Relative Pronouns in Czech

Overview

Relative pronouns connect a main clause to a relative clause that describes or identifies a noun. At the CEFR B1 level, the relative pronoun který/která/které (who/which) is the most important to master, as it must decline for gender, number, and case — reflecting both its antecedent and its function within the relative clause.

Czech also has the literary relative pronoun jenž and the colloquial co, but který covers the vast majority of situations and is appropriate in all registers.

Unlike English, where "who/which/that" remain unchanged, Czech který has a full declension paradigm mirroring adjective endings. This is one of the areas where Czech's seven-case system directly affects sentence construction.

How It Works

Full Declension of který

Case	M.anim.sg.	M.inan.sg.	F.sg.	N.sg.	Plural (all)
Nom.	který	který	která	které	kteří/které/která
Gen.	kterého	kterého	které	kterého	kterých
Dat.	kterému	kterému	které	kterému	kterým
Acc.	kterého	který	kterou	které	které/která
Loc.	kterém	kterém	které	kterém	kterých
Inst.	kterým	kterým	kterou	kterým	kterými

How Gender and Case Are Determined

• Gender and number come from the antecedent (the noun being described)
• Case comes from the pronoun's role inside the relative clause

Muž, kterého vidím. — Muž is masculine animate (gender), but "whom I see" is accusative (case in the clause).

With Prepositions

Prepositions precede the relative pronoun:

• Dům, ve kterém bydlím. (The house in which I live.)
• Žena, o které mluvím. (The woman about whom I'm speaking.)

Examples in Context

Czech	English	Note
Žena, kterou znám.	The woman I know.	fem. acc.
Dům, ve kterém bydlím.	The house I live in.	masc. loc.
Lidé, kteří přišli.	The people who came.	pl. nom.
Vše, co potřebuji.	Everything I need.	co for "everything that"
Kniha, která leží na stole.	The book on the table.	fem. nom.
Muž, kterému jsem pomohl.	The man I helped.	masc. dat.
Film, o kterém mluvíš.	The film you're talking about.	masc. loc.
Děti, které si hrají.	The children who are playing.	pl. nom.
Kamarád, s kterým jsem mluvil.	The friend I talked with.	masc. inst.
Město, které znám nejlépe.	The city I know best.	neut. nom.

Common Mistakes

Wrong gender agreement

• Wrong: Žena, který tu pracuje.
• Right: Žena, která tu pracuje.
• Why: Žena is feminine, so the pronoun must be která (nominative feminine).

Wrong case selection

• Wrong: Muž, který jsem viděl. (nominative instead of accusative)
• Right: Muž, kterého jsem viděl.
• Why: "Whom I saw" requires accusative case for the pronoun's role as direct object.

Forgetting preposition placement

• Wrong: Dům, který bydlím v.
• Right: Dům, ve kterém bydlím.
• Why: Czech does not strand prepositions. The preposition must precede the relative pronoun.

Usage Notes

Jenž is the literary/formal alternative to který — common in newspapers and academic writing but rare in speech. Colloquial Czech uses co as a universal relative pronoun: Člověk, co tam stojí (The person standing there). This is considered informal.

Jenž — The Literary Alternative

For formal and literary contexts, Czech has jenž (who/which), which is the elevated counterpart of který:

Který (standard)	Jenž (literary)
muž, který přišel	muž, jenž přišel
žena, kterou znám	žena, již znám
o muži, o kterém mluvím	o muži, o němž mluvím

Key differences: jenž gains an n- prefix after prepositions (o němž, s nímž, bez níž). It is common in newspapers, academic writing, and legal texts but rare in speech.

The Colloquial Alternative: co

In everyday spoken Czech, co serves as a universal relative pronoun:

• Člověk, co tam stojí. (The person who's standing there.)
• Kniha, co jsem četl. (The book I read.)

This is grammatically simple but considered informal and inappropriate for written Czech. Learners should understand it but avoid it in formal contexts.

Practice Tips

• Write relative clauses for all seven cases using a single antecedent: muž, který/kterého/kterému...
• Combine simple sentences into complex ones with relative clauses.
• Read Czech texts and identify the gender and case of each relative pronoun you encounter.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subordinate Clauses — builds the foundation for relative pronouns