Ordinal Numbers and Dates in Czech

In Brief

Czech ordinal numbers answer kolikátý? (“which one in order?”): první (first), druhý (second), třetí (third). They behave like adjectives, so their endings change to agree with the noun and to show its role in the sentence. In a date, the day is normally a genitive ordinal and the month is also genitive: Dnes je prvního března (“Today is March 1st”).

Overview

Cardinal numbers tell you how many: jeden, dva, tři (one, two, three). Ordinal numbers identify a position in a sequence: první kapitola, druhý den, třetí místo (the first chapter, the second day, third place). English usually leaves an ordinal unchanged, but Czech makes it agree with its noun in gender, number, and case. A case is a change in a word’s form that helps show what job it does in a sentence or which preposition it follows.

At B1, ordinals become especially important because they appear in much more than lists. You need them for calendar dates, centuries, floors, chapters, public transport, anniversaries, competitions, and expressions such as po třetí hodině (“after three o’clock”). Their forms build directly on basic numbers and the Czech adjective system.

Dates require a particularly Czech way of thinking. Instead of treating “March 1st” as a fixed name, Czech effectively says “the first [day] of March”: prvního března. This explains why both words have genitive forms. Once that pattern is familiar, even long dates become predictable.

How It Works

Forming the basic ordinals

Many ordinals have a recognisable connection to their cardinal number, but the first few must be learned as vocabulary.

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal, masculine singular	English
1	jeden	první	first
2	dva	druhý	second
3	tři	třetí	third
4	čtyři	čtvrtý	fourth
5	pět	pátý	fifth
6	šest	šestý	sixth
7	sedm	sedmý	seventh
8	osm	osmý	eighth
9	devět	devátý	ninth
10	deset	desátý	tenth
11	jedenáct	jedenáctý	eleventh
12	dvanáct	dvanáctý	twelfth
20	dvacet	dvacátý	twentieth
100	sto	stý	hundredth
1,000	tisíc	tisící	thousandth

In compound ordinals, the tens and units are both ordinal: dvacátý první (twenty-first), třicátý druhý (thirty-second). Both parts then agree with the noun: dvacátá první kapitola (the twenty-first chapter), ve dvacátém prvním století (in the twenty-first century).

Agreement: ordinals behave like adjectives

Most ordinals, including druhý, čtvrtý, and pátý, use the “hard” adjective endings. In the nominative case—the basic form used, among other things, for the subject of a sentence—the singular pattern looks like this:

Gender	Form of “second”	Example	Meaning
Masculine	druhý	druhý den	second day
Feminine	druhá	druhá kapitola	second chapter
Neuter	druhé	druhé místo	second place

První and třetí follow the “soft” adjective pattern. Their nominative form happens to look the same with all three genders: první den, první kapitola, první místo. That does not mean they never change. In other cases you meet forms such as prvního, prvnímu, prvním and třetího, třetímu, třetím.

The most useful singular forms can be compared directly:

Case and common use	Masculine/neuter “second”	Feminine “second”	Masculine/neuter “first”	Feminine “first”
Nominative: basic form	druhý / druhé	druhá	první	první
Genitive: “of,” dates, od/do	druhého	druhé	prvního	první
Dative: “to/for”	druhému	druhé	prvnímu	první
Accusative: direct object	druhý/druhého / druhé	druhou	první/prvního / první	první
Locative: after v, na, o	druhém	druhé	prvním	první
Instrumental: “with/by”	druhým	druhou	prvním	první

The two masculine accusative forms reflect animacy: whether the noun refers to a living male person or animal. Compare vidím druhý dům (“I see the second house”) with vidím druhého závodníka (“I see the second competitor”).

You do not have to memorise ordinals as a separate declension system. Attach the ending you would use on the same type of adjective: nový → druhý and jarní → první.

Saying the date

To ask the date, Czech commonly uses:

• Kolikátého je dnes? — What is the date today?
• Jaké je dnes datum? — What is today’s date?

The answer uses the genitive form of the ordinal day plus the genitive month name:

Dnes je + day in the genitive + month in the genitive.

The understood expression is “[on] the first day of March,” with den (day) left unspoken:

• Dnes je první březen. — Today is the first March. (not the normal date pattern)
• Dnes je prvního března. — Today is March 1st.

Here are the month forms needed in dates:

Basic month name	In a date	English
leden	ledna	January
únor	února	February
březen	března	March
duben	dubna	April
květen	května	May
červen	června	June
červenec	července	July
srpen	srpna	August
září	září	September
říjen	října	October
listopad	listopadu	November
prosinec	prosince	December

Month names are not capitalised in Czech. Also keep červen (June) separate from červenec (July); their date forms are června and července.

With a preposition, the case is still determined by that preposition. Od (from) and do (until/to) take the genitive: od prvního do pátého května (“from May 1st to May 5th”). The formal word dne (“on the day of”) is also followed by the same date form: dne 15. dubna.

Written dates and years

In ordinary Czech numerical dates, the order is day–month–year. A dot after a number marks it as ordinal, so 5. is read pátý or another declined form required by the sentence. Standard spaced writing is:

• 5. 4. 2026 — April 5, 2026
• Narodil se 5. 4. 1990. — He was born on April 5, 1990.

When read aloud as a date, the day and month use genitive forms: pátého dubna. A year is normally read as a cardinal number, not as an ordinal: dva tisíce dvacet šest. It may follow the month directly, or appear after roku: pátého dubna roku dva tisíce dvacet šest. Czech also uses compact technical formats such as 2026-04-05, but they do not replace the ordinary spoken pattern.

Centuries, floors, and time

A century is an ordinal modifying století (century), a neuter noun:

• devatenácté století — the nineteenth century
• v devatenáctém století — in the nineteenth century
• na začátku devatenáctého století — at the beginning of the nineteenth century

As in English, the nineteenth century covers the years 1801–1900. The ending changes because v uses the locative case here, while začátek (“beginning”) is followed by the genitive.

For floors, use patro (floor/storey): první patro, ve druhém patře, výtah do třetího patra. Czech buildings generally call the street-level floor přízemí (ground floor); první patro is the level above it. That matches common British usage better than common US usage.

Clock times normally use cardinal numbers: ve tři hodiny (“at three o’clock”). An ordinal appears when the hour is treated as a point in a sequence or a boundary: po třetí hodině (“after three o’clock”), před pátou hodinou (“before five o’clock”). The preposition determines the ending.

Examples in Context

Czech	English	Note
To je moje první návštěva Prahy.	This is my first visit to Prague.	První agrees with feminine návštěva.
Bydlíme ve druhém patře.	We live on the second floor.	Locative after v/ve.
Petr skončil třetí.	Petr finished third.	Masculine person; třetí is the nominative complement.
Otevřete učebnici na dvacáté první straně.	Open the textbook to page twenty-one.	Both parts agree with feminine strana.
Dnes je prvního března.	Today is March 1st.	Genitive day and month.
Schůzka bude dvanáctého října.	The meeting will be on October 12th.	A date can stand without a preposition.
Kurz trvá od druhého do šestého září.	The course runs from September 2nd to September 6th.	Od and do require the genitive.
Narodila se 8. května 1995.	She was born on May 8, 1995.	The dot makes 8. an ordinal date.
Hrad byl přestavěn v devatenáctém století.	The castle was rebuilt in the nineteenth century.	Locative neuter after v.
Vystupte na třetí zastávce.	Get off at the third stop.	Locative feminine after na.
Po třetí hodině už mám čas.	I have time after three o’clock.	Dative feminine after po.
Čtu už třicátou druhou kapitolu.	I’m already reading chapter thirty-two.	Accusative feminine; both ordinal parts decline.
Náš tým získal druhé místo.	Our team took second place.	Accusative neuter.

Common Mistakes

Leaving the ordinal in one fixed form

• Wrong: druhý kapitola
• Right: druhá kapitola (“the second chapter”)
• Why: Unlike English “second,” Czech druhý must agree with the feminine noun kapitola.

Using nominative forms in a date

• Wrong: Dnes je první březen.
• Right: Dnes je prvního března.
• Why: An ordinary date uses a genitive ordinal for the day and the genitive month name.

Translating the English month–day order

• Wrong: března prvního
• Right: prvního března
• Why: Czech puts the day before the month in both the normal spoken date and ordinary numerical notation.

Capitalising months

• Wrong: 12. Října
• Right: 12. října
• Why: Czech month names normally begin with a lowercase letter.

Declining only the last part of a compound ordinal

• Wrong: ve dvacátý prvním století
• Right: ve dvacátém prvním století
• Why: Both dvacátý and první modify století, so both take the locative ending.

Confusing a time with an order

• Wrong: Přijdu ve třetí hodinu. (for “I’ll come at three o’clock”)
• Right: Přijdu ve tři hodiny.
• Why: Exact clock time normally uses a cardinal number. Ordinals occur in expressions such as po třetí hodině.

Usage Notes

In schedules, forms, and announcements, dates are often written in digits but pronounced with all the necessary case endings. The ending is therefore hidden on the page: od 3. 5. is read od třetího května. Learn to expand numerical dates aloud rather than reading each digit as a bare cardinal.

The form dne before a date is formal and common in contracts, official letters, certificates, and administrative notices: Smlouva byla podepsána dne 10. ledna 2026. In everyday speech, it usually sounds unnecessarily official; Smlouva byla podepsána desátého ledna is enough.

A bare date can answer when something happens without an equivalent of English “on”: Přijedu šestého června (“I’ll arrive on June 6th”). Do not add a preposition merely because English requires one.

Czech sometimes writes a leading zero in forms or fixed-width digital displays, such as 05. 04. 2026. In continuous prose, 5. 4. 2026 is more natural. International ISO order, 2026-04-05, is useful in databases and technical contexts, but Czech readers still normally say the date day-first.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Ordinal ideas also produce adverbs meaning “for the nth time.” The most common are irregular-looking forms worth learning whole: poprvé (for the first time), podruhé (for the second time), potřetí (for the third time), and počtvrté (for the fourth time). They are written as one word. Contrast potřetí jsem mu zavolal (“I called him for the third time”) with po třetí hodině (“after three o’clock”), where po třetí is two words because it is a preposition plus an ordinal.

Digits do not remove grammar. Czech can write ve 21. století, but the phrase is still read ve dvacátém prvním století. Likewise, na 3. místě is na třetím místě, and do 2. patra is do druhého patra. When writing an ordinal with digits, keep the dot: without it, 3 represents the cardinal tři rather than třetí.

Longer compound ordinals can be cumbersome, and Czech may rephrase them in speech, especially for labels, routes, or numbered items. A noun plus a cardinal number—pokoj číslo 214 (“room number 214”)—often sounds more natural than a huge ordinal. But when an ordinal is used, every word that functions as part of it follows the required agreement pattern.

You may also encounter calendar dates with Roman numerals for the month, especially in older documents: 28. X. 1918. This still means dvacátého osmého října; the grammatical pattern does not change.

Practice Tips

1. Build ordinals in noun groups. Do not learn only druhý. Say druhý den, druhá otázka, druhé místo, then change the case in longer phrases: během druhého dne, o druhé otázce, na druhém místě.
2. Read a week of dates aloud. Write seven numerical dates and expand each one: 1. 3. → prvního března, 2. 3. → druhého března. Include od … do … to practise the genitive forms.
3. Notice hidden endings. When you see ve 3. patře or v 19. století, say the full phrase aloud. This connects compact written Czech with the forms you need in conversation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Numbers and Time — review cardinal numbers, number agreement, and basic clock time before working with ordinal forms.