-ám

The dělat class is the most regular verb group in Czech. There are no stem changes or consonant mutations to worry about when adding these endings.

The Present Tense Conjugation Pattern:

• (já) dělám - I do / am doing
• (ty) děláš - you do (informal)
• (on/ona/to) dělá - he/she/it does
• (my) děláme - we do
• (vy) děláte - you do (plural/formal)
• (oni) dělají - they do

Common Verbs in This Group:
Many high-frequency verbs use this pattern, such as čekat (to wait), hledat (to look for), dávat (to give), zpívat (to sing), snídat (to have breakfast), and ptát se (to ask). Crucially, the highly frequent verbs mít (to have) and dát (to give/put) share the present tense endings of this pattern (mám, máš... and dám, dáš...). Note that because dát is a perfective verb, its forms actually convey the future tense (dám means 'I will give/put'). While both mít and dát are classified as irregular verbs, their present tense forms closely mirror the endings of the dělat class.

Past Tense and Imperative:
For the dělat class, forming other tenses is highly regular. To form the past participle, drop the -t from the infinitive and add -l (e.g., dělal, dělala, dělalo, dělali, dělaly, dělala), with the ending changing to agree with the subject's gender and number. Note that some verbs with a long vowel in the infinitive shorten it in the past tense (e.g., ptát se becomes ptal se, not *ptál se, and dát becomes dal). Remember that to form the full past tense for the 1st and 2nd persons, you must also add the auxiliary verb být (e.g., dělal jsem - I did). When using reflexive verbs in the past tense, the reflexive pronoun se must follow the auxiliary verb (e.g., ptal jsem se - I asked, not *ptal se jsem). The imperative (command form) is also distinct and ends in -ej, -ejme (let's...), or -ejte (e.g., dělej, dělejme, dělejte). To form a negative imperative, simply add the prefix ne- (e.g., nedělej - don't do).

Important Notes:

• Vowel length change: Notice that in the present tense, the 3rd person plural form (dělají) is the only one with a short a, but make sure to pronounce the long í at the end clearly. All other present tense forms use a long á (-ám, -áš, -á, -áme, -áte).
• Pronouns are optional: Czechs usually drop subject pronouns like nominative personal pronouns unless they want to add emphasis. Saying Já dělám sounds clunky in normal conversation.
• Negation: To make a verb negative, simply attach the prefix ne- to the conjugated form (e.g., nedělám - I don't do). See verb negation for more details.
• Reflexive verbs: For verbs like ptát se (to ask), the reflexive pronoun se remains a separate word and typically occupies the second position in a sentence. For example, if you start with the verb, it is Ptám se... (I am asking...), but if you add a subject pronoun, the se shifts to stay in the second position: Já se ptám... (not *Já ptám se). Do not attach it to the verb suffix.
• Spoken Czech: In everyday informal speech, you will often hear the 3rd person plural ending shortened from -ají to -aj (e.g., oni dělaj instead of oni dělají).
• Not all "-at" verbs belong here: While many verbs ending in -at use this pattern, it is not a universal rule. For example, psát (to write) belongs to a different class and becomes píšu, not *psám. Other common traps for beginners include spát (to sleep, which becomes spím), hrát (to play, which becomes hraju), and brát (to take, which becomes beru).
• Future meaning: If you attach these endings to the stem of a perfective verb (a verb describing a completed action, like udělat), it expresses the future tense: udělám means "I will do". Note that this future tense behavior is a general rule for all perfective verbs in Czech, not just this specific verb class.