ABSTRACT
Numerals are best considered as a separate class of word in Czech, for various reasons, and the way they behave in connection with nouns and verbs requires some detailed explanation. In Czech these numerals hesitate between the role of nouns and the role of adjectives. Numerals one to four function as if they were adjectives, but Czech numerals from ‘five’ upwards behave like nouns followed by the genitive case, unless the whole phrase is in a case other than the nominative or accusative. In ‘non-basic’ number phrases – i.e. those which are not nominative-subject or accusative-object – a numeral goes into the same case as the noun counted. Ordinal numerals have regular adjectival forms in Czech and therefore agree with the nouns they qualify in gender and number. Indefinite quantifiers, unlike numerals, give only a general idea of quantity.
