2.3 – Time Expressions Indicating How Often

In this section we will learn several new words that indicate how often. Some frequent ones are given here:

Adverbs

vždycky                always

pořád                        constantly

občas                        sometimes, from time to time

obvykle                usually

často                        often

někdy                        ever, at some point, sometimes

nikdy ne-                never

málokdy                rarely

Time Expressions with každý

každý den                every day

každý týden                every week

každé ráno                every morning

každý večer                every evening

A few notes:

Adverbs tend to appear before the verb in Czech, though this is not an absolute rule:

Alena často uklízí. Alena often cleans.	Náš pes často odpočívá. Our dog rests often.	Náš papoušek mluví pořád. Our parrot talks constantly (non-stop).

nikdy ne-

In Czech, to say that you never do something, use the word nikdy ‘never’. When you use the word nikdy, you also need to negate the verb. This is why you see ne- next to it in your vocabulary lists. You can have nikdy before or after the verb, but the ne- goes right in front of the verb to negate it as normal.

Pavla nikdy neuklízí. Pavla never cleans.	Pavel nikdy nedělá domácí úkoly. Pavel never does (his) homework.	Karel nikdy neodpočívá. Karel never rests.

Time Expressions with každý can be either before or after the verb (with probably a slight tendency to appear after). Either way, you will come up with a perfectly good sentence. In general don’t worry too much about word order:

Tomáš a Lucie uklízejí každý den. Tomáš and Lucie clean every day.	Matěj cvičí každé ráno. Matěj exercises every morning.	Tučňáci tančí každý večer. The penguins dance every evening.

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