Czech/Pronouns

Details on and declination of personal pronouns
As other pronouns, also personal pronouns are declined in Czech language. As verbs used with pronouns are declined and it's easy for listener to guess person (first, second, third) and number (singular, plural), pronouns are not often use in their primary form - nominative. Examples with nominative written below are a little bit artificial structures. Czechs do not usually make sentences with nominative form of pronouns unless they want to emphasize the person.

I
Pronoun já [jaː] (I in English) substitutes speaker (first person) in a sentence.

* Vocative of já is not used.

You (singular)
Ty [tɪ] (you in English) is used to replace speaker's partner (second person, singular). It's mostly used in informal conversation, i.e. when speakers are friends or members of same family, when one speaker is significantly older than the other or when the speaker abuses their partner. In formal conversations pronoun vy [vɪ] is broadly used to address speaker's partner.

He
Pronoun on [ɔn] (he in English) is a substitution for third person, singular, masculine gender. It substitutes masculine singular nouns in sentences. Unlike English there is no influence of animacy or humanity to use this pronoun, only gender of the substituted noun is relevant. Therefore in Czech on substitutes nouns strom (a tree), stroj (a machine) or hrad (a castle) as well as lékař (a doctor), otec (a father), majitel (an owner) or herec (an actor).

* Vocative of on is not used.

She
Ona [ɔna] (she in English) is third person singular, feminine gender. Pronoun ona substitutes feminine nouns (animate and inanimate ones), i.e. it can be is used to replace nouns as kočka (a cat), láhev (a bottle), vnučka (a granddaughter ) or lampa (a lamp).

* Vocative of ona is not used.

It
Ono [ɔnɔ] (it in English) is a substitution for third person singular, neuter gender. It is used instead of neuter nouns, e.g. instead of auto (a car), vězení (a prison), zvíře (an animal).

* Vocative of ono is not used.

We
Pronoun my [mɪ] (we in English) substitutes first person plural.

You (plural)
Pronoun vy [vɪ] (you in English) substitutes second person plural. It is used not only to address a group of speaker's partners but also in formal speech called vykání. In that speech pronoun vy is used and verbs are declined in plural (except the declination in case of conditional and past tense).

English does not distinguish between you in singular and you in plural and it does not use vykání either. At English-to-Czech translation one must understand the context to use the appropriate forms of pronouns and verbs.

They (masculine)
Pronoun oni [ɔnɪ] (they in English)

* Vocative of oni is not used.

They (feminine)
Pronoun ony [ɔnɪ] (they in English)

* This form is used after preposition only.

+ Vocative of ony is not used.

They (neuter)
Pronoun ona [ɔna] (they in English)

* This form is used after preposition only.

+ Vocative of ona is not used.