Nouns: Locative Case

01

The Five Prepositions

These five are the whole list. Any noun following one of them stands in the locative, and no other word puts it there.

• v - in, at
• na - on, at
• o - about
• po - after, around
• při - during, at

• Mluvíme o počasí.

  We're talking about the weather.

• Po práci jdu domů.

  After work I go home.

• Zlomil jsem si ruku při fotbale.

  I broke my arm playing football.

02

The Endings

Singular

• masculine animate: -ovi - o klukovi
• masculine inanimate: -u or -ě - ve vlaku, na stole
• feminine: -ě or -i - ve škole, v restauraci
• neuter: -ě or -u - ve městě, v autu

• Pracuji v kanceláři.

  I work in an office.

• Byla jsem v nákupním centru.

  I was in the shopping centre.

Plural

• masculine and neuter: -ech or -ích - na stolech, ve slovnících
• feminine: -ách - ve školách

• Boty jsou ve skříních.

  The shoes are in the wardrobes.

03

The Consonant Changes

The ending -ě softens the consonant in front of it, and the spelling changes to match. This is the part that has to be practised rather than reasoned out.

• k becomes c: ruka - v ruce
• h becomes z: Praha - v Praze
• ch becomes š: střecha - na střeše
• r becomes ř: sestra - o sestře

• Bydlím v Praze.

  I live in Prague.

04

The Long Masculine Ending

Masculine animate nouns take -ovi in both the dative and the locative, so the two cases look identical there and only the preposition tells them apart. Where two such nouns stand together, only the last one takes the long ending.

• Mluvili jsme o panu Novákovi.

  We talked about Mr Novák.

05

Two Endings, One Noun

Many masculine inanimate nouns accept both -u and -ě, sometimes with a difference of register and sometimes with none at all. Where both are current you will hear both, and neither is wrong.

• v obchodě or v obchodu - in the shop

• Zlomil jsem si ruku při fotbale.

  I broke my arm playing football.

06

Which Preposition for a Place

V is for being inside something, na for being on a surface. But na has also taken over a long list of places you would expect v for - open spaces, events, and certain institutions - and those pairings are learned as vocabulary.

• Jsem na trhu.

  I'm at the market.

• Studuje na vysoké škole.

  She studies at university.

07

Time

Months and years take v with the locative, and so does anything following po. Days of the week do not: they take the accusative, which is a distinction worth holding on to.

• V lednu bude zima.

  It will be cold in January.

• Narodil se v roce dva tisíce dva.

  He was born in 2002.

• Po obědě půjdeme ven.

  After lunch we'll go out.

08

The Pronouns

Because a locative pronoun can only follow a preposition, every third-person form begins with n-. There is no version without it.

• o mně, o tobě, o něm, o ní, o nás, o vás, o nich

• Mluvili o mně.

  They were talking about me.

• Nevím nic o něm.

  I know nothing about him.

09

Position Against Direction

V and na take the accusative for movement towards a place and the locative for being there. The preposition stays the same and the case carries the whole difference.

• Jdu na trh.

  I'm going to the market.

• Jsem na trhu.

  I'm at the market.