Most Czech verbs have two forms which are used in different situations.

• Imperfective form (always referring to unfinished, ongoing or repeated activities)
  • used for the Present Tense and also for the Future and the Past
• Perfective form (expressing finished, one-off, completed activities)
  • used only for the Future Tense and the Past Tense

For more detailed information, we recommend reading the respective articles on individual tenses (Present Tense, Future Tense, Past Tense).

This website serves as an easy tool to identify imperfective-perfective pairs.

Formation of Perfective Verbs

The formation of perfective verbs is very complex since there are many irregularities and exceptions. The verb forms have to be memorised. Generally, they can be created in two ways:

• by adding a prefix
• by changing the ending

Some verbs in the perfective form become reflexive and have additional se or si attached:

Many verbs include more than one change or are completely different.

There is also a large group of verbs which do not have the perfective form at all – they are called Imperfective Tantum verbs.