"Chlapci jsou teď malí."

Translation: The boys are little now.

[WoolArtist]

because they obeyed Alice's bottle that read, "drink me!"

[smailBerkK]

So the singular for boy is Chlapec and why is the plural Chlapci instead of Chlapeci? Dekuji

[Vixg]

https://cs.wiktionary.org/wiki/chlapec#sklo%C5%88ov%C3%A1n%C3%AD

[iBrow.]

That's just how it is, there's no specific reason. It's just an irregular plural.

[VladaFu]

It is quite regular and appears in other languages as well.

The reason may actually come from the Havlík's law. The -i in the plural is an actual -i that caused the yer between p and c to be weak and thus elided. In nominative the final yer was after the c and was elided instead and the yer between p and c was vocalized.

That's the general process for similar words, the word chlapec may have emerged after this process finished, but was created regularly, similar to other words ending -ec, gen. sg. -ce, nom. pl. -ci.

Compare свѧтьць (svętĭcĭ) -> světec / světci.

[p8c]

or 'the boys are now small'?

[VladaFu]

That is accepted.

[Chris-Karel]

Chlapci jsou teď malí.
those boys are now small
Is it context that makes "those" wrong?

[Chris-Karel]

Also tried "those boys are small now" Why is small not ok?

[VladaFu]

Small is OK, those is not OK. Those is really explicitly pinting somewhere, referencing something. We would use "ti chlapci" or "tamti chlapci" for that.

[Chris-Karel]

Thanks. I have the feeling "these those the a" is going to be difficult for me. I'll keep learning!

[AgnusOinas]

• this - "tento" (more formal), "tenhle" (less formal)
• that - "ten"
• the - often not needed, otherwise "ten"
• a - usually nothing

You just need to modify "ten" (and "tento", "tenhle") according to gender and number ("ta", "to", "ti" etc.).

And of course, on the English side, "those" and "these" are just plural versions of "that" and "this" respectively.

[Chris-Karel]

Děkuji! This helps. I will bookmark this :)