Slovene grammar Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Grammatical Number (Slovnično število)

The future tense is formed with the verb to be in the future tense plus the 'l' participle of the full lexical verb.

For example: the English table of I will see (Jaz bom videl), including gender for he (= on) and she (= ona) without it (= ono) can be transformed from:

into:

Not only does the language have singular and plural, it also has dual, which is rendered in English using the word both.

Dual was a feature of the Church Slavonic language. From it, it has been transferred to Slovenian. It is a grammatical number like singular and plural, however used only for two subjects and objects. Thus:

Ona sta (Both of them are -- two objects or subjects) [masculine gender]

Oni sta (Both of them are -- two objects or subjects) [feminine gender]

Oni so (All of them are -- more than two objects or subjects) [masculine gender]

One so (All of them are -- more than two objects or subjects) [feminine gender]

The dual number is rather difficult to understand for a foreigner; however, it allows for a very specific style. Compare the following:

Bil je lep jesenski dan. Odšli smo v park. Usedli smo se na klopco in se pogovarjali. Lepo nam je bilo.

It was a nice autumn day. We went to the park. We sat down on a bench and talked. We had a nice time.

Bil je lep jesenski dan. Odšla sva v park. Usedla sva se na klopco in se pogovarjala. Lepo nama je bilo.

It was a nice autumn day. The two of us went to the park. We (the two of us still) sat down on a bench and talked. It was nice.

Noun (Samostalnik)

1. the Nominative case (imenovalnik (nominativ))
2. the Genitive case (rodilnik (genitiv))
3. the Dative case (dajalnik (dativ))
4. the Accusative case (tožilnik (akuzativ))
5. the Locative case (mestnik (lokativ))
6. the Instrumental case (orodnik (instrumental))

In Slovene, the following are question words for cases:

1. Kdo ali kaj? (Who or what?)
2. Koga ali česa?
3. Komu ali čemu?
4. Koga ali kaj?
5. Pri kom ali pri čem? (or another preposition binding with the locative)
6. S kom ali s čim? (or another preposition binding with the instrumental)

• Nominative: Moj stol je v sobi. (My chair is in the room.)
• Genitive:
  • Mojega stola ni v sobi. (My chair is not in the room.)
  • Košček papirja mi je ostal v dlani. (A piece of paper remained in my palm.) (partitive genitive; the subject of the sentence is still the nominative 'Košček papirja', however)
  • Tipkovnica računalnika je vhodna enota. (A computer's keyboard is an input device.) (possessive genitive; the subject of the sentence is still the nominative 'Tipkovnica računalnika', however)
• Dative: Beraču je dal denar. (He gave money to a beggar.)
• Accusative: Vidim zvezde. (I see the stars.)
• Locative: Mnogo je rečenega o novem sodniku. (A lot is being said about the new judge.)
• Instrumental: Na sprehod grem s svojim psom. (I am going for a walk with my dog.)

• miza (a table) - feminine (стол - masculine) (der Tisch - masculine),
• stol (a chair) - masculine (стул - masculine) (der Stuhl - masculine),
• vrata (a door) (plural noun) - neuter (дверь - feminine + plural noun) (die Tür - feminine),
• neurje (a very windy storm) - neuter (der Windsturm - masculine).

Endings in the following tables are marked bold.

Feminine Declensions (Ženske sklanjatve)

The main difference between the feminine declension in Slovene and in Russian is in the 2^nd and 3^rd case, for they are swapped. For instance, an incautious Russian, otherwise with a high command of Slovene, might say "dal sem mame" (correct "mami" (I gave to mum.)) and "ni bilo mami" (correct "mam'e'\" (Mum wasn't there); mami in this case can be correct if referring to mummy (see Third Feminine Declension below)). The fourth feminine declension is similarly affected by this.

Second (Druga)

Some one syllable nouns of this declension have special endings in dative and locative of dual and plural, such as stvar (thing) (Dative: stvarema, stvarem; Locative: pri stvareh, pri stvareh).

Some nouns have peculiarities in the stem upon inflexion, by omitting the schwa sound (e). Bolezen (illness, nominative singular) - bolezni (genitive singular).

The noun kri (blood) has in all cases but nominative and dative singular a different stem (krv-). Thus: kri - krvi - krvi - kri - pri krvi - s krvjo.

Third (Tretja)

Fourth (Četrta)

1. lepa pisava (nice handwriting)
2. dolga nit (long thread)
3. gobčna Ines (garrulous Ines)
4. Kranjska (= kranjska dežela, 'land of Kranj' - 'Carniola')
5. ženska (female; this stands for ženska oseba, female person)

Some one syllable nouns may have the ending -u instead of -a in genitive singular (grad (castle) - gradu).

Nouns taken from other languages may have the ending -o or -e in nominative singular. For example, avto (car) or finale (finale).

The nouns mož (husband, also man), zob (tooth) and las (hair) have the ending -je in nominative plural instead of -i: možje, zobje, lasje. Some other nouns allow for either: fant (boy), gost (guest), škof (bishop).

In inflexion of some nouns of the first masculine declension, the schwa in the stem is omitted: vrelec ((thermal) spring) - vrelca.

Some nouns add to their stem -j- (if ending in -r), -t- (names ending in -e) or -n- (if ending in -lj) from genitive singular on. Thus: redar (security guard at a public event) - redarja; Zvone - Zvoneta; nagelj (carnation) - nageljna.

One syllable nouns normally get an extension in their stem with -ov- in dual and plural. zid (wall) - zidova - zidovi

A peculiar irregularity is the noun otrok (child). In nominative plural and locative dual, -k is replaced with -c. (otroci, otrocih)

The noun človek (human) has a different stem in the plural and in genitive and locative of dual: ljud-. Thus: ljudje - ljudi - ljudem - ljudi - pri ljudeh - z ljudmi (plural); človeka - ljudi - človekoma - človeka - pri ljudeh - s človekoma (dual).

Second (Druga)

Thus, for the noun ATP (meaning adenozin trifosfat, adenosine triphosphate):

1. ATP
2. ATP or ATP-ja
3. ATP or ATP-ju
4. ATP or ATP
5. pri ATP or pri ATP-ju
6. z ATP or z ATP-jem

See also the section on adjectives for usage of definite and indefinite forms for property adjectives.

For example:

• koristen napotek (a useful direction)
• vladajoči vojvoda (the ruling duke)
• čist O₂ (pure O₂)
• moški (male; this stands for moški človek, male human)

Fourth (Četrta)

Mass Noun (Množinski samostalnik)

Verb (Glagol)

• Imam avto. (I have a car.) (transitive)
• Hodim. (I am walking.) (intransitive)
• Dežuje. (It is raining.) (intransitive, although some might say this is a valence 0 verb)
• Sodelavcu je podal kladivo. (He passed the hammer to his co-worker.) (transitive + two obejcts; this is sometimes known as ditransitive in English)

Verbal Aspect (Glagolski vid)

skakati (to jump (habitually or continuously) (to be jumping)) [imperfective verb (infinitive)]

skočiti (to jump (once)) [perfective verb (infinitive)]

(Jaz) skačem (I am jumping) [imperfective verb in the present (continuous) tense]

(Jaz) skočim (I jump (once)) [perfective verb in the present (simple) tense]

skakal sem (I was jumping) [imperfective verb in the past (simple) tense, masculine]

skakala sem (I was jumping) [imperfective verb in the past (continuous) tense, feminine]

skočil sem (I jumped) [perfective verb in the past (simple) tense, masculine]

skočila sem (I jumped) [perfective verb in the past (continuous) tense, feminine]

skakal bom (I will be jumping) [imperfective verb of future (continuous) tense, masculine]

skakala bom (I will be jumping) [imperfective verb of future (continuous) tense, feminine]

skočil bom (I will jump) [perfective verb of future (simple) tense, masculine]

skočila bom (I will jump) [perfective verb of future (simple) tense, feminine]

1. the pluperfect (past perfect) tense (predpreteklik)
2. the preterite (past simple) tense (preteklik)
3. the present tense (sedanjik)
4. the future tense (prihodnjik)

The Pluperfect (Predpreteklik)

The Preterite (Preteklik)

The Present Tense (Sedanjik)

For verb formation, see verb conjugations below.

The Future Tense (Prihodnjik)

Verb Conjugations (Glagolske spregatve)

• the present conjugation,
• the conjugation of the infinitive for the second person of singular, dual and plural, and the first person of dual and plural (see the section on the imperative),
• a future tense conjugation (existing only for the verb ''to be'\' (biti), see below), and
• the conditional conjugation, which is not expressed by voiced or written endings, but rather by the subjunctive mood.

Athematic conjugations differ from thematic ones in that they add S to the stem in some cases. For comparison, let us take the verbs imeti (to have) and dati (to give), both of which belong to the first (-a-) conjugation, as described below. It is considered grammatically incorrect, although common in certain dialects, to inflect verbs of either conjugation by the rules of the other.

There are 5 discrete thematic and athematic present tense conjugations, as follows, plus irregular verbs:

1. First conjugation in -a- (eg, oddati (to let, rent))
2. Second conjugation in -i- (eg, hoditi (to walk))
3. Third conjugation in -je- (eg, biti (to beat))
4. Fourth conjugation in -e- (eg, risati (to draw))
5. Fifth conjugation in --- (eg, žreti (to gourmandise) (?))

Second conjugation example:

Third conjugation example:

Fourth conjugation example:

The third person plural often has more variants, such as dajo and dado (from dati, to give), jedo and jejo (from jesti, to eat), but more often than not, one of these is not stylistically neutral.

The Irregular Verb to be (Nepravilni glagol biti)

Present tense:

Future tense:

An alternative, but stylised, affected or literary way of forming the future tense of the verb biti is by inserting -de-: eg, boDEm. A more colloquial alternative to bodo is bojo (and a rather peculiar version thereof is bodejo).

Past tense (solidi mark gender: masculine/feminine/neuter):

The imperative of to be is Bodi!, Bodite!.

The negative conjugation of the verb to be in the present:

Participle (Deležnik)

• -č: This participle denotes active doing of the described noun, and corresponds to Partizip I (Partizip Präsens) in German, and to present participle in English.
  • Otrok, ki joka, je jokajoč otrok. (A child that cries is a crying child.)
  • V sobo je vstopil glasno pojoč. (He entered the room singing loudly.)

• -ši: This historically used participle denotes action occurring before another. It is considered archaic, and should not be used in modern language. It corresponds to a perfect present participle in English. Note the use of the comma – this participle acts as a predicate.
  • Stopivši iz hiše, se je napotil v krčmo. (Having stepped out of the house, he headed to the pub.)

• -l: This is the participle used to form verbs in the past tense; it also expresses states or state changes.
  • Videl sem. (I saw.)
  • Ob tej novici je prebledela. (Upon [hearing] the news, she became wan.)
  • Bleda je. (She is wan.)

• -n/-t: This participle denotes passive state of the described noun, and corresponds to Partizip II (Partizip Perfekt) in German, and to past participle in English.
  • Parkiran avto je bil ukraden. (The parked car was stolen.) (perhaps better in the active voice, "Parkiran avto so ukradli.")
  • Sodišče je sodilo obtoženemu roparju. (The court tried the accused robber.)
  • Spočit konj je čakal na dvorišču. (A rested horse was waiting on the yard.)

Imperative (Velelnik)

The following table lists forms for the verbs to be (biti), to go (iti), and a regular verb, to walk (hoditi).

The idea expressed by the Imperative, this is, a command, may also be expressed by the modal verb should (naj). For instance: "naj bom" (Let me be.), "naj gredo" (or even "naj pojdejo") (They must go; I order them that they should go.), "naj bo (luč)" (Let there be (light).).

When the imperative is in fact used for the first person singular or for the third person, it is not stylistically neutral. Thus: Pa bodi po tvoje. (Let it be your way. Po tvojem gre svet tako: Jaz delaj, ti pa lenari. (Per you, the world goes like so: I work (but in imperative for 2nd person singular), you be lazy.)

Current grammar no longer knows the optative mood (želelnik).

Subjunctive and Conditionals (Pogojnik)

• Če bi mi postalo slabo, mi, prosim, podajte tiste tablete. (Literally: If it became sick to me, to me, I kindly ask, pass those pills.; If I should become sick, kindly pass me those pills.)
• V primeru, da bi prišlo do požara, bomo umrli. (In the case that there should be a fire, we shall die.)
• Če bi (bili) končali prej, bi bili zdaj prosti. (If we had finished earlier, we would be free now.)
• Želi si, da bi bil maneken, vendar s svojimi obraznimi nečistočami nima možnosti. (He wishes that he were a model, but with his facial impurities, he has no chance.)
• O, da bi bila jesen! (O, if only it was autumn!) (somewhat literary language)
• O, ko bi le bila jesen! (O, if only it was autumn!)

Supine and Infinitive (Namenilnik in nedoločnik)

The infinitive is the basic verb form ending in -ti (postati, biti, hladiti – to become, to be, to cool), or, with a few verbs, -či (peči, teči, sleči – to bake, to run, to undress).

For example:

• Postati slaven je težko. (To become famous is difficult.)
• Seveda je res, da stalno nekaj blebeče, vendar govoričiti brez smisla zahteva veliko vaje. (Of course it is true that he/she (3rd person, but unstated) is forever blethering, but to babble meaninglessly demands much practice.)

Examples of the supine:

• V novi svet so odšli iskat bogastvo. (They went to the New World to seek fortune.)
• Pojdi se solit. (Literally, Go salt yourself; it expresses annoyance, refusal)
• Stekli smo pogasit ogenj. (We ran to put out the fire.)

• usklajevati -> usklajevanje (to harmonise -> harmonising)
• pisati -> pisanje (to write -> writing)
• goreti -> gorenje (to burn -> burning)
• saditi -> sajenje (to plant (into soil, as in potatoes (krompir), maize (koruza) or flowers (rože)) -> planting)
• sejati -> sejanje (to plant (by throwing seeds into the air, as in most any corn (žito), such as buckwheat (ajda), wheat (pšenica), rice (riž) (but also 'saditi riž'), millet (proso), etc) -> planting)

• Pisanje ni naravno: potrebno se ga je priučiti. (Writing is not natural: it must be learnt.)
• Ob visokih temperaturah gašenje ognja ni enostavno. (At high temperatures, putting out a fire is not trivial.)
• Brenčanje mrčesa me spravlja ob živce! (The buzzing of insects is driving me crazy!)

Adjectives in Slovene can serve in three syntactical functions: left attributes (levi prilastek), predicate articles (povedkovo določilo) and predicate attributes (povedkov prilastek).

• Left attribute: Kakšno pričesko želiš? (What kind of haircut would you like?)

• Predicate article: Kakšna je pričeska? (What is the haircut like?

• Predicate attribute: Kakšna se je naredila pričeska? (What kind of haircut has been made?)

The majority of adjectives are of the first kind. These express any qualities and properties of personal and impersonal nouns. Such adjectives are gradable either in the two- or three-step comparison, depending if they are relative to another, opposite adjective (three-step) or not (two-step or three-step). (lep - grd (beautiful - ugly) vs bolan (ill)).

Relational adjectives express type, class or numerical sequence of a noun. For instance: kemijska in fizikalna sprememba (chemical and physical change), fotografski aparat (photographic device (=camera)).

Possessive pronouns define possession, ownership or belonging. For example: barvin sijaj (the colour's shine), Karmenina torbica (Karmen's handbag), delavska halja (workers' overall).

Some adjectives expressing properties next to masculine nouns imply definiteness ('relation') or indefiniteness ('quality') of nouns.
For an exactly defined noun or a specific type thereof:

• the adjective in nominative singular has the ending -ni or -i
• the question word is Kateri? (Which? (in German Welcher?))

• the adjective in nominative singular has the ending -en or - (no ending)
• the question word is Kakšen? (What sort of? (in German Was für ein?))

Example:

• Stari učitelj je to dejal. (The old teacher said this.) – the implication here is that there is at least one other teacher who is not old
• Star učitelj je to dejal. (An old teacher said this.)

• Mesto in vas sta bila proti predlogu občine. (The city and the village were against the suggestion of the municipality.)
• Mesto in vas sta bili proti predlogu občine. (the same, but somewhat unusual and seldom heard)
• Ti in tvoji sestri boste precej odšli! (You (masculine, since the verb is in masculine) and your two sisters shall leave forthwith.)

Negative adjectives are formed by prefixing the negative ne-, which is almost always a proper form, even though sometimes a Latin prefix is an alternative.

• lep -> nelep (beautiful, not beautiful (but not ugly (grd))
• reverzibilen -> ireverzibilen, sometimes also nereverzibilen (reversible, irreversible)
• moralen -> nemoralen, amoralen, imoralen (moral, immoral) (note that 'amoral' in English has a different meaning)
• legitimen -> nelegitimen, ilegitimen (legitimate, illegitimate)

For instance:

• lep - lepši (beautiful - more beautiful)
• trd - trši (hard - harder) (-d- falls out)
• zelen - bolj zelen (green - greener)
• zanimiv - zanimivejši (interesting - more interesting)
• transparenten - transparentnejši (transparent - more transparent) (-e- falls out)
• globok - globlji (deep - deeper) (notice the added -l-, -o- and -k- fall out)
• otročji - bolj otročji (childish - more childish)

• lep - lepši - najlepši
• trd - trši - najtrši
• zelen - bolj zelen - najbolj zelen
• zanimiv - zanimivejši - najzanimivejši (but najbolj zanimiv is more common)
• transparenten - transparentnejši - najtransparentnejši
• globok - globlji - najgloblji
• otročji - bolj otročji - najbolj otročji

• ena, dva, tri, štiri, pet (one, two, three, four, five) – used to express amount
  • Po pošti smo vam poslali tri pakete. (We posted three packages to you.)
  • Ko dopolniš sedemindvajseto leto, dobiš denar. (When you reach your twenty-seventh year, you will get the money.)
  • Ekvator je dolg okrog štirideset tisoč sedemdeset kilometrov. (The equator is about forty thousand and seventy kilometres long.)

From 10 to 20, numbers are suffixed by -najst (-teen): enajst, dvanajst, trinajst, štirinajst, petnajst, šestnajst, sedemnajst, osemnajst, devetnajst, dvajset.

From 20 to 100, the unit comes first, then the ten, joined together by in (and), much like in German. For tens, they are unit numbers appended by deset (ten), except for 20, which is dvajset.

• dvajset (20), enaindvajset (21), dvaindvajset (22), triindvajset (23), štiriindvajset (24) ... trideset (30), enaintrideset (31) ... petdeset (50) ... devetindevetdeset (99).

• sto (100), sto ena (101), sto dva (102) ... sto deset (110) ... sto devetindevetdeset (199), dvesto (200) ... tristo (300) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset (999)

• tisoč (1000), tisoč ena (1001) ... tisoč sto (1100) ... dva tisoč (2000) ... pet tisoč petsto petinpetdeset (5555) ... deset tisoč (10,000) ... sto tisoč (100,000) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset tisoč devetsto devetindevetdeset (999,999).

• milijon (1,000,000) ... dva milijona (2 million), dva milijona ena (2,000,001) ... sedem milijonov petnajst tisoč sedemindvajset (7,015,027) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset milijonov devetsto devetindevetdeset tisoč devetsto devetindevetdeset (999,999,999), milijarda (1,000,000,000) ... dve milijardi (2,000,000,000) ... bilijon (1,000,000,000,000) ...

1. "Dan je bil lep." (The day was nice.) - masculine adjective
2. "Bilo je lepo." (It was nice.) - neuter adjective

--> "Govorili so lepo." (They spoke nicely.)

Other types of adverb are derived from nouns (doma (at home), jeseni (in autumn)), prepositional constructions (naglas (aloud), pozimi (in winter), potem (then)), verbs (nevede (unknowingly), skrivoma (secretly), mimogrede (by the way)) or numerals (see adverbial numeral;).

In essence, there are four main types of adverb: adverbs of time (danes (today), večno (perpetually)), adverbs of place (domov (towards home, homewards)), adverbs of manner (grdo (uglily), povsem (entirely)) and adverbs of cause and reason (nalašč (on purpose)).

Adverbs are, much like adjectives, normally gradable.

• To je storil natančno. (This he did carefully.)
  • Naslednjič pa še natančneje. (The next time, however, more carefully still.)

Personal Pronoun (Osebni zaimek)

Reflexive Personal Pronoun (Povratni osebni zaimek)

The accusative se can bind with prepositional words just like other personal pronouns; it is, namely, an enclitic:

• Nase je nanesla lepotilno kremo. (She put beautifying cream on herself.)
• Ampak ko dela zase, dela učinkovito. (But when he/she works for him-/herself, he/she works efficiently.)

• Sebi gradi grobnico. (He/She is building a tomb for him-/herself.)
• Gradi si grobnico. (the same, but the emphasis is not so much on for whom the tomb is, but rather the tomb or the building itself)
• S sabo/seboj ni zadovoljna. (She is not happy with herself.) (instrumental case)
• Najprej počisti pri sebi, potlej šele kritiziraj druge! (First clean up at yourself, only then criticise others!) (locative case)
• Ko je videl odsev sebe v ogledalu, mu je ta pogled povsem pokvaril dan. (When he saw the reflexion of himself in the mirror, this sight completely ruined the day for him.) (genitive case, but a clumsy and not widely used construction at that, since genitive possession is much better expressed with an adjectival possessive pronoun: 'Ko je videl svoj odsev v ogledalu ...')

• Kaj je ta stvar, ki se premika? (What is this thing that is moving?)
• Vprašal sem ga, o kom je bil govoril. (I asked him about whom he had been talking.)
• Komu naj dam to? (Whom ought I to give this?)
• Česa ne smem storiti? (What mayn't I do?)

1. kdor | kar
2. kogar | česar
3. komur | čemur
4. kogar | kar
5. pri komer | pri čemer
6. s komer | s čimer

• Kdor krade, ni pošten. (Someone who steals is not honest.)
• Kar poveš, tega ne moreš več obvladovati. (Something that you say, that you cannot control any more.)
• Odrekli so ji možnost do izbire odvetnika, s čimer je bila kršena njena ustavna pravica. (They refused her the option of choosing a solicitor, with which her constitutional right was violated.)

A negative pronoun demands a negative predicate, resulting in the so-called double negation, a characteristic of Slovene that is purportedly responsible for the high number of suicides.

• Nihče me nikoli ni maral. (Nobody ever liked me.) (literally: Nobody never did not like me.)
• Nikjer ni nikogar. (There is no one anywhere.) (literally: Nowhere isn't no one.)
• Nič ni resnično. (Nothing is real.) (literally: Nothing isn't real.)
• Od nikogar ne želim ničesar. (I want nothing from no one. / I don't want anything from anyone.) (literally: From no one I don't want nothing.)
• Nikogaršnja (adjectival negative (possessive) pronoun) neolikanost ni nikdar in nikjer in na nikakršen način nikomur pridobila ''nič drugega kot neodobravanje. (No one's impropriety gained ever anyone anywhere and in whatever way anything else than disapproval.) (literally: No one's impropriety did not never and nowhere and in no way gain nothing else than disapproval.)

Relative Unspecified Pronoun (Oziralni poljubnostni zaimek)

• Kdorkoli pokliče 112, mora znati povedati, kaj je narobe. (Whoever rings 112 must know how to say what is wrong.)
• Kogarkoli poslušam od teh politikov, vsi govorijo iste neumnosti. (To whichever of these politicians I listen, they all speak the same stupidities.)
• Karkoli stori, stori to dobro. (Whatever he/she does, he/she does it well.)

Personal Possessive Pronoun (Osebni svojilni zaimek)

An example for the first person singular (I):

• najin- for the first person dual
• naš- for the first person plural
• tvoj- for the second person singular
• vajin- for the second person dual
• vaš- for the second person plural
• njegov- for the third person singular for masculine and neuter nouns
• njen- for the third person singular for feminine nouns
• njun- for the third person dual
• njihov- for the third person plural

Example sentences:

• Moj bog pravi drugače! (My god says otherwise!)
• Njegove oči so kot kupi koruze na polju. (His eyes are like heaps of maize on a field.)
• Letalo je bilo last vojske in njene države. (The aeroplane was the property of the military and her (the military's or another person's, depending on the context) country.)
• Vaše kraljevo veličanstvo, klanjam se pred Vami. (Your royal highness, I bow before You.)
• Cerkev je njen grob na pokopališču prodala, kajti njeni potomci niso imeli dovolj denarja, da bi plačali pristojbino. (The church has sold her grave at the graveyard, since her descendants did not have enough money to pay the fee.)
• S tvojim avtom smo šli: saj ne zameriš, kajne? (We went with your car: you do not resent [us], do you?)

• Uf, končno smo na vrhu. (Phew, we're finally at the top.)
• Uf, povsem mi je ušlo iz spomina. (Gosh, that has slipped my mind completely.)
• Petelin zapoje kikiriki. (A cock sings cock-a-doodle-doo.)
• Mojbog, kaj še vedno klamfaš neumnosti? (My god, are you still talking rubbish?)
• Hokus pokus, in zajec bo izginil. (Hocus-pocus, and the rabbit will disappear.)
• Torej, kaj porečeš na to? (So, what do you say to this?)
• Brr, kako mraz je. (Brr, it is so cold.)
• Oj (or Hej), ti človek tam zadaj: kako ti je ime? (Hey, you person back there: what is your name?)
• O ne, tako pa se ne govori z menoj. (Oh no, this is not how one speaks to me.)
• No, pa adijo! (Well, then goodbye!)
• Ne bev ne mev niso rekli. (They didn't say anything.)
• Šššš: bo že bolje. (Shhh: it will get better.)

• "Ufov in ojojev se izogibajte, kajti bolnik je zelo ubog revež s to obrazno hibo." (Streer clear of 'uf's and 'ojoj's, for the patient is very poor what with this facial encumbrance.)

subject (osebek) + predicate (povedek) + object (predmet) + adverbial phrase (prislovno določilo).

Free Sentence (Prosti stavek)

Punctuation (Ločila)

Marks used in Slovene include full stops (.), question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), commas (,), semicolons (;), colons (:), dashes (–), hyphens (-), ellipses (...), different types of inverted commas and quotation marks ("", '', ‚‘, „“, »«), brackets ((), [], {}) (which are in syntactical use), as well as apostrophes (',’), solidi (/), equal signs (=), and so forth.

Full Stop (Pika)

A full stop (.) is a left-leaning punctuation mark. This means that it 'touches' the preceding word, but is followed by a space.

It is ordinarily used at the end of a neutral declaratory sentence, be it a real sentence with a predicate or a non-sentence.

• To je bilo včeraj. (This was yesterday.)
• Včeraj. (Yesterday.)

In an indicative compound sentence with the last part an independent clause that does not end in a full stop, the full stop is omitted.

• Rekli so mi, naj grem, a kam? (They told me to go, but where?)
  • (and not "Rekli so mi, naj grem, a kam?.")

• Ko smo hodili po travi, smo opazili prepoved Ne hodi po travi. (When walking on the grass, we noticed the restriction Do not walk on the grass.)
• Ko smo hodili po travi, smo opazili prepoved: Ne hodi po travi!

• "Oh, mar bi bile ostale doma," je zamrmrala Marjeta. ("Oh, they/we might as well have stayed home," muttered Marjeta (Daisy).)

Abbreviations are, unlike in British English, always followed by a full stop.

• dr. (doktor; Dr, doctor); npr. (na primer; eg, for example, exempli gratia); tj. (to je; this is); l. (leto; year); t.i. (tako imenovani; so-called); itn., itd. (in tako naprej, in tako dalje; etc, et cetera, and so on).

• ZDA (Združene države Amerike; USA, United States of America)
• km (kilometer; km, kilometre)
• Fe (železo; Fe, iron)

Numbers may be separated by leaning full stops in the following cases:

• for time of the day
  • Ob 22.15 ('dvaindvajset petnajst' or 'dvaindvajsetih in petnajst minut') se film konča. (At 22.15 (10.15pm) the film ends.)
    • 22.15 can also be written as 22¹⁵
• to separate thousands from the rest
  • 1.000.000 (en milijon; one million, 1,000,000) (but more usual is 1 000 000)
• to show multiplication
  • 3 · 9 (tri krat devet; three times nine)
    • note that in this case, the full stop is raised to the line centre and is non-leaning

• 1. 10. 2003 (prvi deseti dva tisoč tri, prvi oktober dva tisoč tri; the first of October, two thousand and three, 1/10/2003)
• 25. 6. 1991 (petindvajseti šesti (junij) tisoč devetsto dvaindevetdeset; the twenty-fifth of June, nineteen ninety-one, 25/6/1991)
• 30. maj (trideseti maj; the 30^th of May)

• Prodajam časopise, avtobusne žetone, zobne ščetke itd. (I sell newspapers, bus tokens, toothbrushes, etc.)
• Prodajam časopise, avtobusne žetone, zobne ščetke itd..

An ellipsis (in Slovene, literally 'three full stops') (...) is a non-leaning punctuation mark. It expresses omission of words.

• Nekaj sem govorila ... (I was saying something ...)
• ... kaj to ni res? (... is this not true?)
• Heh ... česa vsega ne pove. (Heh ... whatever he/she says.)
• Ja ... in? (Yes ... so?)
• Saj bi šel, pa ... (I/He would go, but ...) (an alternative is to write this thus: "Saj bi šel, pa –)

• Da ... or Da .... (Yes ...)
• O, a tako je bilo ...? (Oh, it was so ...?)

• The original sentence in full: "Nekaj mi šepeta, nekaj točno določenega, skoraj čutiti bi se dalo, da gre ta šolska ura h koncu." (Something is whispering to me, something exactly defined, it can almost be felt, that this period is nearing completion.)
  • Nekaj mi šepeta /.../ da gre ta šolska ura h koncu. (Something is whispering to me /.../ that this period is nearing completion.)

• Lepo je bilo ... kako tudi ne? ..., saj je dež nežno padal, mi pa smo tesno drug ob drugem ležali ob kaminu. (It was nice ... how wouldn't it be? ... for the rain was gently falling, and we were lying closely to one another near the fireplace.)
  • Lepo je bilo – kako tudi ne? –, saj je dež nežno padal, mi pa smo tesno drug ob drugem ležali ob kaminu.

Non-Syntactical Use

A non-syntactical ellipsis is left-leaning, and expresses omission of a word part.

• Otorinola... – ne vem naprej. (Otorhinola... – I don't know further.) (probably otorinolaringolog; otorhinolaryngologist)
• Tristo kosmatih med... (Three hundred hairy be...) ("Tristo kosmatih medvedov" (Three hundred