Editing Czech language (section)

====Gender====

Czech distinguishes three [[grammatical gender|genders]]—masculine, feminine, and neuter—and the masculine gender is subdivided into [[animacy|animate]] and inanimate. With few exceptions, feminine nouns in the nominative case end in ''-a'', ''-e'', or a consonant; neuter nouns in ''-o'', ''-e'', or ''-í'', and masculine nouns in a consonant.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|pp=22–24}}</ref> Adjectives, participles, most pronouns, and the numbers "one" and "two" are marked for gender and agree with the gender of the noun they modify or refer to.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=51}}</ref> Past tense verbs are also marked for gender, agreeing with the gender of the subject, e.g. ''dělal'' (he did, or made); ''dělala'' (she did, or made) and ''dělalo'' (it did, or made).<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=141}}</ref> Gender also plays a semantic role; most nouns that describe people and animals, including personal names, have separate masculine and feminine forms which are normally formed by adding a suffix to the stem, for example ''Čech'' (Czech man) has the feminine form ''Češka'' (Czech woman).<ref>{{Harvnb|Naughton|2005|p=238}}</ref>

Nouns of different genders follow different declension patterns. Examples of declension patterns for noun phrases of various genders follow:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ 
! rowspan="2" | Case
! colspan="4" | Noun/adjective
|-
| Big dog (m. anim. sg.)
| Black backpack (m. inanim. sg.)
| Small cat (f. sg.)
| Hard wood (n. sg.)
|-
! Nom.
| ''velký pes''<br>(big dog)
|''černý batoh''<br>(black backpack)
| ''malá kočka''<br>(small cat)
| ''tvrdé dřevo''<br>(hard wood)
|-
! Gen.
| ''bez velkého psa''<br>(without the big dog)
| ''bez černého batohu''<br>(without the black backpack)
| ''bez malé kočky''<br>(without the small cat)
| ''bez tvrdého dřeva''<br>(without the hard wood)
|-
! Dat.
| ''k velkému psovi''<br>(to the big dog)
| ''k černému batohu''<br>(to the black backpack)
| ''k malé kočce''<br>(to the small cat)
| ''ke tvrdému dřevu''<br>(to the hard wood)
|-
! Acc.
| ''vidím velkého psa''<br>(I see the big dog)
| ''vidím černý batoh''<br>(I see the black backpack)
| ''vidím malou kočku''<br>(I see the small cat)
| ''vidím tvrdé dřevo''<br>(I see the hard wood)
|-
! Voc.
| ''velký pse!''<br>(big dog!)
| ''černý batohu!''<br>(black backpack!)
| ''malá kočko!''<br>(small cat!)
| ''tvrdé dřevo!''<br>(hard wood!)
|-
! Loc.
| ''o velkém psovi''<br>(about the big dog)
| ''o černém batohu''<br>(about the black backpack)
| ''o malé kočce''<br>(about the small cat)
| ''o tvrdém dřevě''<br>(about the hard wood)
|-
! Inst.
| ''s velkým psem''<br>(with the big dog)
| ''s černým batohem''<br>(with the black backpack)
| ''s malou kočkou''<br>(with the small cat)
| ''s tvrdým dřevem''<br>(with the hard wood)

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