Imperfective

Perfective

Present

Tense

Present Progressive – activities that are (or are not) going on right now:

Ahoj Martine, co děláš?

Dělám domácí úkoly.

Hey Martin, what are you doing?

I’m doing my homework.

Lucie se nedívá na ten film, protože myje nádobí v kuchyni.

Lucie is not watching that movie because she’s washing dishes in the kitchen.

General Statements of Fact – activities that you do (or don’t do) in general. Can also contain references to frequency:

Nikdy nejím maso.

I never eat meat.

Často hraju basketbal.

I often play basketball.

Simultaneous Activities – activities that overlap:

Pavel často píše něco na telefonu, když sedí v autobuse.

Pavel often often writes on his phone when he’s sitting on the bus.

Martina si často zpívá, když se sprchuje.

Martina often sings when she takes a shower.

Duration of Activity – how long an activity lasts; again, with this use, the focus is on the activity itself, not on any time of completion

Lucie se obvykle učí dvě hodiny denně.

Lucie usually studies for two hours a day.

Habitual Action with Focus on Completion – here it happens frequently, but the focus is on the completion.

Naši studenti vždycky na konci semestru napíšou esej.

Our students always write an essay at the end of the semester.

Using píšou – ‘the write’ is also possible, but that would focus more on the activity itself (and all the steps of the writing process) instead of the complete action here.

Jan většinou uklidí celý byt za hodinu nebo dvě.

Jan usually cleans the whole apartment in an hour or two.

Habitual Action with Focus on Completion in Sequence of Events – this isn’t too different from the habitual actions, but the sequence of events is an added motivation to use perfectives, since you are typically trying to convey that one action is completed before another.

Každý večer se obvykle umyju, vyčistím si zuby a pak jdu spát.

Every evening I wash (myself) up, brush my teeth and then go to bed.