Negation

In Czech, negation may be expressed in different ways that are subject to grammatical rules and norms. Negations do not normally cause problems to native speakers, but the peculiarities of Czech negation are evident when compared to other languages.

The simplest way of expressing negation in Czech is adding the prefix ne- to verbs, e.g. tomu nerozumím (I don’t understand that). Negation may also be expressed with pronouns and adverbs, e.g. nic (nothing), nikdo (nobody) or nikde (nowhere) used with a negative verb, e.g. nic nevidím (“I don’t see nothing”), etc. A peculiarity of Czech (and other Slavonic languages) is the ability, and in most cases the necessity, to negate all the indefinite elements in the sentence, which results in multiple negation, e.g. nikdy nic nikomu neřeknu (“I will never not-tell nothing to nobody”). The correct negation of the sentence Všichni tomu rozumějí (“Everybody understands it”) is Nikdo tomu nerozumí (“Nobody doesn’t understand it”), rather than Všichni tomu nerozumí (“Not everybody understands it”). The latter, supported by appropriate intonation, expresses the so-called partial negation, i.e. the fact that some people understand it, but not everybody.

Negation may be expressed by a word, which is characteristic of less formal varieties of spoken Czech, e.g. ty tomu houby rozumíš (“You understand it like hell”). There are also implicit ways of negating statements, especially irony, marked by a change in intonation. Intonation is also important when the statement is not ironic; it can define the scope of negation in a sentence, e.g. Ale já jsem neřekl, že on bije svoji ženu (“But I didn't say he was beating his wife”). Furthermore, it is also possible to express negation with a rhetorical question that implies a negative answer. For example, the question Je snad možné takto nelidsky postupovat? (“Is it possible to be so cruel?”) implies the answer Samozřejmě, že není (“Of course it is not.”)

Negation in Czech, like agreement, may be expressed non-verbally: disagreement by a head shake and agreement by a nod. Both gestures are accompanied by appropriate interjections. Apart from the formal expression ano (“yes”), agreement in spoken Czech is also commonly expressed with the words jo and no. These may be used ironically as well, or evasively, moderating unflattering truth, e.g. the assessment docela dobré (“rather good”), which is only rarely used as an actual compliment.