ABSTRACT

Verbs are words which notionally carry out actions or represent states. Finite forms of verbs act as central verbs of sentences or clauses. Finite verbs may also distinguish the person of their subject. Non-finite forms of verbs are also regularly formed and used in various other ways. These include infinitives, verbal noun and participles. Modal verbs adjust the sense of other verbs in terms of necessity, desire etc. In Czech, as in English, these other verbs are typically added in the infinitive – in English this is often the infinitive without ‘to’, but sometimes also with ‘to’. Czech verbs are also often ‘reflexive’. Reflexive verbs are accompanied either by the accusative form of the reflexive pronoun se ‘oneself’ or by its dative form si ‘to/for oneself’. The personal forms of the present tense are expressed by endings attached to the root of the verb. These personal endings can usually be predicted, if the verb has a polysyllabic infinitive.