A comparative grammar of English and Czech

Morphemes Lexemes Word classes / Slovn druhy When it comes to word classes, there arent very many differences between Czech and English. Some concepts might be expressed with different classes. Im scared. (adjective) Bojm se. (verb) Nouns / Podstatn jmna Czech nouns have a number of forms as they are declined according to gender, case and number. English is sometimes said not to have any declension, but this is not technically true as English nouns are declined according to their number. English nouns, on the other hand, are characterized by the presence of articles, expressing the grammatical category of definiteness. Czech nouns are also marked for this category, but instead use phrasal order and demonstrative pronouns. Definiteness / Urenost Definite / Urit Indefinite / Neurit Number / slo Both English and Czech are inflected according to number, but whereas English really only has one pattern, -s, Czech has 14 paradigms. Singular / Jednotn slo Some nouns are singular in one language, plural in the other: Dvee Door Hodinky Wrist watch Dual / Dvojn slo Plural / Mnon slo Case / Pd

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Verbs / Slovesa

Nominative / Prvn pd Genitive / Druh pd Dative / Tet pd Accusative / vrt pd Vocative / Pt pd Locative / est pd Instrumental / Sedm pd

Czech contains more reflexive verbs than English. Ex. uit se to learn (literally to teach oneself) As seen above, Czech lacks a particle indicating infinitive; instead it uses various suffixes, mostly ending in t. The biggest difference between the two verbal systems is that Czech verbs come in pairs dlat udlat Both of the above verbs mean to do, however the first one expresses imperfective aspect and the second one perfective aspect. Aspect is a concept that is related to tense, however, whereas tense relates the action to external events, aspect describes the internal structure of the goings-on. In the past, the difference is similar to the contrast between past simple and past continuous in English We were having dinner when the phone suddenly rang. Obdvali jsme, kdy nahle telefn zazvonil. In the above examples we were having dinner (imperfective) functions as a background statement for the foreground the phone rang (perfective). The imperfective is seen as something ongoing, without a clear end, whereas the perfective is more definite. English uses auxiliary verbs and suffixes to express aspect, whereas Czech uses two completely different verbs we had dinner we were having dinner poobdvali jsme obdvali jsme In Czech, this contrast is expressed not only in the past, but in all possible verb constructions.

Types / Druhy Auxiliary / Pomocn Modal / Zpsobov

Czech: moci/moct, smt, mt, mt by, muset, hodlat English: will, shall, be going to, be -ing can, be able to, may, might, would, should, could, must, have to As can be seen from above, English has many more modal verbs than Czech. One reason for this is that the constructions traditionally considered to be temporal auxiliary verbs (will, be going to etc) also contain modal information and can be classed as bot temporal and modal. Temporal / asov Czech: bt English: be, do, had, will

Czech expresses the future of imperfective with special forms of bt (budu, bude, bude, budeme, budete, budou). These forms carry little in the way of modal information, and will is the closest equivalent in English. budu hrvat I will play The future forms are only used with imperfective verbs. Perfective verbs express future with their present form hraji I will play The past form of bt, byl or bval, can also be used to express a meaning similar to English past perfect hral byl jsem I had played However, this usage is now archaic and rare even in writing. In continuous constructions in English, it is the verb be that is conjugated for time he comes he is coming he came he was coming In simple constructions, do can be conjugated for time he comes he does come he came he did came However, the do forms here are emphatic and marked. It is only the negative forms that are non-emphatic and unmarked he doesnt come he didnt come

he comes not is possible, but is archaic and emphatic. The affirmative do constructions were not considered emphatic in older English, such as Shakespearian English. Also pay attention to the function of do as a question marker He comes here every Thursday. - Does he come here every Thursday? He came here every Thursday. Did he come here every Thursday? had is used in the English past perfect to indicate relative tense, i.e. that an event in the past preceded another event in the past. I came there and the bus had already left. J jsem tam piel a autobus u odjel. The bus left before my arrival. I came there and the bus left. The bus left at the same time or after my arrival. The bus left I ate and I took a shower. I ate because I had already taken a shower.

Lexical Grammatical categories / Gramatick kategorie Tense / as Mood / Zpsob Voice / Slovesn rod Aspect / Vid Number / slo Gender / Jmenn rod Person / Osoba Adjectives / Pidvn jmna Comparison / Stupovn

In English, adjectives can have three forms

positive big comparative bigger superlative (the) biggest

adjectives of one syllable use suffixes; -er, -est adjectives with two or more syllables use more and most

positive beautiful comparative more beautiful superlative (the) most beautiful

some adjectives are irregular

good, better, (the) best

Czech adjectives behave similarly

krsn beautiful krsnj more beautiful nejkrsnj (the) most beautiful

As can be seen from the above, Czech only uses affixation.

Czech arguably has more irregular adjectives than English

dlouh, del, nejdel long, longer, longest vysok, vy, nejvy high, higher, highest velk, vt, nejvt big, bigger, biggest

Czech adjectives also change their stem for certain groups of adjectives, e.g. ending in ck

logick, logitj, nejlogitj

There is at least one difference in usage between English. Giving a choice between two buildings, a Czech would say Kter je vy? (lit. Which one is higher?) thus using the comparative, whereas an English speaker is more likely to use the superlative

Which one is the highest?

Adverbs / Pslovce

In some varieties of English, e.g. American, the difference between adjectives and adverbs is not always upheld e.g. real good/really good. In Czech, the difference is always formally expressed. Since most English adjectives have two or more syllables, they are declined with more and most beautifully, more beautifully, most beautifully In Czech, declination is yet again accomplished with affixation krsn, krsnji, nejkrsnji Comparison / Stupovn Types / Druhy Time Place Manner Prepositions / Pedloky Time Place Pronouns / Zjmena Personal / Osobn

Reflexive / Zvratn Demonstrative / Ukazovac Conjunctions / Spojky Coordinating Subordinating Interjections / Citoslovce Articles / leny Particles / stice Numerals / slovky Phrases Noun phrases Verb phrases Adjective phrases Adverb phrases Preposition phrases Clauses / Vty Syntax / Skladba Functions / Vtn leny Subject / Podmt Predicate / Psudek Object / Pedmt Direct / Pm Indirect / Nepm Adverbial / Psloven uren Attribute / Pvlastek Apposition / Pstavek Complement / Doplnk Sentences / Souvt Syntax / Skladba

Grammatical categories / Gramatick kategorie