îch

ých is a common inflectional ending found in Czech and Slovak for adjectives and certain participial forms in the genitive plural. In these languages, the ending signals a shift from a base nominal or adjectival form to a form used when describing or referring to multiple nouns in the genitive case.

In Czech, the genitive plural ending -ých appears after stems to modify masculine animate, masculine inanimate, and neuter nouns in phrases such as “nových lidí” (new people), “tichých lesů” (quiet forests), or “krásných žen” (beautiful women). It is one of several genitive plural endings that adjectives can take, varying with the stem and the noun they modify.

In Slovak, -ých serves a parallel role, marking genitive plural adjectives and certain participial forms. Examples include “nových ľudí” (new people) and “tichých lesov” (silent forests). The exact choice of ending depends on the stem and the grammatical gender and number of the noun.

Orthography and scope: the form is written with the letter ý (y with acute) followed by ch, reflecting the typical Czech and Slovak habit of marking long vowel quality in inflectional endings. In other Slavic languages, similar genitive-plural endings exist but may be spelled differently (for example, without diacritics in Polish).

Limitations: -ých is not a universal ending for all adjectives in these languages; its use is constrained to specific grammatical contexts, primarily the genitive plural, and interacts with the surrounding noun’s gender and number.

See also: genitive case, Czech grammar, Slovak grammar, Slavic inflection.