Slovenian Grammar List

Slovenian distinguishes one, two and more than two.

Slovenian nouns have masculine, feminine or neuter gender.

Ali can introduce a neutral yes-or-no question.

Danes, včeraj and jutri mean today, yesterday and tomorrow.

Present forms of imeti begin imam, imaš, ima and include dual imava, imata and plural imamo, imate, imajo.

In adds information, ampak contrasts it, and ali offers an alternative.

Jaz means I, ti addresses one familiar person, and on, ona and ono are third-person singular pronouns.

Kdo asks about a person and kaj about a thing, action or content.

Kje asks for a location, kam for a destination and od kod for an origin.

An adjective describing a singular noun agrees with its gender: lep, lepa, lepo.

Plural pronouns refer to more than two people.

Use dual pronouns for exactly two people.

Possessive adjectives agree with the thing possessed, not the possessor.

Place ne before an ordinary finite verb to negate it.

Negation combines with biti in the present: nisem, nisi, ni, nisva, nista, nismo, niste, niso.

Prosim accompanies a request or means You're welcome in response to thanks.

The present singular of biti is sem, si, je.

Biti has sva for first-person dual and sta for second- and third-person dual.

The demonstrative ta agrees with the noun's gender, number and case.

To je introduces an identification, such as This is a book.

For many masculine singular nouns, an animate direct object uses a form matching the genitive.

Many feminine nouns ending in -a use -o as the accusative singular.

Common genitive singular endings include masculine and neuter -a and feminine -e or -i.

The dative marks a recipient or beneficiary without necessarily needing a preposition.

The past tense combines present biti with an l-participle.

Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative and instrumental express relationships in the sentence.

The future uses bom, boš, bo, bova, bosta, bomo, boste, bodo with an agreeing l-participle.

An infinitive does not always reveal the present stem directly.

Delati has present delam, delaš, dela, delava, delata, delamo, delate, delajo.

Govoriti follows govorim, govoriš, govori, govoriva, govorita, govorimo, govorite, govorijo.

Iti has present grem, greš, gre, greva, gresta, gremo, greste, gredo.

Iz takes the genitive and expresses an origin out of an interior or a place normally introduced by v.

K takes the dative for movement toward a person or place.

Lahko commonly combines with a present-tense finite verb to express ability, permission or possibility.

Morati combines with an infinitive to express necessity.

Na takes the accusative for a destination and the locative for a location.

The present negative of imeti is nimam, nimaš, nima, nimava, nimata, nimamo, nimate, nimajo.

O takes the locative when introducing the topic of speaking, writing or thinking.

Od and do mark boundaries and take the genitive; brez expresses absence and also takes the genitive.

Pri takes the locative and can mean at someone's place, by or during an activity.

S or z with the instrumental expresses accompaniment or a means.

Se occurs with reflexive and other verbs such as umivati se and smejati se.

Use v with the accusative for a destination and with the locative for a location.

The imperative has second-person singular and first- and second-person dual and plural forms.

Use the negative present form of biti with the l-participle for a negative past.

Dual past participles generally use -a for masculine or mixed subjects and -i for feminine subjects.

Bi is invariant across persons.

Dva accompanies masculine nouns and dve feminine or neuter nouns in the nominative and common accusative counting construction.

Koliko, veliko and malo commonly take a genitive complement when expressing quantity.

Accusative clitics stand for a known direct object: me, te, ga and jo are common singular forms.

Full personal-pronoun forms are used after prepositions and for emphasis or contrast.

Dative clitics mark recipients and experiencers.

Naj with a finite verb expresses an instruction, wish or proposed action, often for a third person.

Future negation uses separate ne before bom and its other forms.

In nominative or accusative quantity phrases, cardinal numbers from five through one hundred take a genitive-plural noun.

Rad imam combines an agreeing form of rad with imeti and an accusative object.

Rad agrees with the subject and combines with a verb to express enjoyment or willingness.

Sebe is a stressed reflexive form and se its unstressed accusative or genitive counterpart.

Svoj normally identifies the possessor as the subject of its clause.

Nominative masculine nouns use trije and štirje, whether they name people or things; tri and štiri occur with feminine and neuter nouns.

Če bi introduces a hypothetical condition; bi can also occur in the result clause.

Perfective and imperfective are lexical verb-aspect distinctions.

An ordinary direct object changes from accusative to genitive when its verb is negated.

A verb of motion can take a supine expressing its purpose.

Many adjectives and adverbs form comparisons with bolj and najbolj; others have common synthetic or irregular forms.

Learn common comparatives with their base adjectives: dober becomes boljši, velik večji and majhen manjši.

Da introduces a content clause after verbs such as vedeti, misliti and povedati.

Kateri inflects for gender, number and case.

Ker introduces a reason clause, while zato introduces a result or conclusion.

Ki links a relative clause to a noun and does not change its form.

Ko can introduce a particular time or occasion.

Kot introduces a comparison target and can precede a phrase or clause.

Ne morem combines with an infinitive for inability or impossibility.

Ne smem with an infinitive expresses lack of permission or a prohibition.

Ni treba with an infinitive says an action is unnecessary.

Negative words such as nikoli, nihče and nič normally occur with a negated finite verb.

Pisati presents writing as an activity, while napisati presents a bounded result.

Všeč mi je means I like it, with the liked thing as grammatical subject and the experiencer in the dative.

Če with an indicative verb introduces a condition treated as open or possible.

Še ne says an expected state has not begun; ne več says a prior state has ended.

Že marks an earlier-than-expected or completed stage, še continuation or addition, and šele a later-than-expected threshold.

Certain masculine adjectives distinguish an indefinite form such as lep from definite lepi.

An embedded question keeps a question word or uses ali for a yes-or-no question.

Nouns such as noč and stvar are feminine despite their consonant endings.

Some nouns ending in -a, such as kolega, refer to males and trigger masculine agreement.

Body parts and other natural pairs normally use plural forms when treated as a usual pair.

Clitics have a conventional internal order rather than following English object order.

Si can mark an action done for oneself or affecting one's own body or belongings.

Clitics normally cluster near the beginning of a clause after its first constituent.

Da bi can introduce an intended purpose.

Medtem ko can connect simultaneous events or contrasting situations.

Nekdo and nekaj introduce an unspecified person or thing.

Otrok has dual otroka and plural otroci in the nominative.

These prepositions can take instrumental for a location and accusative for movement into a position.

Preden introduces an event before which another happens, while potem ko introduces an earlier completed stage.

S or z with the genitive expresses a source that often corresponds to na at a destination.

Slovenian retains third-person past auxiliary je beside reflexive se in ordinary complete statements.

Vsak presents members individually, while ves can describe a whole amount or all members.

Čeprav introduces a fact that contrasts with what might normally be expected.

Čigav agrees with the thing whose owner is being asked about.

Človek has ordinary singular forms but uses ljudje as its common plural.

Some states use a dative experiencer rather than an English-style subject.

Numerals and their nouns change with the phrase's syntactic role.

Dual inflection continues in oblique cases, although some forms coincide with plural forms.

Se constructions can present a general practice or an event without naming an agent.

Verb agreement often permits an unexpressed subject.

A parenthetical clause adds an aside and is separated from the main sentence by punctuation.

Standard polite address to one person uses vi and plural verb agreement.

Participles such as tekoč and čakajoč can describe an ongoing action or function as established adjectives.

Direct speech reproduces a speaker's own wording and uses the corresponding person and tense.

Biti plus a passive participle can describe a passive event or resulting state.

Verbal nouns such as branje and učenje name activities and behave as neuter nouns.

Weather verbs commonly use third-person singular without a dummy equivalent of English it.

Word order can reflect what is already known and what is new or contrasted.

Glede na introduces a consideration or criterion and takes the accusative in this prepositional construction.

Kot da introduces a comparison with an apparent or imagined situation.

Namesto and poleg take the genitive.

Ne le ... ampak tudi links parallel constituents and adds emphasis.

Vendar marks a contrast and zato a consequence.

Zaradi takes the genitive for a cause, while kljub takes the dative for a circumstance that does not prevent the result.

Čim ... tem links two changing quantities or degrees: as one increases or decreases, the other changes.