This article concerns the morphological classification of the Czech verbs and the formation of their admissible forms (including, to some extent, bookish and archaic ones).
The first attempts to classify Czech verbs from the morphological point of view were made in the 16th century, for example in Matouš Benešovský's Grammatica Bohemica from 1577.
Vavřinec Benedikt Nudožerský in his work Grammaticæ bohemicæ libri duo (1603) distinguished four classes according to the present indicative ending of the 1st person singular: I.
– i. Pavel Doležal in his Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica (1746), inspired by the Latin grammar, for the first time classified the Czech verbs according to the infinitive: I. vol-a-ti (vocāre), II.
hr-nou-ti (sēmovēre, āmovēre) and, moreover, verba anomala, i.e. an arbitrary list of several tens of "irregular" verbs including the athematic ones.
As there are six types of the infinitive stem, there are also six corresponding classes (Franz Miklosich, Formenlehre der slawischen Sprachen, 1856 and Jan Gebauer, Historická mluvnice jazyka českého, 1898), usually arranged in the following manner: I. nés-ti, vés-ti (*ved-ti), péci (*pek-ti), krý-ti, etc.
pros-i-ti, V. děl-a-ti, sáz-e-ti (*sad-ja-ti), láti (*la-ja-ti), bráti (*bьr-a-ti), kov-a-ti, VI.
The classification based on the present stem (e.g. August Schleicher, Formenlehre der kirchenslawischen Sprache, 1852, and esp.
chval-i-, trъp-i-, V. *jes-, *dad-, *jad-, *vêd- (athematic consonantal present stems).
The indicative present stem suffix is -e- (nes-e-š, nes-e, nes-e-me, nes-e-te) except the 1st person sing.
rosten is not in use, there is a noun růst instead of rostení Modern Czech uses the forms peču, pečou, peč, péct instead of the archaic (and very rare) peku, pekou, pec, péci and můžu, můžou, (-mož), moct instead of mohu, mohou, -moz, moci.
žíci (žže) → replaced by other verbs: žhnouti (žhne), -žehnouti (-žehne), páliti (pálí) Note: In a similar conjugation, now obsolete, the primary stem ended in v, e.g. žíti (živ-e) < *živti (cf.
živoucí, život) → replaced by žíti (ži-je), similarly pléti (plev-e) < *plevti (cf.
hřébsti or hřésti (hřebe) → replaced by pohřbívati (pohřbívá), pohřbíti (pohřbí) 2) arch.
dlúbsti (dlube) → replaced by dlabati (dlabe), dloubati (dloubá); still used in some dialects ("proč do toho dlubeš?")
3) The original verb †kléti (klne) < *klęti has been replaced by two newly created verbs: klnouti (klne) with identical present stem forms (see Class II) and klíti (kleje) with identical infinitive stem forms (see Class III).
4) The original verb †dúti (dme) < *dǫti has been replaced by two newly created verbs: dmouti (dme) with identical present stem forms (see Class II) and douti (duje) with identical infinitive stem forms (see Class III).
The indicative present stem suffix is -ne- (tisk-ne-š, tisk-ne, tisk-ne-me, tisk-ne-te) except the 1st person sing.
The indicative present stem suffix is -je- (kry-je-š, kry-je, kry-je-me, kry-je-te) except the 1st person sing.
The primary stem ends in a consonant except few verbs of foreign origin (e.g. kon-stru-uje-, kon-stru-ova-ti from Latin con-stru-ere).
and the verbal noun spasení are in fact forms of the archaic verb spásti (see Class I-1).
The infinitive stem suffix is -ě- or -e- (trp-ě-l, trp-ě-ti, sáz-e-l, sáz-e-ti, um-ě-l, um-ě-ti).
The indicative present stem suffix is -á- (děl-á-m, děl-á-š, děl-á, děl-á-me, děl-á-te) except the 3rd person plur.
are commonly in use (e.g. „češe si vlasy – česá ovoce“, „nakluše do práce – kůň klusá“, etc.).
• In the case of less common verbs the original present stem forms are mostly bookish or dialectal (e.g. „hlad tě opáše“, „břečka kyšíc proměňuje sloučenství“, „vykaše si rukávy“, etc.).
• The original present stem forms are generally less frequent, in some cases they are archaic or dialectal („nemajíce sobě zač chleba kúpiti, chodili po domích žebříce“, „proč se v tom šťářeš?“).
• The original present stem forms are generally less frequent, in most cases they are bookish or dialectal (e.g. „stýště se duši mé v životě mém“, „nešlechetník nešlechetnost páše“, „matka hrůzou sotva dýše“, „zajíc v lese, a on rožeň strouže“ — „co se mne týče“ = as far as I am concerned (fixed expression) — „když jde pomalu, tak kulže“, „co to říčete?“, „malá furt fňuče“).
• In the case of the verb pykati the original present stem forms are very archaic (e.g. „jeho [Husovy] smrti velmi pyčí = litují“, „pyčtež mne panny a šlechetné panie = litujtež“, „minulých věcí nepyč = nelituj“).
• The original present stem forms are either archaic or dialectal (e.g. „padělání se tresce dle zákona“, „vězeň svou pověst šepce dál“, „žabí havěď v potoce pohřební píseň skřehoce“, „komoňové lační boje řehcí“ — „co tady léceš?“, „do úla jim lécou aj vosy“, „husy gagocú“).
The verbs with an athematic present stem (být, dáti, jísti, věděti) and míti.