mít být + Passive Participle

1. Meaning and Nuance
This pattern does not express possession or strict obligation. Instead, it indicates an external arrangement or expectation (e.g., "The contract is to be signed"). Because this expectation usually focuses on a completed result, the passive participle in this construction is overwhelmingly formed from a perfective verb. It can also serve an epistemic function to express hearsay or rumor, translating as "is said to be". When used this way, Czechs frequently pair it with the particle prý (e.g., Pachatel má prý být ozbrojen - The suspect is said to be armed).

2. Morphological Agreement and the Agent
The short passive participle must match the nominative subject. For a masculine inanimate subject like návrh, use the zero-ending (projednán). For a feminine subject like smlouva, use the -a ending (podepsána). For neuter, use -o. For plurals, the endings are: -i for masculine animate (e.g., propuštěni), -y for masculine inanimate and feminine (e.g., podepsány), and -a for neuter (e.g., zrušena). To express the agent (who is supposed to perform the action), use the bare instrumental case (e.g., Smlouva má být podepsána ředitelem - The contract is to be signed by the director). In spoken Czech, you might hear od + genitive for animate or personal agents (e.g., Smlouva má být podepsána od ředitele). However, this is a substandard colloquialism (historically a Germanism). You must explicitly avoid it in formal writing or exams, where the instrumental case is strictly required.

3. Register and Spoken Alternatives
With the short passive participle, this construction is formal. However, in everyday spoken Czech, native speakers frequently use this exact pattern by swapping the short participle for the long adjectival participle (e.g., Smlouva má být podepsaná zítra). Alternatively, the reflexive passive (Smlouva se má podepsat zítra) is also common. When using this alternative, remember that se is a clitic and must sit in the second position of the clause due to Wackernagel's law (e.g., Zítra se má smlouva podepsat). However, note a strict rule: the reflexive passive cannot take an expressed agent. If you want to name the agent, you must use the participial passive instead.

4. Past Tense Usage
When used in the past tense (měl být), it often implies that a scheduled or expected event did not actually happen (e.g., Smlouva měla být podepsána včera - The contract was supposed to be signed yesterday, but wasn't). Remember that the modal verb mít itself must also agree with the subject's gender and number in the past tense (měl/měla/mělo/měli/měly/měla).

5. Crucial Distinctions
Learners often confuse má být (indicative: is scheduled to be) with měl by být (conditional: should be / recommendation). Furthermore, it is softer than absolute obligation, which would use musí být (must be).

6. Negation
To negate this pattern, the negative prefix ne- attaches to the conjugated verb mít, not to být or the participle (e.g., Smlouva nemá být podepsána - The contract is not supposed to be signed).