Czech Noun Number and Instrumental Case

• Instrumental case indicates subject
• Instrumental case can be a non-agreement attribute
• Instrumental case can be a nominal part of the predicate

Noun Number (Numerus)

• Noun Number expresses numerical relationships and reflects quantity
• Singular indicates one person or thing (e.g., muž, dívka, tužka)
• Plural indicates multiple things or people (e.g., muži, dívky, tužky)
• Dual form existed in old Czech to denote pairs of people/things, remnants persist with paired organs/limbs.
• Grammatical number isn't identical with the denotation of count so there are peculiarities

Pluralia Tantum

• Pluralia tantum have only a plural form but denote one thing (e.g., kamna, housle, nůžky)
• Terms for paired body parts or illnesses are pluralia tantum
• Names for celebrations/time periods are pluralia tantum
• Geographical names are pluralia tantum, such as Čechy, Uhry
• Species numerals in conjunction with pluralia tantum express count (dvoje housle = 2 pieces)

Singularia Tantum

• Singularia tantum have a singular form but denote a larger number of items as a whole
• Singularia tantum usually have suffixes like -í, -oví (e.g., listí, stromoví) or -sko, -stvo, -ctvo (e.g., vojsko, bratrstvo)
• Examples of singularia tantum include mládež, skot, dobytek, hmyz, drůbež
• Material nouns denote a substance with parts identical to the whole, without regard to quantity (e.g., mouka, písek, mák)
• To specify an exact count with material nouns, use nouns denoting measure (e.g., dvě sklenice minerálky)

Noun Gender (Genus)

• Nouns express belonging to a category through their form
• Natural gender (biological) is binary: masculine, feminine, or absent (neuter in living beings)
• Gender identification can stem from derived or inflected words

Grammatical Gender

• Grammatical categories include:
  • Masculine
  • Feminine
  • Neuter
• Gender differentiation is a property of a substantive
• Gender agreement/concord happens with adjectives
• Locative case expresses location in some languages
• Ablative case (Latin) expresses the starting point of an action or separation

Animacy vs. Inanimacy

• Animacy vs. inanimacy is a subcategory of nouns
• Animacy can be determined by animate endings
• There are exception of those endings (e.g., rodiče, koně)
• Animate masculine nouns have a 4th case equal to the 2nd case
• Inanimate masculine nouns have a 4th case equal to the 1st case

Biological vs. Grammatical Gender

• Biological vs. Grammatical Gender examples:
  • Dobytek (livestock)
  • Hmyz (insects)
  • Skot (cattle)
  • Národ (nation)
• Living things sometimes behave as animate
• Archaic ending -ové denoted animacy in adjectives

Declension

• Noun gender and number also express some past participles
• There are fluctuations in gender

Twofold Gender

• Twofold gender with family according to natural gender
• Mluvnický x přirozený rod; grammatical x natural gender; egs děvče