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.
[1] Accusative and Genitive forms are largely identical. Where they diverge, the difference in forms is indicated by slashes.