The last two verbs are not irregular but belong to a special class.

The past tense (and there is only one past tense in Bohemian) is formed for the first two persons from the past participle and the auxiliary býti; the third person is the participle alone. See preceding lesson.

byl jsem, I was (masc.),byla jsem, I was (fem.),
byli jsme, we were (masc.),byly jsme, we were (fem.),
byl jsi, you were (masc.),byla jsi, you were (fem.),
byli jste, you were (masc.),byly jste, you were (fem.),
on byl, he was (masc.),ona byla, she was (fem.).

In the same way měl jsem, I had; ona měla, she had. Četli jsme, we read (masc.); ony četly (fem.) they read.—Šel forms, however, an exception (the e is so called pohyblivé e, movable e, like e in ending -ek of the masculine nouns (declension)). The feminine form of šel is šla, the plural of šel, šli, the plural of šla, šly.

On šel, he went; plural oni šli, they went or they were going.

ona šla, she went; plural ony šly, they went, or they were going.

No auxiliary is employed in Bohemian in making question or negative statement. Negative form is made by simply prefixing ne (viz [I. lesson]); nebyl jsem, I was not; nešel jsem, I did not go. The only exception is jest, abbreviated je, is, but není, is not.

Questions are formed by interchanging pronoun and verb. Ty máš peníze. You have money. Máš ty peníze? Have you money? But since the pronoun is usually omitted, only question mark and in speaking accentuation indicates question. Čtete knihu. You read a book. Čtete knihu? Do you read a book? When the verb has for subject a noun then the verb follows the noun in a statement and precedes the noun in a question, except when an adverb why? proč?, when?, kdy?, where?, kde? kam? is used to introduce the question.

Hoch byl ve škole. The boy was in the school. Byl hoch ve škole? Was the boy in the school? Voják četl knihu. The soldier read the book. Četl voják knihu? Did the soldier read the book? Sestra nemluvila. The sister didn’t talk. Proč sestra nemluvila? Why didn’t the sister talk?