být + Verbal Adjective

Unlike the action passive, which describes an event happening to a subject, the stative passive focuses entirely on the aftermath.

Structure: být (in any tense) + long verbal adjective (formed with the suffixes -ný or -tý, e.g., napsaný, umytý) or short passive participle (formed with the suffixes -n or -t plus short adjective endings, e.g., napsán, napsána, napsáno). The long form is preferred for the stative passive in both everyday speech and formal writing to unambiguously mark a state and avoid confusion with the action passive (which strictly requires the short form in formal contexts).

Key Rules:

• Agreement and Declension: The verbal adjective or participle must agree with the subject in gender, number, and case (e.g., masculine napsaný, feminine napsaná, neuter napsané). The long form declines exactly like a standard hard adjective (following the model mladý), while the short form uses short adjective endings.
• No Agent: Stative passives describe a pure state and inherently cannot take an agent. Adding an agent forces an action passive reading rather than a stative one.
• Perfective Verbs Only: Because an action must be completed to leave a resulting state, stative passives are formed from perfective verbs.
• Negation: To negate a stative passive, you can attach the prefix ne- to the auxiliary verb být (e.g., Není to napsané - 'It is not written', Nebylo zavřeno - 'It was not closed'), or directly to the verbal adjective or participle to express a negative state (e.g., Je to nenapsané - 'It is unwritten', Je to neotevřené - 'It is unopened').
• Impersonal States: For general, subjectless states, the short neuter participle is the standard form, even in casual everyday speech (e.g., Je zavřeno - 'It is closed', Je otevřeno - 'It is open', Je uklizeno - 'It is cleaned up'). This is because in Czech, subjectless or impersonal sentences default to the neuter singular form.
• Register: This structure is stylistically neutral and extremely common in both everyday speech and formal writing. However, using the short form for a personal subject (e.g., Dopis je napsán instead of Dopis je napsaný) is grammatically correct for a state, but sounds highly formal or bookish (knižní).

Possessive Resultative: A highly frequent, natural alternative for expressing a completed state from the subject's perspective is the resultative mít construction. This is used specifically when the subject performed the action themselves (e.g., Už mám uvařeno) or had the action done for them and possesses the result (e.g., Mám auto opravené). It uses both short and long forms. Crucially, the participle or verbal adjective must agree with the direct object in gender, number, and case (specifically, the accusative case) (e.g., Mám ten dopis napsaný vs. Mám tu kávu uvařenou). When there is no direct object, it defaults to the short neuter form (e.g., mám uvařeno - 'I have finished cooking', mám hotovo - 'I am done', mám uklizeno - 'I have finished cleaning'). Note that these short neuter forms are extremely common in casual, everyday speech, which is an important exception to the general rule that short forms sound formal or bookish.

Contrast with Action Passive: This distinction is especially clear in the past or future tense when contrasting aspect. An imperfective action passive describes an ongoing process (e.g., Dům byl stavěn - 'The house was being built'), whereas a perfective stative passive describes the resulting state (e.g., Dům byl postaven - 'The house was built / stood completely built'). In formal written Czech, the short form of the stative passive can be visually identical (homonymous) to the action passive in the past or future tense (e.g., Dopis byl napsán can mean 'The letter was written [by someone]' or 'The letter was in a written state'). In the present tense, however, aspect distinguishes them: the imperfective action passive is Dopis je psán ('The letter is being written'), whereas the perfective stative passive is Dopis je napsán ('The letter is written'). In casual spoken Czech, speakers often use the long verbal adjective for both, making a sentence like Dům byl zbouraný ambiguous (it could mean 'The house was in a demolished state' or 'The house was demolished [by someone]'). To avoid this ambiguity and sound more natural, everyday Czech prefers the reflexive passive (e.g., Obchod se zavírá) or the active voice with a generic 'they' subject (e.g., Zbourali dům instead of Dům byl zbouraný).