Shoda přídavných jmen – 1. pád

Velký hrad, velká řeka, velké město - a big castle, a big river, a big town. English needs one "big" for all three; Czech matches the adjective to the gender of its noun, so "big" has three faces. The dictionary lists adjectives in the masculine, and the masculine ending tells you which of two types you have.

Hard adjectives are the large majority: nový, starý, dobrý, velký, malý, český. Soft adjectives end in -í and stay the same for all three genders here: moderní, poslední (last), cizí (foreign), and many formed from times and seasons, such as ranní káva (morning coffee), letní večer (summer evening), zimní bunda (winter jacket).

The noun decides, not the meaning

Agreement follows grammatical gender, so check the noun, not the idea. Tramvaj ends in a consonant but is feminine: nová tramvaj. Táta ends in -a but is a man: dobrý táta. And typical Czech food gets a neuter adjective because jídlo (dish) is neuter: Svíčková je typické české jídlo.

After "is", too

The ending stays when the adjective comes later, after být. This is where English speakers slip, because the noun is a few words away: Ta polévka je výborná. To pivo je studené. Karlův most je starý. Not *Ta polévka je výborný.

When you are the noun

English "I'm tired" is the same for everyone. In Czech the adjective agrees with the speaker: a man says Jsem unavený, a woman Jsem unavená. The same goes for rád (glad), a short form you will use daily: Jsem rád, že jsi tady from a man, Jsem ráda... from a woman. If you are a woman, check that the phrases you memorise from a textbook dialogue end in -á: many of them were written for a male speaker.

Spelling the ending

The long marks are part of the ending, not decoration: -ý and -í both sound like the long "ee" in see, while -é is a long "e" as in bed, held. The plural has its own endings, which come later in the course.