Hard Adjectives Like pekný

Level 2

Adjectives like pekný match their noun in every case: pekný deň, v peknom meste, bez peknej záhrady, s peknou ženou.

How It Works

Singular (masculine / feminine / neuter)

  • Nominative: pekný / pekná / pekné
  • Genitive: pekného / peknej / pekného
  • Dative: peknému / peknej / peknému
  • Accusative: pekného for a person or animal, pekný for a thing / peknú / pekné
  • Locative: (o) peknom / peknej / peknom
  • Instrumental: pekným / peknou / pekným

Plural

  • Nominative: pekní for men, pekné for everything else
  • Genitive: pekných
  • Dative: pekným
  • Accusative: pekných for men, pekné for everything else
  • Locative: (o) pekných
  • Instrumental: peknými

The plural forms for men are covered in Plural Adjectives for Men and Others.

Animate masculine accusative

With a masculine noun for a person or animal, the accusative looks like the genitive: Mám nového psa. (I have a new dog.) With a thing it looks like the nominative: Mám nový dom. (I have a new house.) See Animate and Inanimate Masculine Nouns.

The rhythmic law

Slovak avoids two long syllables in a row. When the adjective stem already has a long syllable, the long vowels in the ending become short: krásny, krásna, krásne, krásneho, krásnemu, krásnu, krásnom, krásnym. The ending -ou does not change: s krásnou ženou. See The Rhythmic Law.

Which adjectives follow pekný?

Adjectives ending in -ý (or -y after a long syllable): dobrý, nový, starý, malý, veľký, mladý, lacný, drahý, krásny, múdry. Adjectives ending in -í after a soft consonant follow a different pattern, see Soft Adjectives Like cudzí.

Examples (6)

  1. Dnes je pekný deň.

    Today is a nice day.

    Masculine nominative: pekný.

  2. Bývame v malom meste pri Nitre.

    We live in a small town near Nitra.

    Word by Word: We-live in small town near Nitra.

    Neuter locative after v: malom.

  3. Hľadáme lacnú izbu.

    We're looking for a cheap room.

    Feminine accusative: lacnú.

  4. Dal som darček mladému kolegovi.

    I gave a present to a young colleague.

    Masculine dative: mladému.

  5. Máme nový byt s veľkou kuchyňou.

    We have a new flat with a big kitchen.

    Nový is inanimate masculine accusative; veľkou is feminine instrumental after s.

  6. Vonku je krásne počasie.

    The weather outside is lovely.

    Neuter nominative. The long syllable krá- makes the ending short: krásne, not krásné.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the Czech-style locative ending -ém.

    Bývam v malém meste.
    Bývam v malom meste.

    The Slovak masculine and neuter locative ending is -om: v malom meste, o peknom dome.

  • Keeping a long ending after a long syllable.

    To je krásný dom.
    To je krásny dom.

    Krá- is already long, so by the rhythmic law the ending is short: krásny, krásna, krásne.

  • Using the nominative form for an animate masculine object.

    Mám nový psa.
    Mám nového psa.

    Pes is an animal, so the adjective in the accusative takes the genitive-like form nového, matching psa.

How It Connects

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Hard Adjectives Like peknýLevel 2

Learn This First

Before Hard Adjectives Like pekný, learn Adjective Agreement. pekný shows the hard adjective endings used for agreement.

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