The verb být (to be): present tense conjugation jsem/jsi/je/jsme/jste/jsou and negation with ne-
Can conjugate být in all present tense forms, use it for identification, origin, and location, and negate it correctly
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Jsem student z Prahy.
I am a student from Prague.
Oni nejsou doma.
They are not at home.
To není pravda.
That is not true.
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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.
| Person | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| já | jsem - I am | nejsem |
| ty | jsi - you are | nejsi |
| on / ona / ono | je - he, she, it is | není |
| my | jsme - we are | nejsme |
| vy | jste - you are | nejste |
| oni / ony / ona | jsou - they are | nejsou |
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".
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.
Several English "I am..." sentences are built differently in Czech, and translating them word for word is the classic beginner slip:
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?"
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.
Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A1
Вправи для практикиJsem student z Prahy.
I am a student from Prague.
Jsem (I am) is used for identification. Czech omits articles (no 'a/an'), Russian omits the verb entirely.
Oni nejsou doma.
They are not at home.
Negation fuses ne- with the verb: jsou → nejsou. Unlike German/English, negation is a prefix, not a separate word.
To není pravda.
That is not true.
3rd person negative is není (irregular — not *neje). This is the most common mistake with být negation.
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Застосуйте цю граматику у вправах курсу A1