slovesa

Slovesa is the term used in Czech and Slovak grammar for the class of words commonly translated as "verbs" in English. A sloveso expresses an action, a process, or a state and functions as the main predicate of a clause. Slovesa are highly inflected, marking grammatical categories such as person, number, tense, mood, and aspect, and they often reflect gender in past tense forms.

Morphology and syntax

Slovesa form finite and nonfinite forms, including infinitives, participles, and various finite conjugations. They typically conjugate according to several conjugation patterns and may show stem changes or prefixes for derivation. In many sentences they combine with auxiliary verbs to create compound tenses or aspects, and they govern arguments such as subjects and objects, exhibiting transitivity and valence patterns.

Aspect, voice, and mood

In Slavic languages, slovesa are frequently distinguished by aspect: imperfective versus perfective, which affects meaning and sometimes the form of the verb or its auxiliaries. Aspect interacts with tense and mood, especially in perfective future constructions. Voice is usually active, with passive or reflexive forms available in many verbs. Mood includes indicative, imperative, and conditional forms.

Usage and examples

Verbs form the backbone of predication and are used with various modifiers and clausal structures. In Czech, for example, infinitives like "psát" (to write) contrast with finite forms such as "píšu" (I write) or "psal jsem" (I wrote). Slovak shows similar patterns with its own phonology and prefixes. The precise morphology varies across dialects and related languages, but the core functions—denoting action, state, and interaction with time and aspect—remain central.

See also: grammatical categories of verbs, Czech grammar, Slovak grammar.