Czech word order

Czech word order is relatively free. However, the Czech language belongs to the SVO type.

Czech word order is said to be free. The individual parts of a sentence need not necessarily be placed in a firmly given sequence. Word order is very flexible and allows many variants of messages. It is enabled by the fact that syntactic relations are indicated by inflection forms (declension and conjugation) in Czech.

Word order is not arbitrary at all. It must respect logical relations between words and some other principles. Constructions which enable two or more interpretations should be avoided. Speakers choose the word order according to the communication aim and the emotional state. That principle is called functional sentence perspective.

Basic word order is SVO (subject – verb – object) in Czech sentences. It is used in neutral messages:

(Peter (S) has (V) new car (O).)

Definite and indefinite articles are not used in Czech.

Objective word order

A sentence usually begins with facts, already known from a preceding sentence or context (theme). New and important facts (rheme) are usually placed in the final position:

(Yesterday died (V) famous actor (S).)
((The) famous actor (S) died (V) yesterday.)
(Was (V) once one king (S) and the king (S) had (V) three daughters (O).)

Subjective word order

The new facts can be emphasized by their initial place in emotive messages:

(Thousand crowns (O) (null-S) am (aux. verb) spent (V) on such stupid thing!)

Null-subject sentences

The subject may be omitted in a Czech sentence if it is obvious by context. The grammatical person and the grammatical number are expressed by the verb conjugation forms:

((null-S) Have (V) car (O). = I (S) have (V) car (O).)
((null-S) Have (V) car (O). = You (S) have (V) car (O).)

Subject personal pronouns are usually omitted in literary language. They are more frequent in colloquial language.

Questions

The VSO word order is often used for the question formation. Questions are primarily indicated by prosodic means, especially by intonation, in speech and by a question mark (?) in writing:

(Peter (S) not has (V) (a) new car (O)(.))
(Peter (S) not has (V) (a) new car (O)(.))
(Not has (V) Peter (S) (a) new car (O)(?))

Attributes

The position of noun attributes depends primarily on whether they are in grammatical accordance with the superior noun or not.

Attributive adjectives

Attributive adjectives are usually prepositive, preceding superior nouns. The case and the number of adjectives and nouns are always in the grammatical accordance: adjectives are declined together with the noun:

In some special cases the adjective can be placed after the noun: in the scientific terminology, names of historical persons, listings, for the emphasis, etc.:

((null-S) Sell (V) wood (O) spruce (adj.), pine (adj.) and linden (adj.).)

Complex constructions are also usually postpositive:

(clock controlled radio (instr.))

In declension:

etc.

Note that "rádiem" remains in the instrumental form and immitates the adjective, not the noun.

A further order inversion can occur, maybe influenced by English:

rádiem řízené hodiny

However, that word order is not natural for Czech and may cause confusion.

Appositional adjuncts

Attributes that are not in the grammatical accordance with the superior nouns are usually postpositional. Such attributes keep their grammatical form regardless of noun declension:

(conjugation verbs (gen. pl.))
(travelling train (instr.))

Clitics

Unstressed words, clitics, form stress units with preceding stressed words. For rhythm, they are not the first words in sentences. They usually have the second position after the first part of a sentence. If more than one clitic occurs in a sentence, the order is the following:

Examples

((null-S) looked (V) at (aux. verb) myself (dat.) him (accus.).)
(I (S) am (aux. verb) myself (dat.) him (accus.) looked (V).)
((null-S) Will (aux. verb) if yourself (accus.) diligently learn (V).)

References

See also

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