Agreement in polite vy address

When using polite you with plural verb to address a single person, you must navigate hybridní shoda (hybrid agreement). This applies to past participle agreement, agreement of the passive participle, and predicate adjective agreement.

1. Past Tense and Conditional Mood
The finite auxiliary verb is always 2nd-person plural (jste, byste). However, the l-participle takes the singular ending: -l for a man, -la for a woman.

• Male: Pane, zapomněl jste... (Not: zapomněli jste)
• Female: Paní, byla byste tak hodná... (Not: byly byste)

2. Passive Voice, Adjectives, and Nouns
The same rule applies to passive participles, predicate adjectives, and predicate nouns. The finite verb is always plural (whether it is the copula jste/budete, an auxiliary like jste/byste, or any other verb like vypadáte), while any participle, adjective, or noun referring to the subject must be singular.

• Male: Jste unavený? (Are you tired?)
• Female: Byla jste vybrána. (You were selected.)
• Other verbs: Vypadáte unavený. (You look tired.)
• Noun: Vy jste dobrý učitel. (Not: *dobří učitelé)

3. Imperative Mood
Hybrid agreement also applies to polite requests in the imperative mood. The imperative verb takes the plural form, while the predicate adjective remains singular.

• Male: Buďte tak hodný... (Please be so kind...)
• Female: Buďte tak hodná...

4. Relative Clauses
When the polite Vy (referring to a single person) is modified by a relative clause, the relative pronoun který must be singular, matching the person's natural gender. The verb inside the relative clause continues to follow the hybrid agreement rules (plural finite verb, singular participle).

• Male: Vy, který jste to viděl... (You, who saw it...)
• Female: Vy, která jste byla vybrána... (You, who were selected...)

Note that while formal Czech uses short passive participles (vybrána), everyday spoken Czech overwhelmingly uses the long adjectival forms (vybraná).

Important Distinctions:
Do not confuse this with addressing a group. If you address multiple people, both the finite verb and the participle are plural, and the ending depends on the group's gender (e.g., Jste připraveni? for a mixed or masculine animate group, or Jste připraveny? for a purely feminine group). This singular agreement rule also applies to the pronoun sám (alone/by yourself) and the adjective rád (glad/like to). When addressing one person formally, use the singular forms (e.g., sám/rád for a man, sama/ráda for a woman), not the plural (e.g., Udělal jste to sám? or Byla byste ráda?). When using the past tense of reflexive verbs, the auxiliary and reflexive pronoun must remain separate in formal address (jste se, e.g., Ptal jste se?), unlike the informal singular where they merge (ses, e.g., Ptal ses?). As seen above, the pronoun Vy is usually dropped unless emphasized. Also, beware of a common native spelling error when using the present conditional: the auxiliary is always byste, never by jste. Furthermore, in formal written correspondence, it is customary to capitalize the pronoun and its forms (e.g., Vy, Vám, Váš) to show respect. Finally, remember that when jste and byste act as past or conditional auxiliaries, they are clitics and must remain in the second position of the clause (e.g., Kde jste byl?). However, when jste is a copula (the main verb 'to be'), it is not a clitic and can start a sentence (e.g., Jste unavený?).