Konjugation der Verben auf -ovat

You already know two verbs from this group without having noticed: děkuju (thank you) comes from děkovat, and jmenuju se (my name is) from jmenovat se. Verbs ending in -ovat make up one of the biggest families in Czech, and new words keep joining it: parkovat, telefonovat, organizovat. They all follow one rule: in the present tense, -ova- becomes -uj-.

Moje sestra pracuje v Brně. Studuju na Karlově univerzitě. V létě cestujeme po Moravě. Před Vánocemi kupujeme vánočku.

Two forms for "I"

Pracuju and pracuji are both correct. -uju is what you hear and what most people write in messages; -uji is the more formal choice, for a cover letter or an official email. That is why you meet both děkuju and děkuji. For "they", write pracují; in casual speech you will also hear pracujou.

Easy to recognise, easy to get wrong

Many of these verbs are international: studovat, telefonovat, fotografovat, kopírovat, parkovat. Recognising them is free. The trap is conjugating them by analogy with dělat, keeping the -ova- and adding the familiar endings: *studovám, *parkovám, *pracovám. The infinitive's -ovat is the signal: as soon as you see it, switch to -uj-. Kde parkujete? - "Where do you park?"

Keep the stress on the first syllable even though the word gets longer: PRA-cu-ju, PO-tře-bu-ju, FO-to-gra-fu-ju. English speakers tend to carry over the stress of the English word, as in "pho-TO-graphy"; Czech always puts it at the start.

The verbs to learn first

potřebovat (need): Potřebuju pomoc. kupovat (buy): Kupuju chleba. milovat (love): Miluju Prahu na jaře. cestovat (travel), děkovat (thank): Děkuju za pozvání. And jmenovat se: Jak se jmenujete? - Jmenuju se Emma. Note that potřebovat works like English "need", with the person as the subject, so nothing changes in the sentence structure.