6.6 – 2nd-position Elements

The following words are all put into second position:

• Auxiliary (jsem, jsi – past tense; bych, bys… – conditional)
• Reflexive Pronouns
• Dative, Genitive, Accusative short form pronouns

However, we need to know what to do if a sentence has more than one of these elements. What ends up happening is that they are all put into a sub-order within 2nd position:

AUX se/si  short form pronouns (DAT GEN ACC)
AUX	se/si	DAT	ACC/GEN[1]
past tense – jsem, jsi, jsme, jste…	se – oneself si – to oneself	(já) – mi (ty) – ti (on, ono) – mu (ona) jí (my) – nám (vy) – vám (oni) – jim	(já) – mě (ty) – tě (on, ono) – ho (ona) ji/jí (my) – nás (vy) – vás (oni) – je/jich
conditional – bych, bys, by…

Most of the sentences you’ll be coming up with now will have just an AUX and se/si, but as we move on to express more complex things, we’ll need to know where to put the DAT and ACC/GEN pronouns as well.

Procházeli jsme se.

Chtěl bych se učit.

Pustila jsem si nový film. pustit si – to put on (film, song, etc.)

Remember that 2nd position does not mean 2nd word. There are many instances where words are counted together, e.g. – Ten nový student se jmenuje Karel.

Finally, there are two words in Czech that you should ignore when figuring out 2nd position – a ‘and’, ale ‘but’:

Včera jsem nepracovala, ale učila jsem se.

Dneska jsem běhal a učil se.

Note the position of the AUX and se in the sentences above and how they are not affected by a or ale.

Images used in this document come from these sources. 

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