Czech word order is relatively free. However, the

Czech language Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Re ...

belongs to the SVO type. Czech

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...

is said to be free. The individual parts of a sentence need not necessarily be placed in a firmly given sequence. Word order is very flexible and allows many variants of messages. It is enabled by the fact that syntactic relations are indicated by inflection forms (

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ar ...

and

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics * Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics * Complex conjugation, the chang ...

) in Czech. Word order is not arbitrary at all. It must respect logical relations between words and some other principles. Constructions which enable two or more interpretations should be avoided. Speakers choose the word order according to the communication aim and the emotional state. That principle is called

functional sentence perspective In linguistics, functional sentence perspective (FSP) is a theory describing the information structure of the sentence and language communication in general. It has been developed in the tradition of the Prague School of Functional and Structural ...

. Basic word order is SVO (

subject Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...

–

verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...

–

object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ai ...

) in Czech sentences. It is used in neutral messages: * Petr má nový byt. – Peter has (got) a new flat. :(Peter (S) has (V) new flat (O).) Definite and indefinite

articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

are not used in Czech.

Objective word order

A sentence usually begins with facts, already known from a preceding sentence or context (

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

). New and important facts ( rheme) are usually placed in the final position: * Včera zemřel známý herec. – A famous actor died yesterday. (An announcement of a death of a person – who died?) : (Yesterday died (V) famous actor (S).) * (Ten) známý herec zemřel včera. – The famous actor died yesterday. (When did he die?) : ((The) famous actor (S) died (V) yesterday.) * Byl jednou jeden král a ten král měl tři dcery. – Once upon a time there lived a king and the king had three daughters. : (Was (V) once one king (S) and the king (S) had (V) three daughters (O).)

Subjective word order

New facts can be emphasized by their initial place in emotive messages: * Tisíc korun jsem utratil za takovou hloupost! – I spent one thousand crowns on such a stupid thing! : (Thousand crowns (O) (null-S) am (aux. verb) spent (V) on such stupid thing!)

Null-subject sentences

The

may be omitted in a Czech sentence if it is obvious by context. The

grammatical person In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others (third pers ...

and the

grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...

are expressed by the verb conjugation forms: * Mám byt. = Já mám byt. – I have (got) a flat. : ((null-S) Have (V) flat (O). = I (S) have (V) flat (O).) * Máš byt. = Ty máš byt. – You have (got) a flat. : ((null-S) Have (V) flat (O). = You (S) have (V) flat (O).) Subject personal

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...

s are usually omitted in literary language. They are more frequent in colloquial language.

Questions

The VSO word order is often used for the question formation. Questions are primarily indicated by

prosodic In linguistics, prosody () is concerned with elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech, including linguistic functions such as intonation, str ...

means, especially by intonation, in speech and by a

question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used ques ...

(?) in writing: * Petr nemá nový byt. – Peter doesn't have a new flat. : (Peter (S) not has (V) ''(a)'' new flat (O)(.)) * Petr nemá nový byt? – Peter doesn't have a new flat? : (Peter (S) not has (V) ''(a)'' new flat (O)(.)) * Nemá Petr nový byt? – Doesn't Peter have a new flat? : (Not has (V) Peter (S) ''(a)'' new flat (O)(?))

Attributes

The position of noun attributes depends primarily on whether they are in grammatical accordance with the superior

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

or not.

Attributive adjectives

Attributive

adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...

s are usually prepositive, preceding superior nouns. The

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...

and the number of adjectives and nouns are always in grammatical accordance: adjectives are declined together with the noun: * a new flat: nový byt ( nom.), nového bytu (

gen. The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; Hebrew language, Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its i ...

), novému bytu ( dat.), etc. In some special cases the adjective can be placed after the noun: in scientific terminology, names of historical persons, listings, for emphasis, etc.: * kyselina sírová (acid (noun) sulphuric (adj.)) – sulphuric acid, meduňka lékařská – lemon balm (''Melissa officinalis'') * Karel IV. (Čtvrtý) – Charles IV * Prodáváme dřevo smrkové, borové a lipové. – We sell spruce, pine and linden wood. : ((null-S) Sell (V) wood (O) spruce (adj.), pine (adj.) and linden (adj.).) Complex constructions are also usually postpositive: * hodiny řízené rádiem – radio-controlled clock : (clock controlled radio ( instr.)) In declension: * Genitive: hodin řízených rádiem * Dative: hodinám řízeným rádiem etc. Note that "rádiem" remains in the instrumental form and imitates the adjective, not the noun. A further order inversion can occur, maybe influenced by English: : rádiem řízené hodiny However, that word order is not natural for Czech and may cause confusion.

Appositional adjuncts

Attributes that are not in grammatical accordance with the superior nouns are usually postpositional. Such attributes keep their grammatical form regardless of noun declension:

Clitics

Unstressed words,

clitics In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...

, form

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

units with preceding stressed words. For rhythm, they are not the first words in sentences. They usually have the second position after the first part of a sentence. If more than one clitic occurs in a sentence, the order is the following: * The conjunction -li (if) – used predominantly in literary styles * Auxiliary verbs in

preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...

(past tense) – jsem, jsi, jsme, jste; and

conditional Conditional (if then) may refer to: * Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y * Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a ...

s – bych, bys, by, bychom, byste * The short form of the reflexive pronoun – si, se * The short form of personal pronouns in dative – mi, ti, mu, * The short form of personal pronouns in accusative – mě, tě, ho, tu, to

Examples

* Prohlížel jsem si ho. – I was looking at him. (I was studying him.) : ((null-S) looked (V) at (aux. verb) myself (dat.) him (accus.).) * Já jsem si ho prohlížel. – I was looking at him. : (I (S) am (aux. verb) myself (dat.) him (accus.) looked (V).) * Budeš-li se pilně učit ... – If you learn (study) hard ... : ((null-S) Will (aux. verb) if yourself (accus.) diligently learn (V).)

References

* Karlík P., Nekula M., Pleskalová J. (ed.). Encyklopedický slovník češtiny. Nakl. Lidové noviny. Praha 2002. . * Šaur V. Pravidla českého pravopisu s výkladem mluvnice. Ottovo nakladatelství. Praha 2004. {{ISBN, 80-7181-133-5.