bez + Genitive

The preposition bez is a highly frequent, neutral word used to indicate the absence, lack, or exclusion of something.

1. The Genitive Rule
Bez strictly governs the genitive case. You must always change the noun, pronoun, or adjective following it into its genitive form. The application is mechanical and has no exceptions. To ask questions, use bez koho? (without whom?) for people and bez čeho? (without what?) for things.

2. The Form: Beze
Sometimes bez changes to beze to ease pronunciation. This happens almost exclusively before consonant clusters, especially those starting with s, z, š, ž (e.g., beze slova, beze spěchu, beze zbytku). It also regularly vocalizes before forms of the pronoun všechen (e.g., beze všeho, beze vší), making these forms completely standard in formal contexts. Finally, it is always used before the 1st person singular pronoun: beze mě (standard everyday Czech) or beze mne (formal).

3. Pronouns after Bez
When using personal pronouns, you must use the long, stressed forms after prepositions if the pronoun has distinct forms. For example, use bez tebe, never the short clitic form tě. (The 1st person singular mě serves as both the short and long form, so beze mě is perfectly correct). Additionally, 3rd-person pronouns gain an initial n- after prepositions (e.g., bez něj, bez něho, bez ní, bez nich). Note that bez něj is highly frequent in modern Czech for masculine and neuter pronouns.

4. Contrast with other words
Do not confuse bez with words like kromě (except). Všichni kromě tebe means 'everyone except you', whereas bez tebe means 'without you'. Also, remember that its opposite, 'with', is s/se + instrumentál, which takes a completely different case.

5. Without doing something
To translate the English structure 'without doing [X]', Czech often uses bez followed by a verbal noun in the genitive case. For example, 'without asking' becomes bez ptaní, and 'without waiting' is bez čekání. For full clauses (e.g., 'He left without saying goodbye'), modern Czech frequently uses the construction bez toho, aby followed by a conjugated verb. You will also encounter the conjunction aniž by followed by a conjugated verb.

6. Translating '-less'
Czech frequently uses bez to form phrases that correspond to English adjectives or adverbs ending in '-less'. Common examples include bez problémů (flawless / without problems), bez konce (endless), and bez domova (homeless).

7. Common Idioms
Besides the conversational beze všeho ('sure' or 'no problem'), another highly frequent idiom is bez sebe (literally 'without oneself'), which means 'beside oneself' or 'unconscious'. For example, byl bez sebe strachy means 'he was beside himself with fear'.