# past tense



## martinemussies

Ahoj!

How do you create a proper past tense in Czech? It often confuses me, because it's just a little different from the Russian past tense. When do you have to use the verb "to be" and when do you leave it? For example, if I'd like to say in Czech:

_Studuju Ruškinu a studula Češtinu v Prahe _

Is that correct? Or do you make a construction with jsem? Or...?

Na shledanou! x Martine


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## winpoj

Zdar!

Your sentence should look like this: Studuji (or informally studuju) ruštinu a studovala jsem češtinu v Praze. (Note that we don't capitalize languages.)

As for the general question: You need to use the verb "být" everywhere except for the third person. Thus the past tense of the verb "pracovat" (to work) is the following (masculine, feminine, neuter):

Singular

1 Pracoval jsem, pracovala jsem, pracovalo jsem
2 pracoval jsi, pracovala jsi, pracovalo jsi
3 pracoval, pracovala, pracovalo

Plural

1 pracovali jsme, pracovaly jsme, pracovala jsme
2 pracovali jste, pracovaly jste, pracovala jste
3 pracovali, pracovaly, pracovala


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## slavic_one

That 'pracovalo jsem' and 'pracovala jsme' sound so unnatural! I've actually never though how it will be first person of neuter
As winpoj said, auxiliary verb is not used only for the third person!
And you need to take care about verbs... 'studula' could may be if the verb is 'studut' or sth like that, but the infinitive is 'studovat' so past is 'studoval(a)'!


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## winpoj

Yes, slavic, you don't often hear "pracovalo jsem", etc.

But you sometimes do in poetry or fairy tales where inanimate objects can be personified.

"Pracovalo jsem celý den, už musím jít spát," řeklo Slunce a zapadlo za obzor.

With the development of voice technologies and automation, I'm sure we'll soon hear a car saying something like: "Zaparkovalo jsem za rohem."


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## slavic_one

Still very strange! In Croatian we'd use musculinum for 'Sunce'), I never heard or red anywhere sth like 'Radilo sam cijeli dan.'! In first person (sg. and pl.) we have only femininum and masculinum (as far as I know lol)
haha yea that can be true and posible even now speaking cars! I bet it'd be very annoying... 'fasten your sit belts please...' 'you're driving too fast' hahaha


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## PocketWatch

In Czech, I believe another way to form the past tense is

Ja jsem pracoval
and Pracoval jsem

...the difference being that the first one uses the pronoun. So when you use the pronoun, the "jsem" must precede the verb.


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## winpoj

You are right, PocketWatch. I just didn't want to complicate things even more.
Moreover, the forms without pronouns are sort of "default", that is you only use the pronoun if you need emphasis on the person.

Ukradl jsem to.  I stole it.

Já jsem to ukradl.  It was me who stole it.


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## slavic_one

If you using 'ja jsem pracoval' you want to emhasize subject, and in 'pracoval jsem' verb!


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