minulostí

Minulostí is the instrumental singular form of the Czech noun minulost, which means "the past" or "past events." Grammatically, minulost is a feminine noun, and its instrumental singular form is minulostí. Other singular forms include nominative minulost, genitive minulosti, dative minulosti, accusative minulost, and locative minulosti (the same form as genitive and dative). The term is used in linguistic discussion as well as in literary or formal language to refer to the past as a temporal context.

Etymology and meaning: Minulost derives from the adjective minulý, meaning "past." It is related to Proto-Slavic roots that denote what has already occurred. The associated instrumental form minulostí highlights the past as a circumstance, means, or area of reference within a sentence.

Usage: In everyday Czech, people more often refer to the past with the prepositional phrase "v minulosti" (in the past) or by using the noun minulost in appropriate cases. The instrumental form minulostí appears primarily in formal or literary contexts, or in fixed expressions such as zabývat se minulostí, meaning "to deal with the past." It may also be used in narrative prose to foreground temporal distance or to frame events as occurring within past circumstances.

See also: minulost, historie, čas, vzpomínky.