Locked, unlocked, open, closed — and “mít kliku”

Let’s start with a fun one. Klika literally means a door handle — but Czechs also use it to mean luck. So mít kliku is a casual way to say “to be lucky,” right next to the neutral mít štěstí.

Locked vs unlocked

Now the doors. The -o forms are impersonal “state” words — the kind you see on a sign or use to describe how something is right now:

To describe the door itself, use the adjective form, which agrees with dveře (“door” — always plural in Czech!):

• zamčené dveře — a locked door
• odemčené dveře — an unlocked door

And the verbs — perfective (one action, done):

• zamknout — to lock  ·  Zamkni dveře. — Lock the door.
• odemknout — to unlock  ·  Odemkni mi, prosím. — Unlock (it) for me, please.

Open vs closed

Same pattern, different root. The -o signs first:

The verbs come in the usual aspect pairs — perfective (do it once) and imperfective (repeatedly / in general):

• otevřít (perf.) / otevírat (imperf.) — to open
• zavřít (perf.) / zavírat (imperf.) — to close

Learn the two sign pairs — zamčeno / odemčeno and otevřeno / zavřeno — and you’ll read every Czech door at a glance. And if the shop’s already closing? Well, hopefully you’ll mít kliku.