# tebe vs. tě



## djwebb1969

This is another one of the very large number of similar things not explained in my texbook.

Why *tě* sometimes and sometimes *tebe*? Is *tebe* reserved for use after prepositions? Eg can you say *pro tě*, or does it have to be *pro tebe*? And can you say *tebe vidět* or does it have to be *tě vidět*?


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## hypoch

My feeling, after thinking about this for a bit (no comprehensive research or in-depth knowledge of the subject), is that:

1/ for prepositions it is normally *tebe* (pro tebe, bez tebe, ...)
2/ without a preposition *tebe *is usually reserved for stressing the word (viděl jsem *tebe*, ne Pavla - It was you I saw, not Pavel). A kind of stressing could also be a short answer: Koho jsi viděl? Tebe. If you don't want to do any stressing, *tě *is the standard variant (viděl jsem *tě *včera na ulici)

If anyone can think of anything else I may have omitted, please let me know, but I think you shouldn't get it wrong if you stick to these rules.


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## djwebb1969

Thank you.


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## hypoch

You are welcome


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## Enquiring Mind

I agree, these "weak" or "short" or "unstressed" (as they are sometimes called) forms of the personal pronouns are used exactly as hypoch stated, and the relevant tables can be found in Karel Tahal's 'A Grammar of Czech as a Foreign Language", FACTUM CZ, s.r.o., 2010, here, p125 onwards.


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