Prepositional phrases with verbal nouns

In formal, academic, and administrative Czech, writers often use syntactic condensation to make text more concise. Instead of using a full subordinate clause with a conjunction and a finite verb (like když or protože), they compress the idea into a single prepositional phrase.

How to form it:

• Choose a preposition expressing a logical or temporal relation (e.g., po + locative, při + locative, bez + genitive, za účelem + genitive, k + dative like k vyjádření, před + instrumental like před zahájením, or pro + accusative like pro zjednodušení).
• Use a verbal noun (ending in -ní or -tí), declined as a neuter noun according to the stavení paradigm.
• Crucial step: Because the verb is now a noun, its former direct object (accusative) must be demoted to the genitive case (the object genitive). However, verbs governing indirect objects (dative, instrumental) retain their original case (e.g., předcházet nemocem -> předcházení nemocem).
• Expressing the subject: If you need to state who is doing the action, pronouns become possessive adjectives (moje čtení). Noun subjects become a subjective genitive if there is no object (štěkání psa). Crucially, if there is already an object in the genitive, the subject is demoted to the instrumental case (the agentive instrumental, e.g., vyplnění formuláře žadatelem).
• Negation: Verbal nouns can be easily negated by attaching the prefix ne- (the negated verbal noun, e.g., v případě nedodržení pravidel, při nevyplnění).
• Reflexive particles: Czech verbal nouns generally retain their reflexive particles (e.g., připravovat se -> při připravování se). However, highly lexicalized verbal nouns often drop the particle (e.g., zákaz koupání, not zákaz koupání se).
• Verbal aspect: Aspect changes the meaning of the prepositional phrase. For example, při + imperfective means 'during/while' (při vyplňování), whereas při + perfective primarily expresses a condition, meaning 'in the event of' or 'if' (při splnění podmínek). Similarly, po + imperfective means 'after a period of doing something', while po + perfective means 'after completing something'.

Important Nuances:
Unlike the English gerund (e.g., 'quickly reading the book'), the Czech verbal noun is fully nominalized. It must be modified by adjectives, not adverbs (rychlé čtení, not rychle čtení). It cannot take a bare accusative object, but it does retain prepositional objects, including those in the accusative case (e.g., čekat na Godota -> čekání na Godota).

Register Warning:
While highly frequent in written standard Czech, this pattern sounds unnatural and overly bureaucratic in casual spoken Czech. Native speakers strongly prefer subordinate clauses in everyday conversation (e.g., saying když jsme to vyplňovali instead of při vyplňování).