Postrádám

Postrádám is a Czech verb meaning to miss someone or something, or to lack or be short of something. It conveys emotional longing as well as a concrete deficiency and is used in everyday speech as well as formal writing.

It is an imperfective, transitive verb that takes a direct object in the accusative. In use, it can express missing a person ("Postrádám tě" — I miss you) or lacking something tangible ("Postrádám peníze" — I lack money). The nuance differs from chybět, which also means to be absent but emphasizes the state of absence rather than the feeling of longing.

Conjugation in the present tense is: já postrádám, ty postrádáš, on/ona postrádá, my postrádáme, vy postrádáte, oni postrádají. Past tense is formed with the auxiliary být and the participle: já jsem postrádal(a), ty jsi postrádal(a), on byl postrádal(a); my jsme postrádali, vy jste postrádali, oni postrádali. The past participle used as an adjective is postrádaný (masc), postrádaná (fem), postrádané (neuter), as in "postrádané zboží" meaning out-of-stock goods.

Translations: in English, postrádám is most commonly rendered as "I miss" or "I lack," with nuance depending on context.