Relational Adjectives — Czech Grammar

Czech turns nouns into adjectives on a very large scale. Where English strings two nouns together - office chair, apple juice - Czech makes the first one into an adjective and lets it agree with the second. These are called relational adjectives, and they say what something belongs to, is made of, or is for.

Jablečný džus.
Apple juice.
Kancelářská židle.
An office chair.

The Suffixes

Three of them do nearly all the work, and each favours a different kind of noun to start from.

-ový, from things and materials: ,
-ní, often from abstract nouns: ,
-ský, from places and people: ,

Šel jsem na divadelní představení.
I went to a theatre performance.
Potřebuji řidičský průkaz.
I need a driving licence.

They Decline Normally

Once made, a relational adjective behaves like any other and takes the whole set of endings. The -ní group is soft, the other two are hard.

Byla jsem v nákupním centru.
I was in a shopping centre.
V této zoologické zahradě je spousta zvířat.
There are lots of animals in this zoo.

No Degrees

These adjectives cannot be compared. Nothing can be more apple than something else, so there is no comparative and no superlative, and any attempt at one sounds wrong.

Vanilkovou nebo čokoládovou?
Vanilla or chocolate?

Made From Almost Anything

The process is open: a Czech speaker can build one of these adjectives from almost any noun on the spot, and the result will be understood even if no dictionary lists it.

Co je v té igelitové tašce?
What's in that plastic bag?

Nationalities

Adjectives of nationality belong here too and are written with a small letter, unlike the nouns they come from and unlike English.

Pojďme na čínské jídlo.
Let's go for Chinese food.
Miluje španělskou kuchyni.
She loves Spanish cooking.

Telling Them From Descriptions

An ordinary adjective says what something is like; a relational one says what it is connected with. You can be very tall, but not very driving-licence.

Ta modelka je vysoká.
That model is tall.
Mám skupinový úkol.
I have a group assignment.

Possession From a Person

A separate suffix makes an adjective from a particular person, meaning that the thing is theirs. It is short, it declines differently from ordinary adjectives, and it competes with the plain genitive.

Tatínkovo auto.
Dad's car.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Czech course

24 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 87. A few of them, with the words “Relational Adjectives” is about in bold:

Jo. Pojďme na čínské jídlo.
Yes. Let's eat Chinese food.
Lesson 127
Byla jsem v nákupním centru.
I went to the shopping mall.
Lesson 172

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