The Czech Genitive: do Prahy, z Anglie, bez cukru
Four tiny prepositions run half of Czech daily life, and all four run on the genitive. Learn do, z, u and bez, and the whole map opens.
The Little Prepositions
The Endings
Destinations Are Genitive
Czech goes TO places with do + genitive: do školy, do kina, do práce, do Brna. You've said «jsem z Prahy» since your first introduction — z was the genitive all along. (The na-places from the locative take na + accusative instead: na poštu, na nádraží — the same club, both directions.)
Jdu do práce. Večer jdu do kina.
I'm going to work. Tonight I'm going to the cinema.
Note: do + genitive — the default Czech destination.
Amounts of Things
Quantities pour through the genitive: trochu času (a bit of time), sklenice vody (a glass of water), hodně práce (a lot of work), kousek dortu (a piece of cake).
Dám si sklenici vody a kousek dortu.
I'll have a glass of water and a piece of cake.
Note: The container is accusative; what fills it is genitive.
No Flip Under Negation
Here Czech parts ways with its neighbours: negating a verb changes nothing about the case. Mám čas → nemám čas — the accusative stays. Polish flips to the genitive (nie mam czasu); Russian textbooks teach a similar reflex. In Czech, unlearn it.
Common Mistakes
- do Praha. After do, the place bends: do Prahy.
- nemám času. No genitive of negation in Czech — nemám čas.
- u = at a place. u babičky means at grandma's; going TO her is k babičce (the dative, coming in Chapter 3).
What You Can Do Now
You can say where you're from and where you're headed, order tea bez cukru, measure out sklenici vody — and negate anything without touching the case.