Prepositions Governing Locative & Instrumental in Czech

Czech spatial prepositions exhibit clear-cut case governance dividing static location into Locative (6. pád) and Instrumental (7. pád) categories:

1. Pure Locative Prepositions (6. pád – Lokál): - v / ve (inside): v pokoji (in the room), v Praze (in Prague) - na (on a surface / at an institution): na stole (on the table), na univerzitě (at the university) - o (about a topic): přednáška o historii (lecture about history) - po (along, around, after): chodit po městě (walk around town), po obědě (after lunch) - při (during / at the time of): při práci (during work).

2. Spatial Prepositions Governing the Instrumental (7. pád – Instrumentál): When denoting static location (answering Kde? = Where?), the five primary topological prepositions govern the Instrumental Case: - před (in front of / before in time): Stojí před školou. (He is standing in front of the school), před dvěma lety (two years ago). - za (behind / beyond): Zahrada za domem. (The garden behind the house). - pod (under): Pes spí pod stolem. (The dog sleeps under the table). - nad (above / over): Lampa visí nad stolem. (The lamp hangs above the table). - mezi (between / among): Sedí mezi přáteli. (He sits among friends).

Note: When před, za, pod, nad, mezi denote directional movement into a place (answering Kam?), they govern the Accusative (Dám knihu pod stůl).