Slovesa pohybu – jít/jet, chodit/jezdit

English "go" covers walking to the shop, taking the train to Brno and flying to London. Czech splits it twice: by how you travel, on foot or by vehicle, and by whether you mean one trip in one direction or going regularly.

	one trip, one direction	regularly, there and back
on foot	jít (jdu, šel)	chodit (chodím, chodil)
by vehicle	jet (jedu, jel)	jezdit (jezdím, jezdil)
flying	letět (letím)	létat (létám)
running	běžet (běžím)	běhat (běhám)
carrying	nést (nesu)	nosit (nosím)

Jdu do práce - I'm on my way to work. Chodím do práce pěšky - I walk to work (as a rule). Jedu tramvají na nádraží - I'm on the tram to the station. Každý pátek jezdíme na chalupu - Every Friday we go to the cottage. Každou neděli chodíme na Petřín.

Feet or wheels?

Anything on wheels or rails takes jet / jezdit, and so do bikes and skis: jet na kole, jezdit na lyžích. So it is Jedu autobusem, not *Jdu autobusem. But for going out to something in town, Czech often keeps jít even if you take the tram, because the outing matters, not the transport: Jdeme do kina. Půjdeš s námi na koncert? When the journey itself is the point, especially out of town, use jet: V sobotu jedeme do Kutné Hory.

Future and past

Jít and jet form the future only with a prefix: půjdu, pojedu; *budu jít and *budu jet are not Czech. The other one-trip verbs usually do the same (poletím, poběžím, ponesu), but here budu is also standard: Budeme letět přes Vídeň, "we'll be flying via Vienna". The regular verbs take budu like any imperfective: Od září budu chodit na kurz češtiny. V zimě budeme jezdit na hory.

In the past, "I went to Brno yesterday" is usually Včera jsem byl v Brně if you are back, and Včera jsem jel do Brna if the trip is the news. Jezdil jsem do Brna means you used to go there.

Prefixes add a direction

With a prefix you get a perfective verb that says where: přijít (arrive), odejít (leave), vejít (go in), přijet (arrive by vehicle), odjet (drive off). These form the future normally, with no po-: Přijdu v sedm. Odjedeme v neděli ráno.

Beyond walking

Chodit also means attending (Dcera chodí do třetí třídy) and dating (Chodí spolu od jara). Jít turns up in everyday phrases with no movement at all: Jak to jde? (How's it going?), O co jde? (What's it about?).