dát / poslat + Dative + Accusative

This is the standard Czech ditransitive (double-object) pattern. It is used with verbs like dát (to give), poslat (to send), říct (to tell), ukázat (to show), and koupit (to buy), as well as their imperfective counterparts (dávat, posílat, říkat, ukazovat, kupovat).

1. No Prepositions Needed
Unlike English, which often uses "to" or "for" (e.g., "give it to him"), Czech bakes the relationship directly into the noun or pronoun's ending. You simply use the bare dative indirect object for the recipient and the accusative case for the item.

2. Word Order and Emphasis
For regular nouns, word order is highly flexible and depends on emphasis. The most important or new information naturally falls at the end of the sentence (the rheme or focus, based on functional sentence perspective). For example, Dám mamince dárek (I will give mom a gift - focus on the gift) vs. Dám dárek mamince (I will give the gift to mom - focus on mom).

3. Pronoun Order and Emphasis
When both objects are unstressed pronouns (clitics), English speakers instinctively try to say "thing before person" (give it to him). In Czech, this is grammatically incorrect. If the item is a pronoun, it must take its specific short/clitic form (e.g., ho, ji, to, je) to fit into the cluster alongside the dative clitic. Unstressed pronouns must follow a strict hierarchy. If past tense or conditional auxiliary verbs are present, auxiliary and conditional clitics in the cluster come first. Then, if a reflexive pronoun is present, reflexive clitics in the cluster follow. Finally, you must place the dative clitic before accusative clitic. The full order is: Auxiliary → Reflexive → Dative → Accusative. Additionally, the entire clitic cluster must occupy the second position in a clause—meaning it immediately follows the first stressed word or phrase, not necessarily the second literal word. For example, in the present tense: Já mu to dám or Dám mu to. In the past tense: Dal jsem mu to (I gave it to him). Therefore, "give it to him" is usually dej mu to (give - to him - it). However, if you want to emphasize the recipient, you must use a stressed pronoun (like jemu, tobě, mně). Stressed pronouns are not clitics, so they can appear elsewhere in the sentence, often at the end for emphasis: Dej to jemu! (Give it to HIM!).

4. Key Dative Endings
Since the recipient is usually a person, you will frequently use masculine animate endings like -ovi or -u. The ending -ovi is the default for most nouns (e.g., bratrovi, doktorovi), while -u is typically used for titles or first names when they precede a name with -ovi to avoid repetition (e.g., panu doktoru Novákovi or bratru Janovi). Soft-stem masculine animate and feminine nouns take the ending -i (e.g., muž → muži, přítelkyně → přítelkyni). For feminine nouns ending in specific consonants (k, h, ch, r, g), mandatory consonant mutation occurs before the -e / -ě ending (e.g., matka → matce, sestra → sestře). Feminine nouns ending in d, t, n undergo phonetic softening (e.g., voda → vodě, žena → ženě). Other hard feminine nouns take the ending without mutation (e.g., škola → škole). For neuter recipients, the ending is often -u, but note the highly common irregular word dítě (child), which becomes dítěti.

5. Plural Recipients
Giving or sending things to multiple people is very common. Plural dative endings are highly regular: masculine and neuter nouns usually take -ům (e.g., kamarádům, dětem - note the irregular stem for children), while feminine nouns take -ám (e.g., ženám).

6. Ordering for Yourself
A highly common everyday application of this pattern is using the reflexive dative pronoun si with dát to order food or drinks (literally "giving to oneself"). For example, Dám si kávu (I'll have a coffee).