Ochranou

Ochranou is the instrumental singular form of the Czech and Slovak noun ochrana, meaning protection or safeguard. It denotes the means, instrument, or status that provides protection, rather than a standalone concept. In grammar, ochranou is used after prepositions that govern the instrumental case, including pod (under) and with the sense of by means of. Common phrases include pod ochranou zákona (under the protection of the law) and s ochranou proti vlhkosti (with moisture protection). The form appears in legal, safety, and insurance language, where protection is described as a concrete measure or right.

Etymology and related forms: ochranou is derived from ochrana, which comes from the verb chránit meaning to protect. The term is cognate with related forms in other Slavic languages; in Polish the corresponding form is ochroną. The exact spelling ochranou is characteristic for Czech and Slovak.

Usage notes: ochranou is not a standalone concept but a grammatical form used to express protection by a given means. In noun phrases it often coexists with adjectives or other nouns naming the protective measure, for example ochrana osobních údajů (protection of personal data) in official texts, where the phrase is typically inflected as ochranou in the instrumental.

See also: ochrana, chránit, ochranný.