Past Participle (Příčestí minulé, l-participle)
The past participle in Czech is the verb form used to build the past tense and the conditional.
It is called the -l participle because most forms end with -l (e.g., dělal = he did).
Mood:
- The participle itself does not have a mood.
- It is used within indicative (past tense) and conditional constructions.
Aspect:
- Can be formed from both imperfective (process/repeated actions) and perfective (completed actions) verbs.
Voice:
- Usually active, but in combination with passive constructions it can work with passive participles.
Formation
The past participle is made by taking the verb stem + -l ending (with gender and number agreement).
Example verb: pracovat (“to work”)
| Person / Gender | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | pracoval | he worked |
| feminine singular | pracovala | she worked |
| neuter singular | pracovalo | it worked |
| masculine plural | pracovali | they (m.) worked |
| feminine plural | pracovaly | they (f.) worked |
| neuter plural | pracovala | they (n.) worked |
Usage
Past tense (with auxiliary být)
- Já jsem pracoval. (I worked.)
Conditional (with conditional particles bych, bys, by…)
- Pracoval bych. (I would work.)
Agreement in gender and number
- Ona pracovala. (She worked.)
- Oni pracovali. (They [men/mixed] worked.)
- Ony pracovaly. (They [women] worked.)
Examples
- Včera jsem pracoval. (Yesterday I worked.)
- Byla doma celý den. (She was at home all day.)
- Pracovali bychom spolu. (We would work together.)
Notes
- The past participle always agrees with the subject in gender and number.
- It cannot stand alone; it combines with auxiliaries (být, or conditional particles).
- For irregular verbs, the participle is irregular too.
Irregular Verbs
Some common irregular past participles:
- být (to be) → byl, byla, bylo, byli, byly
- jít (to go) → šel, šla, šlo, šli, šly
- mít (to have) → měl, měla, mělo, měli, měly
- chtít (to want) → chtěl, chtěla, chtělo, chtěli, chtěly
- vědět (to know) → věděl, věděla, vědělo, věděli, věděly
