animate gender is prior to others and the masculine inanimate and feminine genders are prior to the neuter gender. Examples: muži a ženy byli - men and women were kočky a koťata byly - cats and kittens were my jsme byli (my = we all/men) vs. my jsme byly (my = we women) - we were Priority of genders: masculine animate > masculine inanimate & feminine > neuter Punctuation The use of the full stop (.), the colon (:), the semicolon (;), the question mark (?) and the exclamation mark (!) is similar to their use in other European languages. The full stop is placed after a number if it stands for ordinal numerals (as in German), e.g. 1. den (= první den) – the 1st day. The comma is used to separate individual parts in complex-compound sentences, lists, isolated parts of sentences, etc. Its use in Czech is different from English. Subordinate (dependent) clauses must be always separated from their principal (independent) clauses, for instance. A comma is not placed before a (and), i (as well as), ani (nor) and nebo (or) when they connect parts of sentences or clauses in copulative conjunctions (on a same level). It must be placed in non-copulative conjunctions (consequence, emphasis, exclusion, etc.). A comma can, however, occur in front of the word a (and) if the former is part of comma-delimited parenthesis: Jakub, můj mladší bratr, a jeho učitel Filip byli příliš zabráni do rozhovoru. Probírali látku, která bude u zkoušky, a též, kdo na ní bude. A comma also separates subordinate conjunctions introduced by composite conjunctions a proto (and therefore) and a tak (and so). Examples: otec a matka – father and mother, otec nebo matka – father or mother (coordinate relation – no commas) Je to pravda, nebo ne? – Is it true, or not? (exclusion) Pršelo, a proto nikdo nepřišel. – It was raining, and this is why nobody came. (consequence) Já vím, kdo to je. – I know who it is. Myslím, že se mýlíš. – I think (that) you are wrong. (subordinate relation) Jak se máš, Anno? – How are you, Anna? (addressing a person) Karel IV., římský císař a český král, založil hrad Karlštejn. – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian king, founded the Karlštejn Castle. (comma-delimited parenthesis) Quotation marks. The first one preceding the quoted text is placed to the bottom line: Petr řekl: „Přijdu