The vocative case rules in Czech. Czech grammar online services

The words are similar, and so is the grammar. Nevertheless, you need to study Czech seriously. Czech has a complex system of declensions, a lot of exceptions, the particle se, as well as the letter “ř”, “haceki” and “charki”. Teacher at the GoStudy training center Dagmar Šigutová talks about Czech as it is.

Learning Czech for Russian-speaking students is, of course, much, much easier than for English or German students. Russian and Czech belong to the group of Slavic languages, therefore, from the very beginning of their studies, Russian-speaking students understand Czech speech well.

I understand - does not mean I know

Very often, Russian-speaking students think that since they understand Czech, that means they speak it. This is far from true. Due to the similarity of languages, Russian students develop receptive skills much faster than native speakers of non-Slavic languages. The similarities in the grammar and vocabulary of Czech and Russian are very helpful - especially in the development of passive speech skills. At the same time, language similarities, on the contrary, can interfere with the formation of active skills.

Translator's false friends

Similar Czech and Russian words often have different meanings. For example:

čerstvý – fresh
shame - attention
pitomec - fool
ovoce – fruit
zápach – stench
vůně – aroma
vedro – heat
rodina – family
сhytrý – smart
davka – portion
chudý – poor
úkol – task
sour cream – cream

Systematic errors

Let's say a German, Englishman or Korean masters the Czech form of the past tense without any problems, quite quickly. A Russian-speaking student will immediately remember that the verb should end in -l, but will forget to include the verb být, which in Czech indicates a person. This is how systematic errors arise that hinder the understanding of speech utterances.

In present tense constructions, the Russian-speaking student likes to add Russian endings to Czech verbs. For example, the Czech verb dělat in the present tense has the ending -ám. But based on the similarity with the Russian verb “to do,” the Russian-speaking student adds -aju. It turns out dělaju.

Or I’ll give an example of systematic declination errors. The Czech preposition -proti is used with a noun in the dative case. The Russian preposition “against” with the same meaning is used with the genitive case. A Russian-speaking student, under the influence of his native language, automatically uses nouns, adjectives and pronouns in the genitive case with Czech -proti. And there are many such examples.

According to Russian rules

Absolutely all foreign students have great difficulty learning the Czech language with verb constructions - with and without prepositions. But, while speakers of non-Slavic languages ​​either learn the correct constructions or don’t, many Russian-speaking students use “Russian rules” - they use Czech verbs in the “Russian case” or with the “Russian preposition”.

For example, the verb zúčastnit se is similar to the Russian verb “to participate”. In Czech, this verb is used in the genitive case without a preposition. But a Russian-speaking student, under the influence of his native language, can use the preposition -v and the prepositional case.

Our teachers attach great importance to the fight against systematic errors. We constantly draw the attention of our students to the similarities and differences between the Czech and Russian languages ​​and perform special exercises. We correct the guys until they begin to speak Czech correctly.

Czech is spoken by 13 million people (66th most spoken language in the world).

A question of accent

The Russian accent is very strong. In classes with Russian-speaking students, Czech teachers pay much more attention to phonetics than in English- or German-speaking classes.

Establishing Czech pronunciation is fundamentally important. Otherwise, Czechs simply will not understand what the students are saying. This way, students will lose the desire to speak and the confidence that the language can be mastered.

We have increased the number of phonics hours in our curriculum. From the very beginning of training, teachers draw students' attention to the pronunciation of the consonants d, t, n and dě, tě, ně, ending -t in infinitives.

We strive to strengthen students' skills in correct accent placement. The stress in Czech words is always on the first syllable. All students know this, but it is difficult for them to consolidate the rule in practice. In Czech, the stress is forceful and is not related to length, which is unusual for Russian-speaking students. They often place stress in the middle or end of a word - on a syllable with a long vowel.

At the same time, Russian students are often embarrassed to pronounce long vowels (“delki”). We teach the guys how to pull them properly. In the Czech language, vowels are not reduced, as in Russian. The letter "o" should sound like "o", and a Russian student often reads it as "a". And the Czechs don’t understand him.

Czech is also known for its syllabic consonants. There are entire phrases without a single vowel: Strč prst skrz krk (which means “Put your finger through your throat”).

Spelling difficulties

Czech spelling is also not the easiest. We prepare students to study at Czech universities, so in class we practice a lot of spelling - spelling “gaček” and “čarek”, hard and soft “i” / “y”, we pay attention to the order of words in a sentence, the place of the particle se. In the Russian language, word order is free, so it is also not easy for students to master Czech syntax.

Returning to the question of whether the Czech language is difficult, I will say that after a year of classes, the vast majority of our students master it at the B2 level, enter universities and study there. The Czech language is difficult, but Russian-speaking students have many advantages when studying it. You need to use them and take your studies seriously.

The Czech language is treacherous and complex - a significant share of the problems falls on grammar and diacritics, because of which you can become discouraged and put an end to the development of the language.

Fortunately, there are a number of online services that, with the wave of a magic wand, will decline the words you need by case and arrange all the gacheks and charkas. God forbid you use them in the future - these services should help you understand the language faster, make fewer mistakes, and not deceive teachers at all.

Declension by case

The basis of grammar is the declension of words in all cases. The entire annual course covers the study of cases, but foreigners begin to speak and write completely correctly, at best, only after years of staying in the country. If you are writing something serious and don’t want to make a mistake, you can check yourself using case declension services. I consider the best solution to be one as part of the website “Internetová jazyková příručka” (Russian. Online Language Guide) from the Institute of the Czech Language of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, because it is dictionary-based and therefore does not require specifying word attributes.

Usage is as easy as shelling pears - first insert the text without diacritics or with partially placed diacritics:

Then we press the button and the service magically places the glasses and gacheks. Words with controversial spellings are underlined in red so that you can manually check them.

By analogy with this service, you can use the more ascetic nlp.fi.muni.cz/cz_accent/ from the Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University. In addition, if you need to perform the opposite operation (remove diacritics), you can use http://textmod.pavucina.com/odstraneni-diakritiky.

Total

Many of the above services are used even by Czechs, so don’t be shy about going to them when you don’t have a definite answer. Of course, don’t forget about , they will save you from many typos and simple mistakes.

Many of the sites listed contain additional information. tools, reference sections on Czech grammar and therefore you will probably find other useful aspects for yourself in them. If you know useful services for Czech grammar and I didn’t mention them in the article, write in the comments, let’s make the world a better place.

Please do not use the services for homework or exams, as... This is not only dishonest, but also stupid - you pay money to learn a language, but in the end your computer learns instead of you. Write correctly!

The Czech language is the sixty-sixth most spoken language in the world. Twelve million people consider it their native language, and hundreds of thousands of students study it as a second foreign language. Czech is part of the group of Slavic languages ​​- conversations in Czech become understandable to a Russian-speaking tourist almost immediately after arriving in the country. Despite its overall clarity, the Czech language has grammatical subtleties, complexities and exceptions that are worth knowing in order to master it perfectly.

How the Czech language developed

Before traveling to the Czech Republic, most tourists are interested in what language the citizens of this country speak. Since the Middle Ages and until now, the official language of the Czech Republic has been Czech.

There are three periods of formation of the Czech language: ancient, old and modern Czech.

Until the beginning of the 10th century, there was no written language in the Czech language. For the first time, Czech words and phrases begin to appear in German literary works and books in Latin at the beginning of the 13th century.

Full-fledged books in Czech appeared in the first half of the 15th century, when a Czech grammar was published in Prague. During the same period, a proposal appeared to introduce foreign diacritics into the writing of Czech words, which would convey sounds in writing that have no analogues in the Latin alphabet. This prescription was accepted, but only in the 16th century was it possible to forever supplant digraphic letter combinations that convey sound by writing several letters.

Czech writing served as the basis for Slovak, which was formed much later. The Czech alphabet was also used to try to latinize some Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Belarusian.

There are four dialects in the official language:

• Czech dialects;
• Central Moravian dialects;
• North Moravian dialects (also known as Silesian);
• Slovak dialects.

The Latin alphabet is used to express in writing the features of all four dialects of Czech.

The Czech language is also divided into literary, bookish, spoken and general Czech. Most local residents use the common Czech language. The basis of the literary language is considered to be the colloquial Central Czech dialect, which belongs to the interdialects of the central part of the country.

The main rules of Czech grammar and syntax

The rules defining this national language are highlighted, which distinguish it from other representatives of the Slavic group.

• The language includes ten phonemes, differing in length, consonants are divided into voiceless and voiced.
• The stress always falls on the first syllable of a word, this also applies to combinations of nouns with prepositions (for example, “ˈdo Prahy” - “to Prague”, “ˈdo nás” - “to us”).
• There are only two numbers - singular and plural, and seven cases, which coincide with Russian cases.
• Nouns are declined according to gender, adjectives - according to hard and soft types.
• Numerals are assigned five main categories according to their lexical meaning.
• There are ten types of pronouns, and their short forms are often used in colloquial speech.
• As for verbs, there are perfect and imperfect forms, which form four tenses - present, past, future and infinitive.
• Regular verbs are declined according to the general rules of five separate classes, while irregular verbs belong to the group of exceptions and require memorization.
• The order of words in sentences is determined by meaning. At the end of the sentence is placed the noun or verb that is worth emphasizing. For example, the sentence: “Danylo miluje Anju” (Danilo loves Anya) conveys who Danilo loves, and the sentence: “Anju miluje Danylo” (Anya loves Danilo) conveys who loves Anya.

Despite the similar phonetics of the Russian and Czech languages, some phrases in Czech sound incredibly comical to Russian speakers. For example, “shark” will sound like “zhrapok”, “theater” - “divadlo”, “bachelor” - “baby”. The Czechs will call an airplane “letadlo”, a persimmon – “kaki”, and a cucumber – “butt”.

There are also false friends of the translator - words that, although they sound the same, have antonymic meanings. These include the word “čerstvý”, which means “fresh” in Czech, “ovoce”, which translates to fruit, and “úžasný”, which conveys strong admiration.

Also, for the Russian ear, Czech is unusual in words with a large number of consonants in one word or at the junction of words. For example, the word "čtvrthrst", meaning "quarter of a handful", consists of ten consonant letters.

One of the most famous "consonant" sentences in Czech is "Strč prst skrz krk", which translates to "put your finger down your throat". This sentence is included in all textbooks and tutorials as a textbook example of the phonetic rigidity of the Czech language. This is one of the few languages ​​in the world that uses such sound combinations.

Basics of the Czech language for tourists

Despite belonging to the same Slavic language group, Russian and Czech differ significantly. Before coming to this country, it is recommended to master a minimum number of everyday phrases. This will make you feel more comfortable when communicating with Czechs and get help if necessary.

If the language is not your thing, don’t worry: most Czechs communicate with tourists in Russian.

Phrase	Translation
Everyday:
Good afternoon	Good day!
How are you doing?	Yak sya mash?
OK, thank you.	Dobzhe, dyakui.
Please.	Please
Goodbye!	Na shledanou.
Do you speak Russian (English, German)?	Mlyuvite Rushtina (English, German)?
Can you help me?	Can you help me?
Not really.	Ano/not.
Sorry.	Prominte.
Tourist:
Do they provide information to tourists here?	Is that tourist information?
I need a city map.	Mate plan minesta.
When does the exhibition/museum open?	Where are the exhibitions/museums?
In the shop:
What is the price?	How long are you standing?
It is very expensive.	That is mots drage.
I do not like.	Don't libi.
I'll take it.	Let's take this.
Give me 1 kg of cheese.	Give me one kilo of sire.
In the restaurant:
Give me the menu, please.	Yidelni leaf, please.
Bread/tea/coffee with milk.	Bread/tea/kava with milk.
Wine red/white.	Wine cervene/bile.
Soup/fish/meat/salad/dessert.	Vole / fish / maso / salad / dessert.
Breakfast lunch dinner.	Snidane/offense/evening.
At the hotel:
I made a reservation with you.	Mom, you have a reserve.
Do you have a double room?	Are Mate free of peace?
With balcony/shower/toilet.	With balcony / sprhou / vätse.
How much is the room per night?	Kolic stand still for a moment?
Can I see the room?	Can I rest in peace?
Where can I park my car?	Where should moss park?
In different situations:
Where is the bank/exchanger?	Where is the bank/change point?
Where's the phone?	Where can I call?
I need a doctor.	Ask a doctor.
Call the police/ambulance.	We ask you to please the police/protect the service.
Where is the police station?	Where is the police station of the commissarship?

Basics of learning Czech

Perception and knowledge of language are different concepts. Interlingual homonyms, dialects, the presence of diacritics and peculiarities of sentence construction hinder the majority of Russian-speaking students in learning Czech.

To learn Czech, you need to abstract from the grammatical rules, phonetics and syntax of the Russian language.

The main rule for successful learning is to always know and remember that the Czech language is complex and independent.

If you plan to learn this language on your own, start by listening to songs and films in Czech, then connect to a simple tutorial, and, if possible, communicate with native Czech speakers in special applications.

The best results in learning Czech are achieved by students who attend special courses. These language schools pay more attention to dialects, which represent independent units of the Czech language, and teach correct pronunciation. Only here you will be able to perfectly understand the intricacies of grammar and learn the language faster, since you will have to speak Czech all the time.

Conclusion

The Czech language, being the official language of the Czech Republic, is also found in the Czech diaspora in neighboring countries. This language has gone through a long historical path of formation, therefore it includes four different dialects and special grammatical rules.

If you are planning a trip to the Czech Republic, learn everyday phrases in this language in advance to feel comfortable speaking with native speakers.

Czech language | A short excursion for beginners: Video

ZAYTSEVA Natalia Aleksandrovna

(Senior Lecturer at the Department of Romance-Germanic Languages)

"CZECH"

Tutorial

Czech grammar

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Faculty of International Relations

Department of Romance-Germanic Languages

Lesson 0 (LEKCE 0)

CZECH ALPHABET

name - pronunciation - examples

A a kratké - (a) - kam, tam,- sestra where, there, sister

A b dlouhé - (a:) - národ, závod, láska- people, factory, love

B b- (b) - buk, bar, baba- beech, bar, woman

C c- (ts) - cukr,cena,cesta- sugar, price, road

Čč - (whose) - čaj, čas, čislo- tea, time, number

D d- (d) - dnes, dub, rada- today, oak, advice

Ďď - (d) - ďabel, zeď- devil, wall

E e tvrdé - (uh) - den, sen, ten- day, dream, that

E é dlouhé - (e:) - letto, mleko- summer, milk

ě hačkované: - (’e) - tělo, dělo- body, gun

after b, p, v, f- (yeah) - pět, věk, tobě- five, century, you

after m- (to me) - město, mě, v zimě- city, me, winter

F f- (f) - film, foto, fialka- film, photo, violet

G g- (G) - guma, garaž, nugat- rubber, garage, nougat

H h- (g) = Ukrainian - hora, holka, host- mountain, girl, guest

CH ch- (X) - chlap, chleb, mucha- guy, bread, fly

I i kratké - (and) - beer, limo, winter- beer, lemonade, winter

í dlouhé - (and:) - vino, pit, bit- wine, drink, beat

Jj- (th) - jama, jeden, maj- pit, one, may

K k- (To) - kino, kluk, kost- cinema, boy, bone

L l- (l) - les, lampa, lipa- forest, lamp, linden

Mm- (m) - matka, metro, mak- mother, metro, poppy

Nn- (n) - noc, noha, nůž- night, leg, knife

Ňň - (ny) - dlaň, kůň- palm, horse

O o kratké - (o) - oko, nos, window- eye, nose, window

O ó dlouhé - (o:) - fashion, tone- fashion, tone

P p- (P) - pole, pan, right- field, sir, right

Q q- (kv) - Quido- Guido

R r- (R) - rock, country, radio- year, page, radio

Řř - (rzh, rsh) - řeka, řeč, lékař, přez- river, speech, doctor, through

Ss- (With) - sen, soud, les- dream, court, forest

Šš - (sh) - škola, šest, šít- school, notebook, sewing

T t- (T) - tok, tam, theta- current, there, aunt

Ťť - (th) - ťukat, chuť- knock, taste

U u kratké - (y) - ruka, ucho- hand, ear

Úú dlouhé - (y:) - úsměv, únor- smile, February

ů kroužkované - (y:) - dům, sůl- house, salt

V v(V) - vůz, water, vítr- carriage, water, wind

W w dvojité - (c) - Walker- Walker

X x- (ks) - praxe, existence- practice, existence

Y y kratké - (and) - byl, jazyk, syr- was, tongue, cheese

Y ý dlouhé - (and:) - vysoký, mýt, nový- tall, wash, new

Z z- (h) - země, zima, zahrada- country, cold, kindergarten

Žž - (zh) - žena, život, žizeň- woman, life, thirst

The Czech language belongs to the West Slavic languages. Czechs use the Latin alphabet. Superscripts are used to indicate some Czech sounds:

sign ’ (čarka) serves to indicate the length of vowels:

ó, á, é, ú, í, ý

sign ° (kroužek) is used to denote a long ů .

sign ˇ (haček) denotes letters š,č,ř,ž, It also denotes the softness of capitals Ň, Ď, Ť and the softness of the lowercase ň before vowels and at the end of words.

To indicate softness of lowercase t And d at the end of a word and before vowels a, o, u sign used " (apostrophe): ťukat, ďabel, zeď, teď

Icon above the letter ě indicates softness of preceding consonants or iotation of labial consonants. Compare:

tělo[ťelo], dělo , pět ,věk , běh .

Writing ě after the letter m indicates pronunciation: město , mě .

Czech pronunciation is very precise, based on the phonetic principle, according to which sounds are accurately reproduced:

znám, tok, voda, dráha, sloužit, krásná.

Traditionally, letters are used that do not serve special sounds. So, to denote the long [y:] two letters are used - ú, ů .

Letter ú usually written at the beginning of a word and after prefixes:

úkol, únava.

Letter ů written in the middle and at the end of a word: dům, vůz, domů,

The sound [and] is expressed in two letters: i And y, long sound is conveyed by letters í, ý .Previously, they corresponded to various sounds (compare Russian words was And beat). Compare: bil, byl, bít, být, vít, výt.

In modern Czech, after the letters k, h, ch, r a letter is always written y, ý: velký, chyba, ryba, suchý, drahý, chytat.

After the letters j, š, ž, ř, č, c only written i, í: žít, čist, cíl, čisto,

After consonants n, t, d, m, p, v, f, b, s, z, l perhaps written as i, í so and y,ý: nyní, ty, dým, dím.

In the Czech language, deafening and voicing of consonants occurs, as happens in the Russian language: dub, vůz, svatba, dětský.

CONSONANTS

There are 25 consonant sounds in the Czech language. Many consonants in their formation and pronunciation are close to the corresponding consonants of the Russian language. Such consonants include

p, b, v, f, m, n, r, s, z, c, d, t, k, ch, g, j.

Differences are observed between consonants n, d, t - in Russian they are dental, in Czech they are alveolar. Compare:

dej - děj, nemá - němá, ty - ti

give - action, he does not have - dumb, you - to you

Always solid: h, ch, k, r, d, t, n

Always soft: č, ř, š, ž, c, j, ď, ť, ň

Double: b, f, l, m, p, s, v, z

On the softness of consonants n, t, d indicate vowels ě, i, í , for hardness - letters e, é, y, ý.

Consonant j pronounced as a non-syllabic sound, similar in sound to Russian [th]. Before vowels it is always pronounced like Russian [th] - jama, junák, jídlo, Jirka, jitro.

Before consonants at the beginning of words, sometimes this sound is not pronounced or is pronounced very unexpressed:

jsem, jdu, jmeno.

But after a negation and a prefix ending in a vowel, it is usually pronounced:

nejsem, zajdu, půjdu, zájmeno.

VOWELS

The sound system of literary Czech has five vowel sounds, which can be short or long.

Brief: a, o, u, e, i, y Long: á, ó, ú, ů, é, í, ý

Long vowels last approximately twice as long as short vowels; they can be either stressed or in unstressed syllables:

váza, zdravá, zastávka, krásná

EXERCISES:

1. Read the one-syllable words:

pas, sad, dar, Jan, bok, nos, kov, strom, cop, dub, buk, kus, sud, jev, jen, rok, bok, tam.

2. Read two-syllable words, observing correct stress and pronunciation:

matka, mapa, voda, ruda, cesta, maso, sako, jaro, okno, sukno, Rusko, koza, ruka, sama, schopná

3. Read the phrases:

tato mapa, tato nota, tato cena, toto maso, toto sako, toto okno, jedna ruka, jedna cesta, jedno ucho, tato forma, toto auto, jedna strana

4. Read, compare:

pas - pás, pan- pán, dam - dám, rada - ráda, ruda - rudá, pata- pátá, panu - pánů

5. Read:

a) tvá zpráva, tvá známka, má matka, má ruka, má bota, stará dáma, nová mapa, nová cesta, krásná váza, krásná dáma

b) bez, pes, ven, zem, ten, den, sestra, teta, pero, seno, metro, bere, nese, vede, mete, bereme, neseme, dobré, nové, staré, pestré, krátké

Cases in Czech are quite complex, with many nuances, exceptions and irregular forms.

One of the most paradoxical aspects in Czech for Russian-speaking students is the vocative case, because in Russian it has long become a relic of the past, leaving a barely noticeable trace in the language, while in the Czech Republic one cannot do without the vocative case in everyday communication.

Let's start with the fact that in Czech grammar there are 7 cases, and they are usually designated in two ways - ordinal numbers or Latin names:

První pad/Nominativ	kdo? co?
Druhý pád/Genitiv	koho? What?
Třetí pad/Dativ	who? What?
Čtvrtý pád/Akkuzativ	koho? co?
Patý pád/Vokativ
Šestý pád/Lokál	(o)kom? (o) čem?
Sedmý pád/Instrumental	kým? What?

As you can see, case questions in Czech practically coincide with Russian ones and are intuitively clear. But there are also discrepancies with the usual case system: in Czech, the vocative case (Vokativ) follows the accusative case (Akkuzativ), and the prepositional case (Lokál) precedes the instrumental case (Instrumentál) - don’t get confused about the endings!

Let's look at a case system based on the noun hrad (castle, fortress), which is inflected as for all inanimate nouns whose stem ends in a hard consonant:

• Nominative: hrad
  Hrad je starý.- The castle is old.
• Genitive: hradu
  Z hradu vycházejí lidé.- People are leaving the castle.
• Dativ: hradu
  Cesta vede ke hradu.- The road leads to the castle.
• Akkuzativ: hrad
  Vidim hrad.- I see a castle.
• Vocativ: hour
  The vocative case is used only in constructions that involve addressing someone or mentioning/pointing to something.
• Local: hradu
  Mluvim o hradu.- I'm talking about the castle.
• Instrumental: hradem
  Za hradem je les.- There is a forest behind the castle.

Prepositions are often indicators of one case or another: for example, a noun in Genitiv is often preceded by a preposition z/ze(from), and k/ke(k) and do(c) - prepositions that indicate Dativ. By the way, nouns in Nominativ and Vokativ always have no preposition.

We offer you a table that contains the most common prepositions in Czech, after which the noun always appears in one case or another.

Case	Prepositions	Examples
1. Nominative
2. Genitiv	bez/beze- without blizko- around, nearby do– in, before od– from, from, for, with okolo/kolem- around, about u- around, near vedle- near, around z/ze– from, from	bez přítele- without a friend blizko domu- near the house do školy- to school od kamarada- from friend okolo/kolem města- around town Dům stojí u jezera.- The house is located by the lake. Dům stojí vedle jezera.– The house is located near the lake. Jsem z Prahy.- I'm from Prague.
3.Dativ	k/ke- To kvůli- because of, for the sake of navzdory- despite, in spite of proti/naproti- against, on the contrary, in spite of vůči- towards	Petr je k Evě hodný, ale ke Karle ne.- Peter is kind to Eve, but not to Clara. Dělám to kvůli tobě.- I'm doing this for you. navzdory jeho námitkám- despite his objections Ty jsi vždycky proti mně.- You are always against me. Učinili jsme opatření vůči případným škodám.- We have taken measures against possible losses.
4. Akkuzativ	na- on o- about, on, with, in pro- for, for, because of přes- contrary to contrary, despite za- behind, behind, on	Dej knihu na polici.- Put the book on the shelf. opřít kolo o zeď- lean the bike against the wall pro you- for you přes jeho námitky- despite his objections lístek za deset korun- ticket for ten crowns
5. Vocativ
6. Local	na- on po- after v/ve- V	Kniha je na polici.- The book is on the shelf. Mluvíme o Petrovi.- We're talking about Peter. Po večeři vždy chodíme na procházku.- After lunch we always go for a walk. v zásuvce- In the box
7. Instrumental	mezi- between nad- above pod- under před- before s/se- With za- behind	číst mezi řádky- read between the lines Nad náměstím létají ptáci.- Birds fly over the square. Under stolem spí pes.- The dog is sleeping under the table. Sejdeme se před divadlem.- Meet me in front of the theater. Jsem s tebou.- I'm with you. Stojím za tebou.- I'm standing behind you.

P.S. Learning Czech with a tutor is more productive than figuring it out on your own! Pass