There are three of us, there are five of them

Abstract

The number “five” plays an important role in Czech. This is caused by the perception of the world by human brain. It can perceive particular elements as unconnected, individual, up to the amount of four, inclusive. Starting with the number five, the brain stops to differentiate such elements as individual; they merge and therefore the brain perceives the given set of elements globally as a whole. This is manifested both in the declension (the number five and higher numbers are followed by plural nouns in genitive) and in the use of certain expressions (“rok” [year], “léta” [years]) or phraseology.