APPENDIX
Appendix to lesson 3
■ 3.1 Grammatical gender. The nominative singular
In the following table of the nominative singular (which is the form that you will find in the dictionary) the so-called declension patterns are preser These patterns represent various types of declension. (You will encounter them in the overall overview of cases on pages 66 and 67.)
Nominative singular'			
Gender	pronoun ten	-ý a -í adjective	noun
Masculine animate	te	dobrý2 kvalitní	student, muž, kolega
Masculine inanimate	te	dobrý2 kvalitní	banán, čaj
Feminine	ta	dobrá kvalitní	káva, restaurace, kancelář, místnost
Neuter	t	dobr } kvalitní	auto, moře, kuře, nádraží
' The typical endings for the nominative plural (in the majority of case) are i or y (e.g. knedlíky, brambory, palačinky.. J. You can find an overview of nominative plurals in theta-page 67.
!ln colloquial Czech you can also hear these nominative sg. adjective forms: dobrej student/ banán, dobrý auto.
in this table you can see that we have used three colours to mark grammatical genders visually in this coursebook: blue, red and green. Each i has a grammatical gender which determines the forms of several other types of word, e.g. adjectives, several pronouns and verbs in the past (see page 36, paragraph 6.1).
Nouns
Nouns have three grammatical genders: masculine (we make a distinction between masculine animate - people and animals, e.g. student, pe:
masculine inanimate, e.g. banán), feminine (e.g. káva) and neuter (e.g. auto).
It's important to know the gender of each noun. There is a practical aid to determine the gender of a noun. Remember: 66% of nouns have these majority ending in the nominative singular:
Masculine ends in a consonant (e.g. student, banán, profesor, muž man, učitel, supermarket, čaj tea..) Feminine ends in -a (e.g. káva, studentka, profesorka, učitelka, banka, škola.. J Neuter ends in -o (e.g. auto, kino, divadlo, město, pivo, metro.. J You can easily recognise the gender of most nouns by these endings.
34% of nouns have different, minority endings in the nominitive singular:
The ending -e/-ě very often occurs in the feminine ("restaurace, stanice, rýže, sportovkyně, kolegyně ..J, but also in the neuter (kufe, moře si The ending -i very often occurs in the neuter (e.g. nádraží, náměstí.
The ending -a can also occur in the masculine (kolega colleague, chleba bread), while a consonant can occur also in the feminine (kancelář ■ místnost room).
You need to remember the gender of nouns with minority endings. However, in time you will get practice in determining gender by the ending nominative singular and be able to distinguish almost all nouns.
Adjectives
We can divide adjectives into two types according to the ending of the nominative singular:
a) Adjectives, which end in -ý (-ý adjectives).
in Czech grammar these are called hard adjectives because y is called a 'hard y/y'in Czech. These adjectives are affected by the gender of th< that they go with in the nominative singular. For example: dobr; banán, dobrá káva, dobré auto.
b) Adjectives, which end in -í f-í adjectives).
In Czech grammar these are called soft adjectives because i is called a 'soft i/f in Czech. These adjectives are not affected by the gender ofth that they go with in the nominative singular. For example: kvalitní banán, kvalitní káva, kvalitní auto.
Pronouns
The demonstrative pronoun ten this/that has masculine, feminine and neuter forms. E.g. ten banán, ta káva, to auto.
■ 3.2 Co x jaký, jaká, jaké
Co means what. Jaký means what... it is like. Compare:
Co je to? What is it? - To je banán. It's a banana, x Jaký je? What is it like? - Je dobrý. It's delicious.
Be careful: Jaký is a -ý adjective, and so it takes masculine, feminine and neuter forms: Jaký je ten banán? Jaká je ta káva? Jaké je to auto?
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