Czech¶
Write Czech that helps the reader act without guessing. Use natural syntax and precise product terms. Keep the source’s actor, conditions, scope, timing and uncertainty even when the sentence structure changes.
This page adds Czech conventions to the house guide and localization review. Examples illustrate language decisions; verify labels and behavior against the product before publishing them.
Voice and address¶
Use friendly formal address in technical instructions: Otevřete soubor. Keep that choice consistent across a workflow. A campaign may use a different register when its audience and brief support it; do not carry campaign enthusiasm into an error or warning.
Prefer everyday wording when it expresses the same thing. Ale can often replace avšak, and už can often replace již. These are editorial choices, not banned-word rules. Keep a necessary technical distinction even when its term is longer. Access permission and ordinary use are different concepts.
Both moci and moct are standard infinitives. Mohu/mohou and the more conversational můžu/můžou differ in register; choose for the surface, not through automatic replacement. See the Internetová jazyková příručka on these verb forms.
Formal address does not make every sentence gender-neutral. When addressing one person politely, the finite verb is plural but past participles and adjectives can still agree with that person’s gender. An imperative or a statement about the object often avoids unnecessary personal agreement: Zkontrolujte, že jsou všechny soubory zavřené. Do not change a completed action to an ongoing one merely to avoid a gendered form. See CzechEncy on vykání.
Use lowercase vy and váš in general interface and help text as the house convention. Follow the appropriate correspondence convention in a personally addressed letter. Usually omit an explicit pronoun when the verb already identifies the reader.
Meaning and user actions¶
Translate the task, including every required step. A command needs a command form: Zapněte automatické ukládání. A noun phrase naming that setting does not tell the reader to enable it. Refer to the actual setting label when one exists.
Keep these distinctions through revision:
- If synchronization requires email verification, retain that requirement: Sdílená nastavení nelze synchronizovat, dokud neověříte svou e-mailovou adresu. Supplying unspecified account information is a different task.
- If one tap both stops and sends a recording, retain both results: Dalším klepnutím nahrávání zastavíte a nahrávku odešlete. Do not make sending optional or imply a separate action.
- If a restart is needed for an update, name the update and explain when work can resume. Do not claim the whole operating system cannot function unless that is the actual condition.
- If canceling is followed by editing and saving, keep all three actions. For a verified button labeled Zrušit: Vyberte Zrušit, dokončete úpravy a uložte soubor. Canceling is not deleting.
- Retain warnings about other people’s unsaved work and the possibility of loss. Do not turn a possible consequence into a certainty or soften it away.
Permission controls must describe authorization and its scope. Povolit aplikaci přístup k poloze describes granting location access. A statement that an application can do something does not necessarily ask for that permission. Preserve which application, which data and whose data are involved; do not replace “and” with “or.”
Distinguish hovering, clicking, tapping and dragging. Do not turn an automatic result of a gesture into a suggestion that the reader could do something next. In promotions, retain the supported benefit without inventing a broader capability.
Grammar and ownership¶
Inflect Czech nouns and adjectives together. Case depends on the whole construction, including the verb or preposition; translating a noun in isolation is insufficient.
| Construction | Czech example |
|---|---|
| A new file | nový soubor |
| Without a new file | bez nového souboru |
| Toward a new file | k novému souboru |
| In a new file | v novém souboru |
| With a new file | s novým souborem |
| New files | nové soubory |
| In new files | v nových souborech |
Czech has no articles corresponding directly to English a and the. Recast the sentence naturally, but preserve whether it concerns a particular item, any item or every item. Word order alone may not make that scope clear. Do not add jeden or nějaký mechanically for every indefinite article.
Use reflexive svůj for possession referring to the grammatical subject: Uložte svůj soubor. With a different subject, another possessive may be needed: Server odmítl vaše uživatelské jméno. Do not substitute svůj there and assign the username to the server. Omit an unnecessary possessive only when ownership remains clear.
Short and long participial forms have different uses. Instalace byla zrušena. reports a past event; replacing it with Instalace je zrušená. changes the tense and presents a state. Choose the construction that matches the message, rather than banning short participles or passive voice.
Break up a difficult chain of genitives when readers could misidentify what modifies what. There is no universal maximum number of genitives. English “split infinitive” advice does not define a Czech word-order rule.
Counts¶
For a simple count display, use 1 soubor, 2 soubory, 3 soubory, 4 soubory, 5 souborů, 0 souborů and 21 souborů. These examples do not license a last-digit-only rule. Inflected sentences need forms appropriate to their case; decimal quantities need separate review.
In ordinary prose, compound numerals ending in one through four can allow more than one agreement pattern. The preferred general form after a decimal is genitive singular, for example 2,5 metru. See the Internetová jazyková příručka on counted nouns. Test complete messages using the application’s actual plural system, including zero, one, two through four, five, eleven, twenty-one and larger values.
People and inclusion¶
Do not infer a person’s gender from a name or username. Use a neutral construction where it preserves the meaning; use complete, reviewed variants where personal agreement is necessary and the relevant information is available. A string such as {name} aktualizoval(a) does not solve every identity or agreement problem. Keep the actor visible when attribution matters, for example in a separate actor field beside an event description.
Avoid changing singular to plural solely to avoid gender if it changes who is involved. Likewise, a supposedly neutral role word must name the same role: the person chairing a meeting is not necessarily the organization’s chair.
Preserve a person’s supplied name. Czech has established patterns for feminine surnames, but automatically adding -ová to every foreign surname disregards the person’s usage and the construction. Rephrase with an appropriate descriptor when needed. See the Internetová jazyková příručka on feminine surnames.
Use accessible, respectful descriptions. Do not equate a disability with an inability to use the product, or rely on color, position or a gesture alone to identify an action. Apply the shared accessible-content guidance.
Names, terms and placeholders¶
Check terminology in the actual Czech product. Different products may use different labels for a similar control. A translation memory is evidence to review, not authority to override the current interface.
Keep product names recognizable and apply their naming rules. A descriptor often supplies the needed Czech inflection: v aplikaci FontLab, soubor ve formátu PDF. Do not attach a case ending to an unknown substituted name. For a placeholder contract that supplies an application name, Chcete soubor otevřít v aplikaci {app}? keeps that value intact. Check real substitutions, including multiword names and versions, before accepting the sentence.
Preserve placeholder identifiers, markup, escapes, filenames, paths, URLs and code exactly. Do not delete an actor token or invent a replacement token to fix grammar. If an optional value can be absent, the resource needs a valid complete message for that supported case.
Abbreviate when the audience recognizes the abbreviation and space or repetition justifies it. Explain unfamiliar acronyms where useful. Follow established Czech word forms rather than treating all acronyms as either inflected or uninflected. A descriptive noun often avoids an awkward form in product prose.
Distinguish a format name such as OTF from a literal extension such as .otf. Write soubor s příponou .otf when discussing the extension. Preserve .OTF if that exact spelling is part of a filename or technical example; a lowercase prose preference must not modify literal data.
Messages and feedback¶
Match the verb to the real operation state. The following are distinct messages, not stylistic alternatives:
| Meaning | Czech example |
|---|---|
| Instruction | Uložte soubor. |
| In progress | Soubor se ukládá. |
| Completed | Soubor byl uložen. |
| Attempt failed | Soubor se nepodařilo uložit. |
| Currently unavailable | Soubor nelze uložit. |
| Sent successfully | Zpráva byla odeslána. |
A passive completion message is useful when the object and result matter. If the actor matters too, retain that information elsewhere in the message or surrounding record. Do not translate a sent message as one still being sent.
State the problem and a supported next step without blame. Před uložením přidejte do formuláře otázku. gives an action without asserting that the reader forgot it. Distinguish missing properties from invalid values. Distinguish Nedostatek paměti. from a shortage of disk space. Do not infer a cause that the application has not established.
An application can perform operations; it does not need feelings or a human personality. Use “we” when it refers to actual people responsible for the message. Avoid comic interjections, cheerful apologies and unnecessary exclamation marks in failures or loss warnings.
Typography and notation¶
Use sentence case for headings and ordinary labels. Preserve proper names and exact interface labels. Keep Czech diacritics in capitals: PŘÍLIŠ ŽLUŤOUČKÝ KŮŇ. Check accents and letter shapes in the actual font, including at small sizes.
Use Czech double quotation marks „{filename}“ in prose, with no spaces against the enclosed text; nested quotations normally use ‚…‘. The opening double mark is U+201E and the closing mark U+201C. Preserve literal code punctuation. Punctuation placement depends on whether the quotation is a whole sentence or part of one; do not apply an English inside-quotes rule. See the Internetová jazyková příručka on quotation marks.
Write complete instructional sentences with their punctuation. Short labels and headings usually need no final period. Make list items parallel; sentence items can take capitals and periods, while short standalone items can omit end punctuation. Keep comparable lists consistent. Czech permits several list styles, including semicolons where appropriate; see the Internetová jazyková příručka on lists.
Use a colon after a complete label, such as Počet účastníků: {count}. Do not leave a preposition stranded before it. Use Czech comma rules, not English comma placement. Parentheses, slashes and ellipses have legitimate uses; prefer an explicit conjunction when a slash would obscure whether both alternatives apply. Keep an ellipsis in an exact control label when the product uses it.
Use a decimal comma and readable digit grouping in Czech prose: 10 250,75. Keep values and unit symbols together with a nonbreaking space: 12,5 mm and 1250 Kč. Preserve machine-readable syntax in code and data examples.
Percentage spacing changes the reading: sleva 50 % expresses a percentage amount, while 50% sleva uses an adjectival expression. A spelled-out numeric compound can be 50procentní; do not insert -ti-. Use −18 °C with a true minus sign attached to the number, and 12 × 14 × 24 cm with the multiplication sign. These conventions follow the Internetová jazyková příručka on symbols and numbers.
In prose, dates can be 13. září 2026 or 13. 9. 2026. Preserve required storage or interchange formats separately. See the Internetová jazyková příručka on dates. Use digits when readers need exact values, comparisons or interface matches; do not force every number below eleven into words.
Interaction, speech and review¶
Copy shortcut keys from the current product and test them on the supported Czech keyboard layouts. An English shortcut table does not establish Czech assignments. Check duplicates within the actual context, conflicts with text entry, and whether access keys are supported. Do not turn a “go to” action into “back,” or assume a deletion shortcut works everywhere.
For screen-reader instructions, quote the announcement only after checking the actual localized output. If the wording varies by platform or version, describe what the reader should recognize instead of inventing an exact quotation. Keep essential information available in text.
For narration and video, use natural Czech pronunciation and a register suited to the task. Check unfamiliar names and acronyms individually; a fixed catalog of English pronunciation does not cover every context. Read filenames and URLs clearly enough to recover their meaningful parts. Do not universally omit dots, schemes or other characters. Keep spoken instructions, captions and demonstrated actions in the same order.
Review in context with a proficient Czech reviewer. Test real substituted values, count variants, diacritics, quotation marks, nonbreaking spaces, narrow layouts, text expansion and assistive output. Check that every recovery step remains possible and every warning retains its scope. A rendered page check cannot establish that an application’s behavior matches an illustrative example.
Sources¶
Adapted from Microsoft’s Czech localization guidance and Mozilla’s Czech community guide, with source notices and adaptation terms recorded in credits. The adaptation consolidates their advice, corrects meaning changes and unsupported absolutes, and applies house terminology. Primary Czech references linked above support selected grammatical and typographic distinctions. See credits for shared attribution.