týkají

Týkají is a form of the Czech verb týkat se, which means to concern, pertain to, or be related to. In standard usage, the common construction expresses relation between topics and subjects: something concerns something else. The most frequent present-tense form in plural is týkají se when the subject is plural and the reflexive particle se is kept, as in Tyto změny se týkají rozpočtu nebo Týkají se všech zaměstnanců. The non-reflexive variant týkají can appear in sentence structures where the verb acts transitively without the reflexive pronoun, for example in questions such as Co tyto dokumenty týkají? (What do these documents concern?) or Tyto otázky týkají tématu. In such cases the complement (the thing concerned) is typically expressed or implied.

Grammar and usage notes: týkat se governs the thing it concerns in the genitive case, and the sentence typically centers on the relation between the subject and that thing. The form týkají se emphasizes the plural subject’s relation to the topic. The phrase Co týkají? is a common way to ask what is being referred to or affected. In formal writing, you will often see Tyto body se týkají financí, or Tyto body týkají financí, depending on the preferred emphasis and syntactic flow.

Etymology: týkají derives from Proto-Slavic roots related to touch or contact and evolved to mean “to concern” or “to pertain to” in modern Czech.

See also: týkat se (reflexive form), relation and scope expressions in Czech, grammar of verb complements.