Word order: the second position
Včera jsem si ho koupil.
In short
Small words like jsem, se, si, mi, ho love the second position in a sentence, right after the first word or phrase. When several of them meet, they line up in a fixed order: jsem → se/si → mi → ho.
- Včera jsem si ho koupil.I bought it yesterday.
- Dal jsem mu to.I gave it to him.
- Jak se jmenuješ?What's your name?
- Chtěl bych ti něco říct.I'd like to tell you something.
Full explanation
Czech word order is famously free, but this one rule is strict. These little unstressed words (called clitics) always go in second place, after the first word or phrase:
| 1st | 2nd: in this order | rest |
|---|---|---|
| Včera | jsem · si · ho | koupil. |
| Chtěl | bych · ti | něco říct. |
| Můj bratr | mi | dal knihu. |
- first jsem, jsi, jsme, jste and bych, bys, by…
- then se / si
- then the dative pronoun (mi, ti, mu, jí, nám…)
- then the accusative pronoun (mě, tě, ho, ji, je…)
So Dal jsem mu ho, never Dal mu jsem ho. And a "first phrase" can be several words: Můj starší bratr mi to dal.
Don't stress about this at first. Listen to how Czechs say it and copy whole chunks like Dal jsem mu to or Jak se máš. After a while, the wrong order simply sounds wrong to you.