tři''
|''čtyři''
|''pět''
|-
!Genitive
|''jednoho'' (masc)<br/>''jedné'' (fem)<br/>''jednoho'' (neut)
|''dvou''
|''tří'' or ''třech''
|''čtyř'' or ''čtyřech''
|''pěti''
|-
!Dative
|''jednomu'' (masc)<br/>''jedné'' (fem)<br/>''jednomu'' (neut)
|''dvěma''
|''třem''
|''čtyřem''
|''pěti''
|-
!Accusative
|''jednoho'' (masc an.)<br/>''jeden'' (masc in.)<br/>''jednu'' (fem)<br/>''jedno'' (neut)
|''dva'' (masc)<br/>''dvě'' (fem, neut)
|''tři''
|''čtyři''
|''pět''
|-
!Locative
|''jednom'' (masc)<br/>''jedné'' (fem)<br/>''jednom'' (neut)
|''dvou''
|''třech''
|''čtyřech''
|''pěti''
|-
!Instrumental
|''jedním'' (masc)<br/>''jednou'' (fem)<br/>''jedním'' (neut)
|''dvěma''
|''třemi''
|''čtyřmi''
|''pěti''
|}

Although Czech's [[grammatical number]]s are singular and [[plural]], several residuals of [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]] forms remain, such as the words ''dva'' ("two") and ''oba'' ("both"), which decline the same way. Some nouns for paired body parts use a historical dual form to express plural in some cases: ''[[wikt:ruka|ruka]]'' (hand)—''ruce'' (nominative); ''[[wikt:noha|noha]]'' (leg)—''nohama'' (instrumental), ''nohou'' (genitive/locative); ''[[wikt:oko|oko]]'' (eye)—''oči'', and ''[[wikt:ucho|ucho]]'' (ear)—''uši''. While two of these nouns are neuter in their singular forms, all plural forms are considered feminine; their gender is relevant to their associated adjectives and verbs.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=40}}</ref> These forms are plural semantically, used for any non-singular count, as in ''mezi čtyřma očima'' (face to face, lit. ''among four eyes''). The plural number paradigms of these nouns are a mixture of historical dual and plural forms. For example, ''nohy'' (legs; nominative/accusative) is a standard plural form of this type of noun.<ref>{{Harvnb|Komárek|2012|p=238}}</ref>