Czech verbs can be classified (arranged in classes) in several ways. The verbal classes can be characterised in terms of their morphological properties. Verbs that belong to the same class typically accept the same range of suffixes (endings). This article concerns the morphological classification of the Czech verbs and the formation of their admissible forms (including, to some extent, bookish and archaic ones). The first attempts to classify Czech verbs from the morphological point of view were made in the 16th century, for example in Matouš Benešovský's Grammatica Bohemica from 1577. Vavřinec Benedikt Nudožerský in his work Grammaticæ bohemicæ libri duo (1603) distinguished four classes according to the present indicative ending of the 1st person singular: I. – ám, II. – ím, III. – u, IV. – i. Pavel Doležal in his Grammatica Slavico-Bohemica (1746), inspired by the Latin grammar, for the first time classified the Czech verbs according to the infinitive: I. vol-a-ti (vocāre), II. mil-ova-ti (amāre), III. lež-e-ti (iacēre), IV. uč-i-ti (docēre), V. pí-ti (bibere), VI. hr-nou-ti (sēmovēre, āmovēre) and, moreover, verba anomala, i.e. an arbitrary list of several tens of "irregular" verbs including the athematic ones. The Czech (and generally Slavic) verbs have two distinct stems: the present stem (used in forming present indicative, imperative and present transgressive) and the infinitive stem (infinitive, past and passive participles, past transgressive and verbal noun). Both stems are equally important and frequent, which means there are two basic possibilities of systematic classification of the Czech (generally Slavic) verbs, based either on the present stems or on the infinitive stems. For comparison the Latin verbs have three distinct stems (present, perfect, supine) and their classification is traditionally based on the present stem (I. vocā-, II. tenē-, III. leg-(ĕ,ǐ)-, IV. audī-), the infinitive itself is derived from the present stem (vocāre, tenēre, légĕre, audīre). As there are six types of the infinitive stem, there are also six corresponding classes (Franz Miklosich, Formenlehre der slawischen Sprachen, 1856 and Jan Gebauer, Historická mluvnice jazyka českého, 1898), usually arranged in the following manner: I. nés-ti, vés-ti (*ved-ti), péci (*pek-ti), krý-ti, etc. (no stem suffix), II. tisk-nou-ti, III. slyš-e-ti, trp-ě-ti, um-ě-ti, IV. pros-i-ti, V. děl-a-ti, sáz-e-ti (*sad-ja-ti), láti (*la-ja-ti), bráti (*bьr-a-ti), kov-a-ti, VI. kup-ova-ti. This classification is very similar to the Doležal's one (though the class order is different). The classification based on the present stem (e.g. August Schleicher, Formenlehre der kirchenslawischen Sprache, 1852, and esp. August Leskien, Handbuch der altbulgarischen Sprache, 2nd ed., 1886) distinguishes five classes, the classes I-IV have a distinct present stem suffix: I. nes-e-, ved-e-, jьm-e-, etc., II. dvig-ne-, III. kry-je-, *tes-je-, dêl-a-je-, *sad-ja-je-, kup-u-je-, IV. chval-i-, trъp-i-, V. *jes-, *dad-, *jad-, *vêd- (athematic consonantal present stems). The system presented in this article is a system based on the Leskien's classification, adapted to the contemporary Czech language. The main differences are: a) the few athematic (and highly irregular) verbs are treated separately, b) the contracted děl-á- < *dêl-a-je- has moved from the class III to a new class V, c) the contracted sáz-í- < *sad-ja-je- has moved from the class III to the class IV. == Class I (-e-) == The indicative present stem suffix is -e- (nes-e-š, nes-e, nes-e-me, nes-e-te) except the 1st person sing. (nes-u < *nes-ǫ) and the 3rd person plur. (nes-ou < †nes-ú < *nes-ǫ-tъ). 1) reduced imperative endings used in most cases: nes (but nesiž), nesme, neste 2) full imperative endings used if the root has no vowel: jmi, jměme, jměte 3) after some consonants the original iotation has been lost, e.g. třete < †třěte (so the modern imperative forms are undistinguishable from the present indicative forms) The verbs of this class are divided in three groups according to the infinitive stem. === Group 1 === The infinitive stem has no suffix and is equal to the primary stem that ends in a consonant (nes-, vez-, ved-, plet-, pek-, moh-, záb-). ==== nese – nesl – nésti ==== The primary stem ends in s or z (nes-, vez-). 1) for třesu ↔ třasu, etc. see Root vowel mutation (přísti) 2) hrýzti (hryze) is archaic („svědomí je hryze“, OCz „črvie mě hryzú“ = me vermes rodunt) → replaced by hryzati (hryže), obs. hrýzati (hrýže) ==== vede – vedl – vésti ==== The primary stem ends in d or t (ved-, plet-). The infinitive ends in -sti (vésti < *ved-ti, plésti < *plet-ti). 1) růsti < *orst-ti: pass. part. rosten is not in use, there is a noun růst instead of rostení ==== peče – pekl ~ péci ==== The primary stem ends in k or h (pek-, moh- < *mog-). The infinitive ends in -ci (péci < *pek-ti, moci < *mog-ti). Modern Czech uses the forms peču, pečou, peč, péct instead of the archaic (and very rare) peku, pekou, pec, péci and můžu, můžou, (-mož), moct instead of mohu, mohou, -moz, moci. 1) říci: the present stem forms řku, řčeš, rci, etc. are bookish ("…rci mi pravdu a víc nic, jest v Gilead balzám těchy…") → replaced by the present stem forms of -řeknouti (the infinitive only with a prefix): řeknu, řekneš, řekni and -řknouti (prefixed): -řknu, -řkneš, -řkni 2) arch. stříci (střiže) → replaced by stříhati (stříhá), -střihnouti (-střihne) 3) arch. žíci (žže) → replaced by other verbs: žhnouti (žhne), -žehnouti (-žehne), páliti (pálí) ==== zebe • zábl – zábsti ==== The primary stem ends in b or p (zeb-, tep-). The infinitive ends in -s-ti (inserted s). Note: In a similar conjugation, now obsolete, the primary stem ended in v, e.g. žíti (živ-e) < *živti (cf. živoucí, život) → replaced by žíti (ži-je), similarly pléti (plev-e) < *plevti (cf. plevel) → replaced by plíti (ple-je), see Class III. The verbs of this type are obsolete except zábsti that is still in use. 1) arch. hřébsti or hřésti (hřebe) → replaced by pohřbívati (pohřbívá), pohřbíti (pohřbí) 2) arch. skúbsti or skústi (skube) → replaced by škubati (škube) 3) arch. dlúbsti (dlube) → replaced by dlabati (dlabe), dloubati (dloubá); still used in some dialects ("proč do toho dlubeš?") 4) arch. tépsti (tepe) → replaced by tepati (tepe) === Group 2 === The infinitive stem has no distinctive suffix and ends in a vowel (ja-, tře-, mle-). ==== jme • jal – jíti (-níti) → jmouti ==== The original stem ended in m or n (*em-, *pen-, *dom-). The present stems: jme- < *j-ьm-e-, pne- < *pьn-e-, dme- < *dъm-e-, etc. The original infinitive: *j-ę-ti < *em-, *pę-ti < *pen-, *dǫ-ti < *dom-, etc. N.B. The infinitive jmouti (see also Class II) is a newly created form as the original infinitive jíti (jme) < *jęti can be confused with the homonymous infinitive jíti (jde) < *iti. The original infinitive jíti (after some prefixes -níti) is mostly preserved in the prefixed verbs where the confusion is not an issue, e.g. vzíti (vezme) vs. vzejíti (vzejde), odníti (odejme) vs. odejíti (odejde), vyníti (vyjme) vs. vyjíti (vyjde), etc. However new infinitives like odejmouti, vyjmouti are also in use (vzíti is an exception). 1) The infinitive pnouti (see Class II) is a newly created form as the original infinitive píti (pne) < †pieti < *pęti can be confused with the homonymous infinitive píti (pije). In contemporary Czech the original infinitive (píti) is not in use. 2) The original verb míti (mne) < †mieti < *męti (the infinitive of which could be confused with the athematic verb míti < †jmieti) has been replaced by a newly created verb mnouti (mne) with identical present stem forms (see Class II). 3) The original verb †kléti (klne) < *klęti has been replaced by two newly created verbs: klnouti (klne) with identical present stem forms (see Class II) and klíti (kleje) with identical infinitive stem forms (see Class III). The new verbs have slightly different meaning. 4) The original verb †dúti (dme) < *dǫti has been replaced by two newly created verbs: dmouti (dme) with identical present stem forms (see Class II) and douti (duje) with identical infinitive stem forms (see Class III). The new verbs have different meaning ("hruď se dme", "vítr duje"). ==== tře • třel – tříti ==== The original stem ended in r (*ter-). ==== mele • mlel – mlíti ==== The original stem ended in l (*mel-). The forms mlen, mlena, etc. and mlení are less common. There are no other verbs of this type except mlíti in contemporary Czech. === Group 3 === The infinitive stem suffix is -a- (br-a-, zv-a-, maz-a-). ==== bere • bral – bráti ==== The present stem forms béřeš, beř, etc. are archaic. ==== zve • zval ~ zváti ==== The present stem forms zovu, zůveš, zovi, zova, etc. are archaic ("moudrost sama k sobě hloupé zůve"). ==== maže • mazal ~ mazati ==== == Class II (-ne-) == The indicative present stem suffix is -ne- (tisk-ne-š, tisk-ne, tisk-ne-me, tisk-ne-te) except the 1st person sing. (tisk-nu < *tisk-nǫ) and the 3rd person plur. (tisk-nou < †tisk-nú < *tisk-nǫ-tъ). The verbs of this class are divided in two groups according to the primary stem ending. === Group 1 === The primary stem ends in a consonant except syllabic r or l (tisk-, h-). ==== tiskne • tiskl – tisknouti ==== The forms tisknul, tisknut, (s)tisknuv, tisknutí are later created infinitive stem forms (formed regularly by using the suffix -nu-). Literary Czech prefers the original shorter forms (without the suffix -nu-) if they are in use (e.g. "dveře jsou zamčeny" is better than "dveře jsou zamknuty"). However some verbs use prevalently or exclusively the infinitive stem forms with the suffix -nu-. In some cases there is a difference in usage (e.g. "kniha je tištěna", but "ruka je tisknuta"). ==== pne • pnul, pjal – pnouti ==== === Group 2 === The primary stem ends in a vowel or syllabic r or syllabic l (ply-, tr-, kl-). ==== plyne • plynul – plynouti ==== == Class III (-je-) == The indicat