Clitics and Word Order

01

Which Words Are Clitics

• the past auxiliary: jsem, jsi, jsme, jste
• the conditional auxiliary: bych, bys, by
• the reflexive: se, si
• the short pronouns: mi, ti, mu, mě, tě, ho
• the little word to when it stands for something already said

• Moc se na to těším.

  I'm really looking forward to it.

02

The Second Slot

Clitics go immediately after the first stressed unit of the clause, whatever that unit happens to be: a subject, an adverb, an object, a question word or a conjunction. They never come first, and they do not follow the verb simply because the verb is theirs.

• Včera jsem vařil.

  I cooked yesterday.

• Co jsi dělala?

  What did you do?

• Ve škole jsem se hodně naučil.

  I learned a lot at school.

In that last sentence the auxiliary and the reflexive stand together after ve škole, four words before the verb they belong to.

03

The First Unit Can Be Long

What counts as the first unit is a whole phrase, not a single word. A noun with its adjective, or a preposition with its noun, is one unit, and the clitics follow all of it.

• Moje stará kamarádka mi to řekla.

  My old friend told me.

• Po práci jsem šel domů.

  After work I went home.

04

Their Order Among Themselves

When several clitics gather, they line up in a fixed sequence and never change places. The auxiliary comes first, then the reflexive, then the dative, then the accusative.

• auxiliary - reflexive - dative - accusative

• Koupila jsem ti to.

  I bought it for you.

• Už jsem si ho koupil.

  I've already bought it.

The dative before the accusative is the reverse of the English habit, where the thing usually comes before the person.

05

Two Fusions

In the second person singular the auxiliary merges with the reflexive. Jsi se becomes ses and jsi si becomes sis, in the past and in the conditional alike.

• Kde ses narodil?

  Where were you born?

• Co sis koupila?

  What did you buy yourself?

06

After a Conjunction

A conjunction counts as the first unit, so the clitics come straight after it and before everything else in the clause.

• Myslím, že se ztratil.

  I think he got lost.

• Nevím, kam jsem je dala.

  I don't know where I put them.

07

Imperatives Are Different

The imperative is the one place where the reflexive follows the verb rather than preceding it, because the command itself has to come first.

• Posaď se.

  Sit down.

• Dejte si kávu.

  Have a coffee.

08

When There Is No First Word

If the clause begins with the verb itself, the clitics simply follow it, since the verb is then the first stressed unit. This happens in questions and in short answers.

• Líbí se mi tvoje vlasy.

  I like your hair.

• Jmenuji se Alex.

  My name is Alex.

09

Why They Cannot Come First

A clitic has no stress of its own, and a Czech sentence cannot open on an unstressed syllable. That single fact explains the whole rule: the word needs something in front of it to lean on, and the nearest thing is whatever opens the clause.

• Těší mě.

  Pleased to meet you.

10

Where the Verb Goes

The verb itself is not a clitic and moves freely. It very often ends up late in the clause, well after the little words that belong to it, and a beginner's instinct to keep verb and pronoun together has to be resisted.

• Domácí úkoly si udělám později.

  I'll do my homework later.

11

The Word to

To deserves separate mention because it is a clitic in one use and not in another. Standing for something already said, it joins the queue with the other short words. Beginning a sentence as a demonstrative, it is stressed and perfectly able to come first.

• To se mi nelíbí.

  I don't like that.

• Už jsem ti to řekl.

  I've already told you.

12

Long Forms Escape the Rule

The long pronouns are stressed, so none of this applies to them. That is exactly what they are for: when you need the pronoun at the front of the sentence or under emphasis, the long form is the one that can go there.

• Mně to nevadí.

  It doesn't bother me.

13

What the Rest of the Sentence Does

Away from the clitics, order is a matter of emphasis rather than grammar. What is already known tends to come first and what is new comes last, which is why a Czech sentence often ends on the word an English one would stress.

• Na zdi visí krásná fotografie.

  There's a beautiful photograph on the wall.