Accusative plural

Here is a rare piece of good news. For most nouns the accusative plural, the form for a direct object, is the same as the nominative plural. Domy jsou staré. Vidím domy. Kavárny jsou plné. Mám rád kavárny. Only one group changes: masculine nouns for people and animals.

The one group that changes

Gender	Nominative plural (subject)	Accusative plural (object)
Masculine animate, hard	ti mladí kluci, Češi, doktoři	ty mladé kluky, Čechy, doktory
Masculine animate, soft	muži, učitelé, přátelé	muže, učitele, přátele
Masculine inanimate	ty staré hrady	ty staré hrady
Feminine	ty nové kavárny	ty nové kavárny
Neuter	ta malá města	ta malá města

Notice what the accusative loses: the consonant changes of the nominative. Kluci becomes kluky, Češi becomes Čechy, doktoři becomes doktory. The stem comes back to its dictionary shape, so the accusative is actually the easier form. Adjectives follow: mladí kluci but mladé kluky; the little word "the/those" goes from ti to ty.

"Animate" covers animals too: Krmíme psy a kočky. V Krkonoších jsme viděli jeleny.

Why it matters to an English speaker

In English, word order tells you who did what: "Petr photographs the tourists." In Czech the ending does, so word order is free to move. Petr fotí turisty and Turisty fotí Petr mean the same thing; the second just puts the tourists in the spotlight. If you say *Petr fotí turisti, a Czech hears two subjects and no object.

The same form follows prepositions that take the accusative: Babička peče koláče pro vnoučata. Čekáme na kamarády. Děkujeme za dárky. Even surnames do it: the Novák family is Novákovi, but Pozvali jsme Novákovy na chatu.

Common slips

• Keeping the subject form: *Vidím kluci → Vidím kluky.
• Using -y on soft nouns: *Znám ty učitely → Znám ty učitele.
• Changing a form that should stay: inanimate, feminine and neuter plurals do not move.