Numbers & Counting in Czech

Czech Numbers & Counting

Numbers are pure survival vocabulary: prices, ages, phone numbers, how many beers. Czech numbers are regular once you have the first ten, and they hide two of the sounds you've already met — the ř in tři and the syllabic consonants in sedm, osm.

One to Ten

Teens, Tens, and Hundreds

The teens add -náct, the tens add -cet / -desát, and hundred is sto.

Age and Prices

Two everyday jobs for numbers. Watch how Czech states an age — not "I have twenty years" (that's Polish and French) but "to me is twenty":

Kolik ti je? — Je mi dvacet.

How old are you? — I'm twenty.

Note: Literally 'how much is to you?' / 'to me is twenty.' The person sits in the dative (ti, mi).

Kolik to stojí? — Sto korun.

How much is it? — A hundred crowns.

Note: stojí = 'costs' (lit. 'stands'). The Czech currency is the koruna (crown).

Counting Changes the Noun

Here's the twist worth noticing early: the noun after a number shifts shape depending on the number.

Notice rok → roky → let: "year" even swaps to a different stem after five. Don't drill the endings yet — just expect the noun to change, and it will make sense once you meet the cases.

Next: put verbs to work with the present tense.