Populacím

Populacím is a grammatical form in Czech. It denotes the dative plural of the noun populace, which means populations or groups of people. In standard Czech, the base noun populace is feminine; it has the singular dative populaci and the instrumental singular populací, while its plural forms include nominative populace (singular and plural) and dative plural populacím.

Etymology and morphology: Populace derives from Latin populus, meaning “people.” In Czech, it was incorporated as populace, and its case forms follow regular patterns for feminine nouns ending in -ace. Thus, populacím functions as the dative plural form, used where the populations are the indirect object or the entities affected by a preposition or verb that governs the dative.

Usage and context: Populacím appears in formal, academic, or policy-related Czech texts when referring to multiple populations as recipients or beneficiaries, or when linked to verbs and prepositions requiring the dative. It is distinct from populace (nominative plural and singular reference to a population as a group) and from populací (instrumental singular). Correct usage depends on the syntactic role of the noun within a sentence.

Notes: As a specific inflected form, populacím is primarily encountered in written Czech, especially in demography, sociology, public policy, and related disciplines. Learners should distinguish it from the singular forms (populaci, populací) and the nominative plural (populace) to avoid grammatical errors.

See also: populace, demografie, čeština grammar.