3.10 – Accusative of Personal Pronouns

In this lesson, we will learn how to use the accusative forms of personal pronouns. Remember that pronouns are things that stand in for nouns, i.e. I can say the car or I can say it. I can say Václav or I can say he. In this lesson we will learn the accusative forms of these, i.e. the forms that correspond to the nominative forms of personal pronouns we already know, e.g. – já, ty, on, ona, etc.. We will learn two sets forms for the pronouns: short forms and long forms.

 

1. Short forms ­– used when there is no particular emphasis placed on the pronoun.

	short forms	long forms			short forms	long forms
já	mě	mě (mne)		my	nás	nás
ty	tě	tebe		vy	vás	vás
on	ho	jeho/ jej	see note[1]	oni	je	je
ona	ji	ji
ono	ho	jeho

Let’s start off by taking a look at a few examples:

Znám tě. – I know you.

Pavel mě hledá. – Pavel is looking for me.

Martina nás vidí? – Does Martina see us?

Poslouchám ji. – I’m listening to her.

Proč ho máš ráda? – Why do you like him?

Prosím tě / vás. -Please. (lit. I ask you)

In each of the sentences above, the pronoun (underlined) is used in a context where the accusative would be required (i.e. the action of the verb is directed onto the pronoun).

Saying it

If you want to express it, you use accusative forms of on, ona, ono that corresponds to the gender of the noun you talking about using the word it.

For example, if it refers to a masculine word, such as byt ‘apartment’ in the apartment below.

Její byt je pěkný. Uklízí ho každý den. – Her apartment is nice. She cleans it every day.

If it refers to a feminine noun, you would use the form ji:

Často jíme čokoládu. Máme ji velmi rád. – We eat chocolate often. We really like it.

2nd Position with short form personal pronouns

Short form personal pronouns must be put in 2nd position of a sentence (see 2.5 – Reflexive se/si and 2nd position). The short forms of accusative personal pronouns will always be the 2nd element of a sentence. Take a look back at the sentences above and you will notice this is true in each of these instances.

2. Long forms – these forms are used for emphasis

	short forms	long forms			short forms	long forms
já	mě	mě (mne)		my	nás	nás
ty	tě	tebe		vy	vás	vás
on	ho	jeho see note[2]		oni	je	je
ona	ji	ji
ono	ho	jeho

Long forms are used when particular emphasis is placed on the pronoun:

Vidím Petra, ale nevidím tebe. – I see Petr, but I don’t see you.

Posloucháš Janu? Ne, poslouchám tebe. -Are you listening to Jana? No, I’m listening to you.

Zuzana má ráda tebe, ale nemá ráda mě. -Zuzana likes you, but she doesn’t like me.

Or they are used when a pronoun is coordinated (connected by words and/or):

Poslouchám Lucii a tebe. -I’m listening to Lucie and you.

Hledají Věru a taky hledají nás. -They are looking for Věra and also for us.

Czechs definitely make a difference between long and short pronouns, though it’ll will probably be some time before these get incorporated into your active speech. Just make sure you recognize the forms and are able to use either long or short forms in speech. The distinction in their use will become more clear as you progress with Czech.

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