Das Verb být (sein)

Být is "to be", and like its English cousin it is irregular: six forms you simply learn. The good news is that they look alike, and that the negative is a single word.

The one surprise is the third person: "isn't" is není, never *neje. In everyday speech the j at the start of jsem, jsi, jsme, jste, jsou is usually not heard: jsem sounds like "sem".

What it does

The same jobs as in English: who you are (Jsem Tom.), where from (Jsem z Manchesteru. Jana je z Ostravy.), what something is like (Praha je krásná.) and where (Jsme doma. Babička je na chalupě.). Notice what is missing: there is no "a" or "the". Jsem student is "I am a student"; a woman says Jsem studentka.

Where English "be" does not translate

Several English "I am..." sentences are built differently in Czech, and translating them word for word is the classic beginner slip:

• hungry, thirsty: Mám hlad. Mám žízeň. - "I have hunger"
• cold, hot: Je mi zima. Je mi teplo. - "it is cold to me"; *Jsem studený would describe your skin to the touch
• age: Je mi dvacet let. - "it is twenty years to me", never *Jsem dvacet

No reshuffling for questions

English turns "you are" into "are you?". Czech keeps the order and lets the voice rise: Jsi doma? - "Are you at home?" Jste z Anglie? - "Are you from England?"

A word that likes second place

Jsem, jsi, jsme, jste are light, unstressed words. They can open a short sentence (Jsem doma.), but as soon as something else comes first, they slot in straight after it: Dneska jsem doma. Kde jsi? In the past tense this becomes a hard rule: Včera jsem byl v Brně, never *Včera byl jsem v Brně, however natural the English order "yesterday I was" feels.