The Czech language has two ways how to express the past. One is formed with the use of the imperfective form of the verb and the other with the perfective one. Both need the auxiliary verb to be (být) and some more adjustments to the verb infinitive.

Overview

Večer jsem se díval na televizi.

Imperfective Past
imperfective past
the activity was in progress

Večer jsem se podíval na televizi.

Perfective Past
perfective past
the activity was completed

Basic Construction

Both imperfective and perfective verbs in the past have to be changed in three basic steps.

  1. Change the T in the infinitive to L.
  2. Add -a, -o, -i or -y suffix according to the rules of Gender-Sensitive verbs.
  3. Add the auxiliary verb to be (except for the 3rd person singular and plural)

I was writing a letter. (woman)

psát dopis
↓
psal dopis
↓
psala dopis
↓
psala jsem dopis

I wrote a letter. (woman)

napsat dopis
↓
napsal dopis
↓
napsala dopis
↓
napsala jsem dopis

The auxiliary verb has to be in the Second Position in the sentence.

Irregularities

Some verbs shorten the consonant during the process of changing T to L.

pít -> pil

spát -> spal

Many verbs also change the letter Í to Ě during this change.

chtít -> chtěl

mít -> měl

There are also some irregular verbs which change completely. For reference, you can use the conjugation timeline on our website.

přečíst -> přečetl

jít -> šel

Imperfective Past

Students have a tendency to overuse this type of the past tense as it is easier to construct. However, the imperfective past should be used only for:

  • past unfinished activities in progress
  • activities which repeatedly happened in the past.

Když jsem jedl oběd, přišel táta.

having lunch wasin the progress

Loni jsem často psal rodičům.

it took place regularly in the past

Perfective Past

This type of past tense uses the perfective form of the verb and is used for:

  • completed activities and actions
  • giving plain information and facts where the progress is not important
  • one-off, not repeated activities

Včera jsem snědl oběd rychle.

fact – the act of eating is not important

Napsal jsem rodičům smsku.

one-off – it took place only once

Some verbs do not exist in the perfective future. These are called Imperfective Tantum and some examples include spát, pracovat, cestovat and studovat.

The only possible future at such verbs is: pracoval jsem, cestoval jsem…