Aspect in Czech

Contents

1. What is aspect?
2. Aspectual families
3. Tense and aspect
4. Using aspect
5. Determining the aspect of a verb
6. Issues with aspect in infinitive forms
7. Other aspects
8. Imperfective to perfective and back again
9. Stem changes during aspect change
10. Exercises

What is aspect?

Aspect, generally speaking, is a property of verbs that, according to Wikipedia, "defines the nature of temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state."

All Czech verbs can be categorized as either perfective (Czech: dokonavé) or imperfective (Czech: nedokonavé). This property is known as aspect (Czech: vid). Aspect is a property that remains constant throughout all forms of a given verb, including infinitive, verbal noun, participles, and of course conjugated forms. The property of aspect has extensive impact on the grammar, use, and syntax of the given verb. Initially, it is necessary for students of Czech to memorize the aspect of each learned verb, although, as we shall see, this need can be circumvented.

Usually, verbs can be described as belonging to aspectual families, typically consisting of two members: one perfective and one imperfective verb of equivalent meaning. Ideally, a learner of Czech should know all members of the aspectual family of a given verb, although in practice one member may be preferred.

The concrete difference between perfective and imperfective verbs is difficult to describe, as there is no precisely equivalent construction in English. Speakers of other Slavic languages should find the distinction to be natural. Generally speaking, the differences can be summarized like this:

Perfective verbs:

• express actions in the past or future
• express a completed action
• describe an event that has happens once
• are used in imperative statement to give a one-time, usually positive, command

Imperfective verbs:

• express actions in the past, present, or future
• express an action that may not have been completed or will continue for an indefinite period
• describe an event that happens repeatedly
• express background events that may be interrupted or overlapped by other events
• are used in imperative statement to give a standing order
• are used in imperative and subjunctive forms to indicate a negative command or wish
• are used in conjunction with verbs like začít to begin and pokračovat to continue to express the chronology of events

A more thorough understanding of the differences in use between perfective and imperfective verbs will be gained as the learner sees these verbs in practical use.

Aspectual families

An aspectual family is a group of verbs (most often two) with identical meaning but different aspectual properties. Here is the Czech aspectual family for the verb meaning to do.

This aspectual family is typical because the perfective and imperfective verbs are differentiated by a prefix. Perfective verbs are often formed from imperfective verbs by the addition of a prefix. The most common prefixes having meaning- or aspect-altering impact are:

• u, ú
• po
• z(e)
• za, zá
• na, ná
• do
• od(e)
• vy, vý
• v(e)
• s(e)
• pro, prů
• pře
• při, pří
• o
• ob(e)
• roz(e)
• pod(e)
• nad(e)
• před(e)

Of these prefixes, u-, po-, and za- are the most frequently used to form a perfective verb from an imperfective verb, although which prefix is used in a specific case depends on the verb stem.

It is important to memorize which prefix can be added to the imperfective verb in order to create the perfective verb. Many verb stems can take more than one prefix. Usually only one prefix will produce the perfective equivalent of the imperfective stem, and other prefixes may produce a perfective verb of completely different meaning. For example, consider the example of the aspectual family to do, consisting of udělat (perfective) and dělat (imperfective). Other verbs having the stem -dělat include předělat to do again, vydělat to earn (money), podělat to screw up.

Various prefixes are used with various stems to produce perfective verbs. For example (o)klamat to deceive and (z)mýlit se to err.

Sometimes a perfective verb is formed from an imperfective verb with the addition of a prefix as well as a reflexive pronoun. The addition of a reflexive pronoun often also demands a change in the case of the direct object. For example, although pít takes an argument in the accusative case, napít se takes its argument in genitive.

Some unprefixed verb stems are perfective. In this case, adding a prefix will also produce a perfective verb. How can we find the imperfective equivalent of perfective, unprefixed verbs? In such a case, the verb stem must be lengthened, typically by adding a syllable or lengthening a vowel. Which change must be made is determined by the stem, and applies to all verbs having that stem. In verbs of stem dát, the stem is lengthened by adding the syllable va. (Note also the change in vowel length.)

This rule also applies for perfective, prefixed verbs whose meaning differs from that of their unprefixed stem. Consider the previously mentioned example vydělat to earn. We know that this is a perfective verb, but how can we determine its imperfective equivalent? Removing the prefix would change the meaning. Similar to verbs of stem dát, perfective verbs of stem dělat can be made imperfective by adding the syllable va.

Here are some more examples of stem changes that arise when deriving an imperfective verb from a perfective verb. As you can see, perfective verbs are derived from imperfective by a variety of stem changes, not only by inserting the syllable va. This subject will be covered in more detail later.

Very few have verbs have completely irregular aspectual derivations. One such verb is this one, meaning to take:

It is also worth noting that different verbs, with different aspectual properties, sometimes have similar appearance. Consider the perfective verb hodit to throw, which should not be confused with the imperfective verb hodit se to suit. The verb hodit also has an interesting use of case: it can be used with either accusative (hodit něco) or instrumental (hodit něcím) but when used idiomatically with a reflexive pronoun to mean move quickly, shake a leg, get a move on, it is usually used with the instrumental reflexive pronoun to avoid confusion with the verb hodit se.

Small aspectual families

Not all aspectual families have exactly two members. Some verbs may be either perfective or imperfective, depending on context. Such verbs are usually of foreign origin (informovat to inform) but not always (věnovat to devote). These verbs exist in an aspectual family of one member.

In addition, some perfective verbs have purely theoretical imperfective equivalents, which are not used in practice, or which have significantly different meaning. A prime example of this phenomenon is the perfective verb zamluvit to reserve, book, which has a would-be imperfective partner zamlouvat se to appeal, to be appealing. For the purposes of this lesson, these verbs are considered to be in separate aspectual families, each of one member. Another example of imperfective forms isolated from their perfective equivalents by a meaning change can be found when we consider the imperfective verb jít to go from which we have perfective zajít, from which (by means of stem lengthening) we have imperfective zacházet. Zacházet, however, has a secondary meaning to treat, handle, maniplate and can therefore be considered an independant verb, in its own aspectual family.

Another good example of an imperfective-only verb is vypadat to look. Vypadat is also used as the imperfective partner of vypadnout to fall out, but vypadávat is more commonly used in that role.

Large aspectual families

Imperfective verbs can be further classified into three subcategories: durative, iterative, frequentative. Some aspectual families contain more than one of these, and therefore some verb families can have up to three non-redundant imperfective members. This will be covered more completely below.

There is another reason for larger aspectual families. Consider the perfective verb udělat. We already know that its imperfective partner is dělat, but, as we shall see below, there is another way to derive imperfective verbs from perfective: by adding a syllable. This means that an alternative to dělat is udělávat. In practice this form is seldom used, and is not typically considered a member of that aspectual family. Many other verb families also provide several synonymous alternatives, often with slightly altered meaning. For example, zvážit to weigh has imperfective forms vážit a zvažovat, although the second of these is most often used in the sense of "to consider."

Related aspectual families

Determining the aspectual family of a verb is made more difficult by the fact that some imperfective verbs may be used as a stem to perfective verbs different from the perfective verb from which they were originally formed. That is, once an imperfective verb is formed from a perfective verb, an additional, secondary prefix may be added, rendering the verb perfective. Sometimes the meaning of the newly derived, doubly-prefixed perfective is slightly different from that of the original perfective, and sometimes it's the same, and sometimes it's totally different. Some examples:

In such cases, the imperfective serves as the partner of both perfective verbs.

Tense and aspect

As noted above, imperfective verbs express action in the present, past, or future, whereas perfective verbs express action only in the past and future. Perfective verbs do not have a present tense conjugation. However, the future tense of perfective verbs can often be used to express the intent to complete an already-undertaken action in the near future, and thus coincides with the use of present tense in certain languages. In addition, imperfective present tense verbs can be used to express future, planned events, just as present continuous verbs can be used for similar effect in English: Jedu zítra do Brna. I'm going to Brno tomorrow.

Although past tense is formed analogously for perfective and imperfective verbs, future tense is formed entirely differently. As mentioned above, the future tense of perfective verbs is formed with with normal present-tense endings. The future tense of imperfective verbs, however, is formed from the infinitive form of the verb, plus the conjugated, future form of the verb být to be, thus budu, budeš, budeme, etc. It is incorrect to use these forms with a perfective infinitive.

Some monosyllabic imperfective durative verbs (primarily verbs of motion) form an exception to the above rule, and have irregular future conjugations, using the prefix po- or pů-, such as povedu I will lead, půjdeš You will go, and poběžíme We will run. Although these forms resemble perfective verbs (in that they have prefixes, and have future meanings), do not forget that they are in fact irregular imperfective future forms, and therefore have no corresponding infinitive or past tense; that is, the forms *půjít or *půšli do not exist.

Here is an overview of the tenses and aspects of the verb to do in the first-person singular.

Here is a table showing (very approximately) how the aspect/tense combinations presented in the previous table can be translated using English's tenses.

Using aspect

State of completion

The most basic difference in use between perfect and imperfective verbs is, as indicated in the introduction, the difference between an action including indication of its completion and the activity without indication of completion. The question of what constitutes completion is not necessarily clear to a learner of Czech, so we'll try to elaborate.

To illustrate this point, we'll use the verb číst to read. It's imperfective, and its perfective counterpart is přečíst. The conversations below illustrate the difference in their use in the past tense.

The above conversation uses imperfective verbs because it concerns reading as an activity in its own right, rather than as an action with an implied goal.

The above converation uses perfective verbs because it concerns reading as an action with an implied goal (in this case completion of reading) rather than an activity.

As simialar dichotomy exists in the future tense. For the examples below, we'll use the verb řešit to solve, deal with and its perfective counterpart, vyřešit.

The first question above concerns itself not with the results of the second person's work, but rather with his effort. The second questions is not concerned with how the second person will spend his time, but rather if the speaker can expect to have a functioning car at the end of the day. The first question might serve as a prologue to the explanation, "If so, wash the grease off your hands before you come to dinner." The second question might serve as a prologue to the exaplanation, "If so, I'll be able to drive to work tomorrow." Analogously to the first example with číst and přečíst, this example is primarily about the difference between activity and action.

In some cases, the difference between the use of perfective and imperfective can produce subtle changes in meaning that are often not easily translatable to English. Consider the verb mluvit to speak and its perfective counterpart promluvit.

Similar to the other examples, the contrast here between mluvit to speak and promluvit to have a talk lies above all in their completability. The term "to have a talk" with someone suggests that there is a specific topic of conversation that should reach a conclusion, while "to talk" does not.

Commands

As mentioned in the introduction, commands and subjunctive clauses are typically formed with perfective verbs for positive commands or wishes (for example, Otevři okno! "Open the window!" or Chce, abys otevřela okno "He wants you to open the window") but with imperfective verbs for negative commands or wishes (for example Neotvírej okno! "Don't open the window!" or Je důležité, abys neotvírala okno "It's important that you not open the window"). While that rule generally applies in practice, the underlying principle is distinct. Perfective verbs, in accordance with their role indicating one-time actions, indicate also one-time commands or wishes, whereas imperfective verbs indicate what might be described as standing orders: that is, commands with a presumably ongoing validity. In the above examples, the imperfective verbs otvírat is used, because the speaker does not want the addressee to open the window at all, generally, and not only in this particular instance.

There are cases where one might use imperfective verbs for positive commands and perfective for negative. For example, if Jan gives Jaroslav the command Otevři okno! "Open the window!", Lucka, disagreeing, might immediately countermand Jan's instruction with Neotevři! "Don't!", expressing not that Jaroslav must never open the window, but simply that she is not to obey Jan's command in this particular situation. Another counterexample to the rule expressed in the preceding paragraph might be found if, next to the window, were a sign with the text Zavírejte okno! "Keep the window closed!", indicating that the command is to be obeyed generally.

Chronology

Aspect can be used to indicate the chronological succession of events. In sentences with multiple clauses, the contrast between perfective and imperfective verbs may correspond to the difference between English simple and continuous tenses. To illustrate this point, we'll demonstrate the variations in meaning that occur as the aspect of verbs in otherwise similar sentences is shifted. As a reminder, here are the aspectual families for the relevant verbs. First, here is the aspectual family for to ring.

Imperfective	Perfective
zvonit	zazvonit

And here is the aspectual family for to have dinner.

Imperfective	Perfective
večeřet	povečeřet

Here are several examples using the above verbs.

Determining the aspect of a verb

A good Czech dictionary will tell you the aspect of each verb. A very good Czech dictionary will tell you the aspect of each verb as well as other verbs in its aspectual family. Sometimes, however, a dictionary is not available, and a learner of Czech must determine the aspect of a verb without its help.

If you already know the aspect of a verb with the same stem, but a different prefix, it is likely that the unknown verb has the same aspect. For example, we already know that udělat is perfective, and therefore it can be (correctly) supposed that prodělat is also perfective. Also, some more general rules apply: prefixed verbs with unlengthened stems are typically perfective, whereas verbs with lengthened stems are typically imperfective. The issue of lenghtening stems is taken through in more detail below.

If a native speaker is at hand, there are ways one can use his knowledge of the language to determine the aspect of a verb, even if he doesn't know the technical terminology like "perfective" and "imperfective." Future tense of perfective verbs is never formed with budu/budeš/... and we can take advantage of this fact. Present the native speaker with sentences such as these, and ask if they are gramatically correct.

The above table shows that the aspect of a verb can be predicted, according to our knowledge about its stem. Hledat is an unprefixed, unlengthened stem, and therefore should be imperfective, and prohledat uses the same stem, with a prefix, and therefore should be perfective. Our theory was verified by consulting with a native speaker. However, some verbs may have unexpected aspect, and need to be memorized. For example, the verb pustit to release like dát, is unprefixed, unlengthened and perfective. The verb zdát se to appear may seem to belong to the stem class of dát, but it doesn't, and is in fact imperfective. Likewise, despite the fact that nenávidět to hate is derived from vidět to see, and has an unlengthtned stem, it is nevertheless imperfective, like another member of the same stem class závidět to envy. Although the aspect of these examples, and others, cannot be predicted using the methods we have heretofore discussed, their aspect can be discovered using the native-speaker test.

This test of aspect, enlisting the help of a native-speaker, and making use of the gramatical feature that only imperfective verbs may be used with the auxilliary verb "bude," will produce correct results for all verbs except for imperfective durative verbs of motion such as jít to go and nést to carry, which have irregular future forms.

Issues with aspect in infinitive forms

We have thus far contrasted the use of conjugated forms of perfective and imperfective verbs, but have neglected to discuss how this contrast impacts verbs even in unconjugated (infinitive) forms. The significant infinitive forms which we will cover are basic infinitive (hledat), verbal noun (hledání), past adjectival passive participle (hledaný), and present adjectival participle (hledací). The last of these is almost always derived from imperfective verbs. The others may be perfective or imperfective, and often carry a distinction similar to the distinction of their conjugated forms.

Each verb, both perfective and imperfective, has its own verbal noun. When used in a context in which the progress of the action is discussed (such as in conjunction with verbs like begin, end, continue) the imperfective form is used. In other cases either may be used, often with a subtle change of meaning. Likewise, each verb has its own theoretical past adjectival passive participle, and a similar difference exists between them.

Infinitive forms requiring imperfective:

Examples of the contrast between infinitive forms of perfective and imperective verbs:

Other aspects

As mentioned previously, imperfective verbs can be divided into three subcategories:

• Durative - Indicating an action that occupies a contiguous period of time.
• Iterative - Indicating an action repeated at regular intervals, or ocurring generally, habitually.
• Frequentative - Indicating an action repeated at irregular intervals.

These three kinds of imperfective verbs are exemplified by the three imperfective members of the aspectual family to go:

Use

The most common kind of imperfective verb, and the kind that we have seen heretofore, is durative. The availability, formation, and use of iterative and frequentative verbs, however, varies widely. In particular, all iterative verbs are of one of the following types:

• Type 1: Iterative verbs whose use is required if the action is repeated, general, or habitual. Verbs of this type are mainly verbs of motion, including chodit, as used in the table of exemplary sentences above. In the second of these sentences, the iterative verb chodit is used instead of the durative jít, because the action is performed every day; that is, regularly, habitually. In that sentence it would be incorrect to use the equivalent durative verb.
• Type 2: Iterative verbs whose use is optional, even if the action is repeated, general, or habitual. Most iterative verbs are of this type. For verbs of this type, the durative form will usually be used, unless the speaker wants to emphasize the repeated, general, or habitual nature of the action. For example, the sentences "České filmy jsou obvykle docela zajímavé" and "České filmy bývají docela zajímavé" could both be translated as "Czech films are usually pretty interesting." In the first sentence, the habitual nature of the action is conveyed by the adverbial obvykle usually; in the second sentence, the same sentiment is conveyed by the iterative form of the verb.

Although iterative verbs, depending on the verb in question, are sometimes required and sometimes not, frequentative verbs are always optional, and are only used in place of a durative or iterative verb to provide additional emphasis or to convey information that could otherwise be conveyed by a temporal adjectival phrase. For example, in the third of the above exemplary sentences, the frequentative verb chodívat is used. However, it would be correct to use chodit instead, and this substitution would not result in a significant change in meaning, because the adverbial čas od času from time to time has already established the action as being occasional.

Formation

Iterative and frequentative verbs are most commonly used in the aspectual families of verbs of motion, where they are the usually formed irregularly and need to be memorized, as seen in the first table below. Beyond verbs of motion, iterative and frequentative verbs are relatively rare, a handful of them being used often, as seen in the second table below. For the majority of other verbs, iterative and frequentative verbs are theoretical, but used in practice sparingly. The verb dělávat, for example, is the iterative form of the verb dělat. (You will recognize that the unprefixed iterative is often formed similarly to a prefixed durative, such as vydělávat.) It could be translated as "to do, generally." In the past tense, it could be translated as "used to do." However, its durative equivalent, dělat, could also fill either of these rolls.

Not all aspectual families include iterative or frequentative members. For such families, the durative verb is used for all imperfective uses. For example, verb families having the same stem as "odpouštět," have only one imperfective member. Other aspectual families have iterative or frequentative members, but these verbs are seldom or never used in practice, or are used only in certain, fixed bindings. For example, the iterative pívat, part of an aspectual family with pít to drink is used only in past tense, where it has a meaning similar to English's "used to drink."

Here are the aspectual families of some common verbs of motion. All of the iterative verbs in the following table are of the first type, as described above.

In addition to the verbs of motion, some verbs have multiple imperfective verbs in their aspectual family. All of the iterative verbs in the following table are of the second type, as described above. You may notice that outside the verbs of motion, most iterative and frequentative verbs are formed regularly from durative verbs analogously as durative verbs are formed from perfective verbs, that is, by stem lengthening, typically by adding the syllable va. Lengthening the stem of a durative verb will usually render an iterative verb, and lengthening the stem yet again will create a frequentative verb. Be careful of overapplying this rule, though.

A typical conversation:

Imperfective to perfective and back again

Here is a summary of the methods for deriving perfective verbs from imperfective verbs and the reverse.

Imperfective to perfective

• Unprefixed imperfective verbs can be made perfective by adding a prefix. hledat : vyhledat
• Prefixed imperfective verbs can be made perfective by shortening the stem. See table below. vyhledávat : vyhledat

Perfective to imperfective

• Unprefixed perfective verbs can be made imperfective by lengthening the stem. See table below. pusit : pouštět
• Prefixed perfective verbs can be made imperfective by remove the prefix... zapůsobit : působit
• ...or, if you can't do that due to a change in meaning, by lengthening the stem. způsobit : způsobovat

Notes for learners

It is recommended that when learning a new verb, a learner note all members of its aspectual family. This can be done concisely using parentheses to note the appropriate prefix and appropriate stem lengthening. Here are some examples which demonstrate a recommend style of notation, showing not only aspectual information, but also information related to the case of nouns used as arguments to that verb:

• (po)zvat koho to invite
• uvědomit(-ovat) si co to become aware of
• vyhnout(-hýbat) se čemu to avoid

Stem changes during aspect change

A frequent problem arrises when we have a perfective verb with a meaning-changing prefix. As we've already seen, it is not necessarily easy to determine the imperfective equivalent of this verb. Without knowing the imperfective verb, though, we cannot form present tense, among other useful forms. The solution is to alter the stem of the verb, often by adding a syllable. The nature of this change varies according to stem, but is the same for all verbs having that stem. For example, the given verb vydělat can be made imperfective by lengthening the stem, giving us vydělávat. A similar transformation applies to prodělat, nadělat, podělat, and so on. This table provides an example verb from several of the more common stems and the necessary stem change.

Exercises

Change the sentence to present tense.

1. Nepodařilo se nám najít správnou odpověď.
2. Budu pracovat svědomitěji.
3. Vyřeším i tvůj problém.
4. Vyliju láhev na zem.
5. Důstojník jim příkáže, aby odešli.
6. Balík vypadl z náklaďáku.
7. Vyvedli mě z omylu.
8. Spáchal tak hrozný zločin, že ho určitě propustí z firmy.
9. Dobytek se splašil.
10. Uspořádal jsem tvůj pokoj.

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