Numbers and Time in Czech

In Brief

Czech numbers affect the noun that follows them. The essential beginner pattern is 1 + nominative singular, 2–4 + nominative plural, and 5 or more + genitive plural: jeden dům, dva domy, pět domů. To ask the time, say Kolik je hodin?; exact-hour answers follow the same pattern: Je jedna hodina, Jsou tři hodiny, Je pět hodin.

Overview

Numbers and time belong among the first A1 topics because they appear everywhere: in prices, addresses, phone numbers, opening hours, travel plans, and appointments. The number words themselves are fairly regular, especially from 11 to 100. The unfamiliar part for an English-speaking learner is what happens to the word being counted.

Czech uses cases—different forms of a noun that show its job in a phrase or sentence. English normally leaves the noun unchanged apart from singular and plural: “one house,” “two houses,” “five houses.” Czech makes a three-way distinction: jeden dům, dva domy, but pět domů. Here domů is the genitive plural, a form commonly used after quantities of five and above.

At first, concentrate on counting forms in simple phrases and on exact clock hours. Later, you can add declined number forms, dates, and conversational expressions such as půl deváté (“half past eight”). Those later details are included below but clearly separated from the A1 core.

How It Works

Cardinal numbers from 0 to 100

Cardinal numbers answer “how many?” These are the basic forms used for counting.

Number	Czech	Number	Czech
0	nula	10	deset
1	jeden / jedna / jedno	11	jedenáct
2	dva / dvě	12	dvanáct
3	tři	13	třináct
4	čtyři	14	čtrnáct
5	pět	15	patnáct
6	šest	16	šestnáct
7	sedm	17	sedmnáct
8	osm	18	osmnáct
9	devět	19	devatenáct

The teens mostly add -náct. A few stems become shorter: čtyři → čtrnáct, devět → devatenáct.

Number	Czech	Number	Czech
20	dvacet	60	šedesát
30	třicet	70	sedmdesát
40	čtyřicet	80	osmdesát
50	padesát	90	devadesát
100	sto

Numbers between the tens are written as separate words: dvacet jedna (21), třicet šest (36), čtyřicet osm (48), devadesát devět (99). Unlike English, Czech does not insert a word corresponding to “and.”

When reading a phone number, code, or room number, speakers may group the digits in different ways. For careful beginner practice, reading them one at a time is always understandable: nula sedm tři….

One and two change for gender

Czech nouns have grammatical gender, a noun category that affects nearby words. The number 1 agrees with the noun much like an adjective:

Gender	“one”	Example	Meaning
masculine	jeden	jeden dům	one house
feminine	jedna	jedna koruna	one crown
neuter	jedno	jedno pivo	one beer

The number 2 has two basic forms:

Gender	“two”	Example	Meaning
masculine	dva	dva domy	two houses
feminine	dvě	dvě koruny	two crowns
neuter	dvě	dvě piva	two beers

The forms tři and čtyři do not make this gender distinction in their basic counting forms.

The core noun pattern: 1, 2–4, 5+

For a simple counting phrase in the basic dictionary or subject form, use this pattern:

Quantity	Number pattern	Noun form	Example
1	jeden / jedna / jedno	nominative singular	jedna hodina
2–4	dva / dvě, tři, čtyři	nominative plural	tři hodiny
5–100	pět… sto	genitive plural	pět hodin, dvacet korun
0	nula	genitive plural	nula korun

The nominative is the basic form, often used for the subject of a sentence. The genitive plural is a special plural form used here after higher quantities. Its ending is not always predictable from the English translation, so learn useful number-and-noun combinations together:

• jeden dům – dva domy – pět domů
• jedna koruna – dvě koruny – pět korun
• jedno pivo – dvě piva – pět piv
• jeden člověk – dva lidé – pět lidí

Do not rely only on the final digit in a larger number. A quantity such as 21 can still take the higher-number construction: dvacet jedna korun. This is especially important in prices and measurements.

Basic ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers show position in a sequence: “first,” “second,” “third,” and so on. The most useful early forms are:

Number	Czech ordinal	English
1st	první	first
2nd	druhý	second
3rd	třetí	third
4th	čtvrtý	fourth
5th	pátý	fifth
6th	šestý	sixth
7th	sedmý	seventh
8th	osmý	eighth
9th	devátý	ninth
10th	desátý	tenth
20th	dvacátý	twentieth
100th	stý	hundredth

Ordinals behave like adjectives: they change to match the gender, number, and case of the noun. For example, druhý den is “the second day,” druhá hodina is “the second hour/class,” and druhé patro is “the second floor.” At A1, it is enough to recognize the common forms; dates and full ordinal declension are a later topic.

Asking and answering the time

The standard question is:

• Kolik je hodin? — What time is it? Literally, “How many hours is it?”

For an exact hour, Czech uses hodina (“hour”) in the same 1 / 2–4 / 5+ pattern. The verb also changes:

Time	Full answer	Short natural answer
1:00	Je jedna hodina.	Je jedna.
2:00	Jsou dvě hodiny.	Jsou dvě.
3:00	Jsou tři hodiny.	Jsou tři.
4:00	Jsou čtyři hodiny.	Jsou čtyři.
5:00	Je pět hodin.	Je pět.
10:00	Je deset hodin.	Je deset.

So use singular je with one and with five or more, but plural jsou with two, three, and four. This may feel surprising to an English speaker, especially Je pět hodin—literally structured more like “It is five hours” with a singular verb.

For schedules and digital times, Czech can simply say the hour followed by the minutes:

• Je osm patnáct. — It is 8:15.
• Je deset třicet. — It is 10:30.
• Je čtrnáct nula pět. — It is 14:05 / 2:05 p.m.

To say when something happens, use v before the hour:

• v jednu hodinu — at one o’clock
• ve dvě hodiny — at two o’clock
• v pět hodin — at five o’clock
• v osm — at eight

Notice ve dvě rather than v dvě. The added vowel makes pronunciation easier.

Examples in Context

Czech	English	Note
Mám jeden lístek.	I have one ticket.	Masculine jeden
Kupujeme dvě kávy.	We are buying two coffees.	Feminine dvě + plural
Potřebuji tři dny.	I need three days.	2–4 pattern
V hotelu jsou čtyři pokoje.	There are four rooms in the hotel.	Plural verb and noun
Na stole je pět knih.	There are five books on the table.	5+ takes genitive plural; the verb is singular
Stojí to dvacet jedna korun.	It costs twenty-one crowns.	Common price construction
Autobus číslo třicet jede do centra.	Bus number thirty goes to the centre.	Number used as a label
Bydlím ve druhém patře.	I live on the second floor.	The ordinal changes after v
Kolik je hodin?	What time is it?	Standard question
Jsou tři hodiny.	It is three o’clock.	2–4 time pattern
Je pět hodin.	It is five o’clock.	5+ time pattern
Sejdeme se v jednu hodinu.	We will meet at one o’clock.	Time after v
Vlak odjíždí v osm patnáct.	The train leaves at 8:15.	Schedule or digital style
Obchod zavírá ve čtyři.	The shop closes at four.	Short form; hodiny is omitted
Teď je půl deváté.	It is half past eight now.	Literally “half of the ninth hour”

Common Mistakes

Keeping the same noun form after every number

• Wrong: pět domy
• Right: pět domů
• Why: Five and higher require the genitive plural in the basic counting construction. Learn the trio dům – domy – domů rather than treating domy as a universal plural.

Using dva with every noun

• Wrong: dva koruny, dva piva
• Right: dvě koruny, dvě piva
• Why: Use dva with masculine nouns, but dvě with feminine and neuter nouns.

Choosing the verb only by whether the English translation is plural

• Wrong: Jsou pět hodin.
• Right: Je pět hodin.
• Why: Exact times follow the Czech quantity pattern: jsou with 2–4, but je with 1 and 5+.

Translating “at” with a bare time

• Wrong: Sejdeme se pět hodin.
• Right: Sejdeme se v pět hodin.
• Why: Clock time normally uses the preposition v: v jednu, ve dvě, v pět.

Reading 8:30 as půl osm

• Wrong: půl osm for 8:30
• Right: půl deváté
• Why: The traditional Czech expression looks forward to the coming hour: 8:30 is halfway toward nine. English “half past eight” looks back to the completed hour.

Treating ordinals as fixed words

• Wrong: druhý hodina
• Right: druhá hodina
• Why: An ordinal agrees like an adjective. Hodina is feminine, so “second” is druhá here.

Usage Notes

In everyday conversation, hodina/hodiny/hodin is often omitted when the context is clearly clock time: Je jedna, Jsou tři, Je šest. Full forms remain useful in teaching, careful answers, and contexts where “hours” could mean duration.

Czech commonly uses the 24-hour clock in timetables, official announcements, tickets, and written schedules. In casual speech, people often use a 12-hour expression and add context if necessary: v osm ráno (“at eight in the morning”), ve tři odpoledne (“at three in the afternoon”), or v sedm večer (“at seven in the evening”).

Be careful with duration. Je pět hodin means “It is five o’clock,” while Čekám pět hodin means “I have been waiting / I wait for five hours,” depending on context. The same number phrase can name a clock time or an amount of time; the surrounding verb tells you which.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following patterns at A1, but you will hear them often.

Traditional conversational fractions

Czech speakers frequently divide the coming hour into quarters:

Time	Czech	Literal viewpoint
8:15	čtvrt na devět	a quarter toward nine
8:30	půl deváté	half of the ninth hour
8:45	tři čtvrtě na devět	three quarters toward nine

Digital-style osm patnáct, osm třicet, and osm čtyřicet pět are also clear. The traditional system matters mainly for understanding spontaneous conversation.

You may also hear minute-based expressions such as pět minut po osmé (“five minutes past eight”) and za pět minut devět (“five minutes to nine”). The ordinal-looking forms osmé and similar forms appear because an understood word related to the hour is being declined.

Numbers change in other cases

The beginner 1 / 2–4 / 5+ chart describes basic nominative and common accusative counting phrases. After a preposition or in another sentence role, both the numeral and noun may change:

• se dvěma kamarády — with two friends
• ke třem domům — toward three houses
• o pěti knihách — about five books
• s pěti lidmi — with five people

This means the noun after pět is not always visibly genitive plural. The genitive rule applies to the basic construction pět knih; another case required by a preposition can reshape the entire phrase.

Higher-number subjects also have special verb agreement. Compare Tři studenti přišli (“Three students came”) with Pět studentů přišlo (“Five students came”). After 5+, standard Czech normally uses a singular neuter verb form. This is the wider grammatical pattern behind Je pět hodin.

Compound numbers and style

Compound quantities can create agreement choices that are more complicated than the beginner chart suggests, particularly in formal writing and when the final component is jeden. Safe, common combinations such as prices are worth learning whole: dvacet jedna korun, třicet pět eur. When exact agreement matters in polished prose, Czech speakers may rephrase or choose a fully declined construction rather than rely on an English-style “last digit” rule.

Full work with ordinals belongs to the later topic of ordinal numbers and dates. There you will meet forms such as prvního března (“on the first of March”) and learn why the endings differ from the basic forms první, druhý, třetí.

Practice Tips

1. Build three-form noun sets. Take useful nouns and say them with 1, 3, and 5: jedna koruna, tři koruny, pět korun; jeden den, tři dny, pět dní. This trains the noun change together with the number.
2. Narrate real numbers around you. Read prices, bus numbers, room numbers, and opening hours aloud. For a timetable, alternate between the full form (v osm hodin) and the natural short form (v osm).
3. Draw a clock for the “next-hour” system. Mark 8:15, 8:30, and 8:45, then label them čtvrt na devět, půl deváté, tři čtvrtě na devět. Seeing all three as progress toward nine makes the Czech viewpoint easier to remember.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Case System Introduction — explains why Czech nouns have forms such as domy and domů.
• Next step: Ordinal Numbers and Dates — develops ordinal agreement and calendar dates in full.
• Advanced extension: Numeral Categories — covers collective numbers, fractions, multiplicatives, and indefinite quantities.