Slovene grammar

The following is an overview of the grammar of Slovene.

Grammatical Number (Slovnično število)

The future tense shall be used to demonstrate the usage of the grammatical number in Slovene.

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:

Singular	Dual (Semi)	Plural
I will see	We (both) will see	We (all) will see
You will see	You (both) will see	You (all) will see
He will see/She will see	They (both) will see	They (all) will see

into:

Singular +M/F gender	Dual +M/F gender	Plural +M/F gender
Jaz bom videl/Jaz bom videla	Midva bova videla/Midve bova videli	Mi bomo videli/Me bomo videle
Ti boš videl/Ti boš videla	Vidva bosta videla/Vidve bosta videli	Vi boste videli/Ve boste videle
On bo videl/Ona bo videla	Ona (or onadva) bosta videla/Oni (or onidve) bosta videli	Oni bodo videli/One bodo videle

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]

Dual is also preserved in gender, as the above example clearly demonstrates.

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.

The second text, to the average Slovene, sounds much more romantic and intimate, a characteristic of style that is impossible to be transferred into English with its lack of dual.

Noun (Samostalnik)

Cases (Skloni)

A noun can serve in terms of syntax as the subject or the object of a sentence. In Slovene, this is shown by cases. There are 6 cases in Slovene:

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))

The nominative case defines a subject of a sentence; all other cases define an object, either direct or indirect.

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)

Example sentences of basic case uses:

• 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.)

A noun's gender can differ from other languages in many cases. For instance:

• 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).

There are 10 distinct declensions in Slovene. These are the following, with their model noun inflected. Please note that there are many exceptions for each of the declensions, not all of which are noted.

Endings in the following tables are marked bold.

Feminine Declensions (Ženske sklanjatve)

First (Prva)

The model of this declension is lipa, lime (or linden) tree.

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	lipa	lipi	lipe
2	lipe	lip	lip
3	lipi	lipama	lipam
4	lipo	lipi	lipe
5 (pri/o)	lipi	lipah	lipah
6 (z)	lipo	lipama	lipami

The notable exceptions to this model are nouns ending in -ev instead of -a in nominative singular (breskev (peach), lestev (ladder), žetev (harvest)), and the nouns gospa (lady, madam), hči (daughter) and mati (mother), which have a very peculiar inflexion.

Some nouns, in addition to those ending in -ev, change their stem in the genitive of dual and plural. Namely, the schwa (-e-) (or -i- in front of -j-) is inserted. For example: vožnja (fare) - voženj, igra (game) - iger, ladja (ship) - ladij.

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 "mame" (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)

The model of this declension is perut, wing (of a bird).

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	perut	peruti	peruti
2	peruti	peruti	peruti
3	peruti	perutma	perutim
4	perut	peruti	peruti
5 (pri/o)	peruti	perutih	perutih
6 (s)	perutjo	perutma	perutmi

Some nouns of the second feminine declension have special endings in instrumental of singular and dative of dual and plural, such as pesem (song) (s pesmijo; pesmima; pesmim).

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)

The model of this declension is mami, mummy (an alias for 'mother').

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	mami	mami	mami
2	mami	mami	mami
3	mami	mami	mami
4	mami	mami	mami
5 (pri/o)	mami	mami	mami
6 (z)	mami	mami	mami

Fourth (Četrta)

The model of this declension is dežurna, a person on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives).

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	dežurna	dežurni	dežurne
2	dežurne	dežurnih	dežurnih
3	dežurni	dežurnima	dežurnim
4	dežurno	dežurni	dežurne
5 (pri/o)	dežurni	dežurn'ih	dežurnih
6 (z)	dežurno	dežurnima	dežurnimi

The forms given here are used in the declension of all adjectives standing next to feminine nouns (of any declension), as well as for all adjectives acting as nouns. Province names also abide by this declension.

For example:

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)

Masculine Declensions (Moške sklanjatve)

First (Prva)

The model of this declension is korak, step.

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	korak	koraka	koraki
2	koraka	korakov	korakov
3	koraku	korakoma	korakom
4	korak	koraka	korake
5 (pri/o)	koraku	korakih	korakih
6 (s)	korakom	korakoma	koraki

Animate nouns (nouns that represent living beings) have a different ending in accusative singular (-a: fant (boy) - fanta). Some other, inanimate, nouns also adhere to this rule, and using this rule for all first masculine declension nouns is typical in language used by small children.

Nouns ending in C, Č, Ž, Š, J (to help with remembering: Cene češnje že še je. = Literally: Cene cherries already still eats.) are subject to the so called preglas. The letter -o- in endings is replaced by -e-. Thus: stric (uncle) - s stricem, and not 's stricom'.

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)

The model of this declension is vojvoda, duke.

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	vojvoda	vojvodi	vojvode
2	vojvode	vojvod	vojvod
3	vojvodi	vojvodama	vojvodam
4	vojvodo	vojvodi	vojvode
5 (pri/o)	vojvodi	vojvodah	vojvodah
6 (z)	vojvodo	vojvodama	vojvodami

You will have noticed that the second masculine declension shares its endings with the first feminine declension. All nouns belonging to this declension may also be inflected as per the first masculine declension.

Thus, for the noun Luka (Luka, a name):

1. Luka
2. Luke or Luka
3. Luki or Luku
4. Luko or Luka
5. pri Luki or pri Luku
6. z Luko or z Lukom

Third (Tretja)

The model of this declension is H₂O, or any other acronym and symbol.

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	H2O	H2O	H2O
2	H2O	H2O	H2O
3	H2O	H2O	H2O
4	H2O	H2O	H2O
5 (pri/o)	H2O	H2O	H2O
6 (s)	H2O	H2O	H2O

All acronyms and symbols belong to this declension, but they may also be declined as per the first masculine declension, with an obligatory hyphen (-).

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

Fourth (Četrta)

The model of this declension is dežurni, a person on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives).

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	dežurni	dežurna	dežurni
2	dežurnega	dežurnih	dežurnih
3	dežurnemu	dežurnima	dežurnim
4	dežurnega	dežurna	dežurne
5 (pri/o)	dežurnem	dežurn'ih	dežurnih
6 (z)	dežurnim	dežurnima	dežurnimi

The forms given here are used in the declension of all adjectives standing next to masculine nouns (of any declension), as well as for all adjectives acting as nouns. However, in accusative singular, adjectives only have the ending -ega if the noun is animate or omitted; otherwise they get the ending -i or no ending at all.

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)

Neuter Declensions (Srednje sklanjatve)

First (Prva)

The model of this declension is mesto, city.

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	mesto	mesti	mesta
2	mesta	mest	mest
3	mestu	mestoma	mestom
4	mesto	mesti	mesta
5 (pri/o)	mestu	mest'ih	mestih
6 (z)	mestom	mestoma	mesti

Nouns of which the stem ends in C, Č, Ž, Š or J are subject to the so called preglas. The letter -o- is replaced by -e- in endings in nominative, accusative and instrumental singular, dative and instrumental dual and dative plural. Examples: polje (field), sonce (sun).

Some nouns have no ending in nominative singular, such as kolo (bicycle), ime (name), telo (body), and dekle (girl). These nouns extend their stem by -n-, -s- or -t- from genitive singular onwards (ime - imena, kolo - kolesa, dekle - dekleta).

Some nouns change their stem in the genitive of dual and plural. Namely, the schwa (-e-) (or -i- in front of -j-) is inserted. For example: okno (window) - oken, veselje (gaiety) - veselij.

Fourth (Četrta)

The model of this declension is dežurno, a thing on-duty (this is an adjectival noun (posamostaljeni pridevnik), and also the pattern for declension of adjectives).

CASE	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	dežurno	dežurni	dežurna
2	dežurnega	dežurnih	dežurnih
3	dežurnemu	dežurnima	dežurnim
4	dežurno	dežurni	dežurna
5 (pri/o)	dežurnem	dežurn'ih	dežurnih
6 (z)	dežurnim	dežurnima	dežurnimi

In nominative and accusative singular, the ending is -e instead of -o for adjectives ending in c, č, ž, š and j ("preglas").

The forms given here are used in the declension of all adjectives standing next to neuter nouns, as well as for all adjectives acting as nouns. An important example here are certain town names, such as Krško or Grosuplje (although this latter may also be declined using the first neuter declension).

Mass Noun (Množinski samostalnik)

In Slovene, mass nouns are either singular or plural.

Uncountable nouns used in the singular only can be split into three groups, denoting the following:

• matter (voda (water) (though plural when talking about rivers, lakes and seas), kri (blood), pesek (sand))
• groups (drevje (trees), mladina (youth), pohištvo (furniture))
• concepts (ljubezen (love), zdravje (health), mir (peace), znanje (knowledge))

Plural nouns are, for example, the following: pljuča (lungs), sani (sleigh), norice (smallpox), možgani (brain). In addition, normally the plural is used instead of the dual for body parts (roke (arms), ušesa (ears)), clothes (nogavice (socks)), devices (rolerji (rollerblades), and for biological pairs (starši (parents)), except when stressing that there are only two (or one).

It is permissible to use plural or dual forms for uncountable singular nouns when stressing the diversity or the number. (Obstaja več ljubezni. (Literally: 'There are more loves.') -- but this is better said "Obstaja več vrst ljubezni. (There are more types of love.))

Verb (Glagol)

Transitivity (Glagolska prehodnost)

As in English, Slovene features transitive and intransitive verbs, or, in other words, verbs that require a direct object to function properly and those that have exact meaning in themselves already. For example:

• 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 transitivity (or intransitivity) is a characteristic of all verbs in Slovene, but a given verb may be transitive in some and intransitive in other meanings it conveys.

Verbal Aspect (Glagolski vid)

Verbs have, as in many languages, two main continuance forms. In English, however, the perfective (dovršni) and imperfective (nedovršni) verb forms are rather expressed by different tense aspects (simple versus continuous).

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

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

Continuance is preserved in almost all 'tenses':

(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]

Note: Gender is expressed by verb endings.

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]

Active and Passive Voice (Tvornik in trpnik)

Slovene mostly uses the active voice. Hence, a typical English sentence, such as He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society (Izvoljen je bil za člana Kraljeve družbe), would more likely be seen in Slovenian in the form They elected him a fellow of the Royal Society (Izvolili so ga za člana Kraljeve družbe).

The passive in Slovene is formed by using the verb biti (to be) in the appropriate form, depending on the person, gender, tense and number, and adding to it the full lexical verb with the ending -en, or, in another form, by using the word se and the appropriate form of the full lexical verb.

For example:

• Trgovina je zaprta. (The shop is closed.) (state passive cannot be transformed into the active) – German: Das Geschäft ist geschlossen.
• Trgovina se zapira. (The shop is being closed.) (in the active: Trgovino zapirajo.) – German: Das Geschäft wird geschlossen.
• Tu se plava. (Here, one may swim.) (there is no English passive suitable in this translation, and also no active form in Slovene to directly correspond to it) – German: Hier wird geschwommen.
• Vržen je bil iz službe. (He was sacked.) (in the active: Vrgli so ga iz službe.)

Verb Tense (Glagolski čas)

In Slovene, there are four tenses:

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

Unlike in English, choosing the correct tense is trivial.

The Pluperfect (Predpreteklik)

The pluperfect tense is formed the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the present tense + 'l' participle of the auxiliary verb biti (to be) + 'l' participle of the full lexical verb

For example:

• sem bil videl (I had seen)
• je bila odšla (she had gone)
• so bili odkrili (they had discovered)

The pluperfect tense is not used in modern language. It should be confined to literature.

It describes an action taking place before another action in the past.

The Preterite (Preteklik)

The preterite tense is formed in the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the present tense + 'l' participle of the full lexical verb

For example:

• sem videl (I saw)
• je odšla (she went)
• so odkrili (they discovered)

The preterite tense is used to describe an action or state in the past.

The Present Tense (Sedanjik)

The present tense is formed in the following way: the present tense of the full lexical verb

For example:

• vidim (I see)
• odhaja (she is going)
• odkrivajo (they are discovering)

The present tense is used to describe actions and states happening at this moment or generally. Progressiveness is denoted by using perfective and imperfective verbs.

For verb formation, see verb conjugations below.

The Future Tense (Prihodnjik)

The future tense is formed in the following way: auxiliary verb biti (to be) in the future tense + 'l' participle of the full lexical verb

For example:

• videl bom (I shall see)
• odšla bo (she will go)
• bodo odkrili (they will discover)

The future tense describes future actions or states.

Verb Conjugations (Glagolske spregatve)

There are various types of conjugation existent in Slovene, videlicet:

• 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.

Slovene has both thematic and athematic conjugations of verbs in the present tense.

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.

Singular	Dual	Plural
imam – dam	imava – dava	imamo – damo
imaš – daš	imata – daSta	imate – daSte
ima – da	imata – daSta	imajo – dajo

Imperative: Imej!, Imejmo!; Daj!, Dajmo!

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) (?))

First conjugation example:

Singular	Dual	Plural
oddam	oddava	hodamo
oddaš	oddata	oddate
odda	oddata	oddajo

Imperative: Oddaj!, Oddajte!

Second conjugation example:

Singular	Dual	Plural
hodim	hodiva	hodimo
hodiš	hodita	hodite
hodi	hodita	hodijo

Imperative: Hodi!, Hodite!

Third conjugation example:

Singular	Dual	Plural
bijem	bijeva	bijemo
biješ	bijeta	bijete
bije	bijeta	bijejo

Imperative: Bij!, Bijte!

Fourth conjugation example:

Singular	Dual	Plural
rišem	riševa	rišemo
rišeš	rišeta	rišete
riše	rišeta	rišejo

Imperative: Riši!, Rišite!

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)

The verb biti (to be) is irregular, and is formed thus:

Present tense:

Singular	Dual	Plural
sem	sva	smo
si	sta	ste
je	sta	so

Future tense:

Singular	Dual	Plural
bom	bova	bomo
boš	bosta	boste
bo	bosta	bodo

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):

Singular	Dual	Plural
bil/-a/-o	bila/-i/-i	bili/-e/-a
bil/-a/-o	bila/-i/-i	bili/-e/-a
bil/-a/-o	bila/-i/-i	bili/-e/-a

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

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

Singular	Dual	Plural
nisem	nisva	nismo
nisi	nista	niste
ni	nista	niso

Participle (Deležnik)

In Slovene, there are many forms of the participle. The most common are the following:

• -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.)

A similar meaning is the -e participle: Sede se je pretegnil. ([While] sitting, he stretched.) Also, the -aje participle expresses a similar meaning: Sedaje se je pretegnil. (While sitting down, he stretched.)

• -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.)

Note that when used as an adjective, participles are declined as per the adjectival declension.

Imperative (Velelnik)

The imperative mood is formed using a different ending to verbs for each person, but more often than not, there is a change in the base as well (for instance: plesati (to dance) - pleši (Dance!), or peti (to sing) - poj (Sing!)).

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

Singular	Plural	Dual
--	bodimo - pojdimo - hodimo	bodiva - pojdiva - hodiva
bodi - pojdi - hodi	bodite - pojdite - hodite	bodita - pojdita - hodita

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)

The subjunctive is formed by the word bi (roughly, would) in front of the verb.

• 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!)

Conditional sentences expressing probable or very possible events need not use the subjunctive bi. For example: Če vam pomaham, odprite okno. (If I wave to you, open the window.)

Supine and Infinitive (Namenilnik in nedoločnik)

The supine and the infinitive are ordinarily used as verbal nouns, with the latter far more common than the former.

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.)

The supine is used following verbs designating movement. Its form is the same as that of the infinitive, bar the omitted -i at the end; thus, for the example verbs given above: postat, bit, hladit, peč, teč, sleč.

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.)

Gerund (Glagolnik)

A gerund is a noun directly inflected from a verb, designating an action or a state. The standard gerund in Slovene ends in -anje or -enje:

• 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)

For example:

• 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!)

Adjective (Pridevnik)

The adjective expresses three main ideas: quality (qualitative adjectives, kakovostni pridevniki), relation (relational adjectives, vrstni pridevniki) and possession (possesssive adjectives, svojilni pridevniki).

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?)

– Želim modno pričesko. (I would like a modish haircut.)

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

– Pričeska je modna. (The haircut is modish.)

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

– Pričeska se je naredila lepa. (The haircut has been made beautiful.)

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?))

For nouns which are not exactly defined, either being mentioned for the first time or generic:

• 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?))

Adjectives ending in -i and all possessive pronouns do not have special indefinite forms. There are two special adjectives which have special definite and indefinite forms for all genders and all cases, namely majhen (small) and velik (big) (the definite forms are mali and veliki respectively).

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.)

The adjective matches the subject or the predicate article to which it is ascribed. If it describes two singular nouns or one dual noun, the adjective should be in the dual. If it describes a plural or one singular and one non-singular noun, the adjective should be in the plural. Although gender should match the group, sometimes the gender of the adjacent noun is used with the appropriate grammatical number. For declension patterns of adjectives, see the section on nouns (the fourth declension is always adjectival). Some adjectives, however, are never declined, for example bež (beige), poceni (cheap), roza (pink), super (super), seksi (sexy), and some other loanwords.

• 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.)

Possessive adjectives for masculine and neuter possessed nouns add -ov (or -ev if the possessive noun ends in c, č, ž, š and j ("preglas")) to the possessive noun. Feminine possessed nouns always take -in. Possessive nouns can include proper names, in which case they are written capitalised.

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)

Comparative (Primernik)

The comparative is formed by adding the ending -ši (-ša, -še), -ejši (-ejša, -ejše) or -ji (-ja, -je) to an adjective, or using the word bolj (more) in front of an adjective in case of stressing, and also when the adjective in question cannot be formed by adding an ending, such as when dealing with colours, or when the adjective ends in such a sound that it would be difficult to add the appropriate ending.

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)

Superlative (Presežnik)

The superlative is formed by prepending the word naj directly in front of the comparative, regardless of its comprising of one or two words.

• 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

Numeral (Števnik)

Cardinal Numeral (Glavni števnik)

• 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.)

The numbers up to ten are as follows: nič (0), ena, dva (or dve), tri, štiri, pet, šest, sedem, osem, devet, deset.

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).

Hundreds are formed with the word sto, similar to tens.

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

Thousands follow the same style, but are separated by spaces.

• 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).

Millions and further on (milliards, billions, billiards, trillions, trilliards ...) are declined.

• 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) ...

Ordinal Numeral (Vrstilni števnik)

• prvi, drugi, tretji, četrti, peti (first, second, third, fourth, fifth) – used to express the position in a numbered order (when written with a number, the number is followed by a full-stop (1. (1^st)).

• • Zasedli so prvo mesto. (They took first place.)
  • Stoprvi gost je prispel. (The hundred and first guest has arrived.)
  • Stodruga noga jo boli. (The hundred and second leg hurts her.)
  • Sedemnajsttisočtristoenainosemdeseti kovanec je bil rahlo umazan. (The seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty-first coin was slightly dirty.)
  • Ob osmi uri zjutraj. (At 8 o'clock in the morning.) – normally written "Ob 8. uri zjutraj." or "Ob 8^h zjutraj." (Ob osmih zjutraj.)

Collective Numeral (Ločilni števnik)

• dvoje, troje, četvero, petero – used for plural mass nouns, as well as to emphasise diversity of what is counted (dvoje oči, dvoje vrat, troje ljudi (two eyes, two doors, three people))

Multiplicative Numeral (Množilni števnik)

• enojno, dvojno, trojno, četvorno, petorno (single, double, triple, quadraple, fivefold/quintuple) – used to name the amount of parts (dvojni ulomek (double fraction))
• enkraten, dvakraten, trikraten, štirikraten, petkraten (essentially the same meaning, but less often used)

Indefinite Numeral (Nedoločni števnik)

Indefinite numerals do not exactly define the number of the noun in question. These words are not inflected.

• dosti (quite a lot)
• mnogo (much)
• več (more)
• veliko (a lot)
• malo (little, a little)
• nekaj (a little)
• koliko (how much)
• toliko (this much)

• Dosti dela je šlo v nič, saj smo prepozno spoznali, da pisalni stroj ni imel papirja. (Quite a bit of work was futile, for we realised too late that the typewriter had not had paper.)

Adverbial Numeral (Prislovni števnik)

These numerals include enkrat, dvakrat (once, twice) and so forth, and prvič (or prvikrat), drugič (or drugikrat) (the first time, the second time) and so forth.

• Osel gre samo enkrat na led. (A donkey goes onto ice only once.) (a Slovene proverb)
• Ko drugič poskusiš, uvidiš, da že kar znaš. (When you try it the second time round, you realise that you already know it quite well.)

Adverb (Prislov)

The adverb in Slovene is always the same as the singular neuter form of any given adjective if derived from an adjective.

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

--> "Imeli smo se lepo." (literally, "We had ourselves nicely.", the meaning is 'We had a nice time.')

--> "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.)

Pronoun (Zaimek)

Substantival Pronoun (Samostalniški zaimek)

Substantival pronouns can replace a noun in a sentence; this is, as opposed to, say, an adjective or an adverb.

Personal Pronoun (Osebni zaimek)

A 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.)

Other cases and examples:

• 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 ...')

Interrogative Pronoun (Vprašalni zaimek)

The substantival interrogative pronouns introduce direct and indirect questions. There are two nominative forms: kdo (who) and kaj (what). They are declined as shown at cases above.

• 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?)

Relative Pronoun (Oziralni zaimek)

The substantival relative pronoun ends in -r: kdor (someone who), kar (something that).

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.)

Negative Pronoun (Nikalni zaimek)

The 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.)

Total Pronoun (Celostni zaimek)

The substantival 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.)

Manifold Pronoun (Mnogostni zaimek)

The substantival possessive pronoun denotes, obviously, possession of someone or something. Solidi separate the masculine, feminine and neuter forms of the adjectival pronoun respectively if applicable.

An example for the first person singular (I):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	moj / moja / moje	moja / moji / moji	moji / moje / moja
2	mojega / moje / mojega	mojih	mojih
3	mojemu / moji / mojemu	mojima	mojim
4	mojega / mojo / moje	moja / moji / moji	moje / moje / moja
5	pri mojemu / pri moji / pri mojemu	pri mojih	pri mojih
6	z mojim / z mojo / z mojim	z mojima	z mojimi

To obtain other possessive pronouns, moj- should be replaced with:

• 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

The endings remain the same.

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?)

Reflexive Possessive Pronoun (Povratni svojilni zaimek)

When the possessive pronoun refers to the subject of the sentence in question, it is of a special kind, namely the so-called interjection is ordinarily an uninflected word expressing mental states, encouragement towards actions, greetings or mocking of sounds and voices.

• 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.)

Interjections may be inflected; however, in spite of the words' being the same, such use calls for a different word class (part of speech), this oftenest being nouns.

• "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.)

Sentence (Poved)

Constituents (Stavčni členi)

In a sentence, there can only be four types of constituent, the order of which is seldom crucial:

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

By changing the order, the stressed part changes. It may also serve to create poetic sentiment, for inversion is common in poetry.

Free Sentence (Prosti stavek)

Včeraj sem šel domov. (I went home last night.) (or: Last night (I) went home.)

Danes prihajam domov. (I am coming home today.)

Jutri bom šel od doma. (I shall leave home tomorrow.)

Compound Sentence (Zložena poved)

Res me veseli, da si prišel. (I am really glad you came.)

Da – tako je bilo, kakor praviš! (Yes – it was as you say!)

Incomplete Sentence (Nepopolna poved)

This is a sentence which does not have a predicate.

Rana ura, zlata ura. (Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise; The early bird catches the worm (literally Early hour, golden hour))

Inserted Sentence (Vloženi stavek)

V tistih časih – bil sem še mlad in sem od sveta veliko pričakoval – sem lepega večera srečal starega berača in ... (In those times – I was still young and I expected a lot from the world – I met an old beggar one fair evening and ...)

Accompanying Sentence and Direct Speech (Spremni stavek in dobesedni govor)

"Dobro jutro," je rekla Lojza. ("Good morning," said Aloysine.)

Lojza je rekla: "Dobro jutro." (Aloysine said, "Good morning.")

– Dobro jutro. ("Good morning.")

See also the section on inverted commas.

Punctuation (Ločila)

Punctuation marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic use), abbreviations, et cetera.

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)

Syntactical Use

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.)

When a statement is articulated, the pitch is cadent, thus decreased towards the end of such a sentence.

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?.")

The final punctuation mark of a quoted sentence (with or without inverted commas) within a declaratory sentence is omitted if the quoted sentence is not preceded by a colon.

• 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!

A full stop is replaced by a comma in direct speech before the accompanying sentence.

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

Non-Syntactical Use

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).

However, symbols are never followed by a full stop.

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

Ordinal numerals are followed by a full stop.

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

Dates are written with full stops separating the day, month and year. Note that the English dates below are British English; American English switches the month and the day. It is important to realise that the full stop is left-leaning; the space is intentional (yet only few are aware of that).

• 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)

If a non-syntactical full stop is at the end of a sentence, it is not usual to append another full stop to it; however, doing so is not incorrect.

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

Ellipsis (Tri pike)

Syntactical Use

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 –)

Any other punctuation may or may not be appended; a full stop is usually (but not always) omitted, but other punctuation normally remains:

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

When emphasising that whatever has been left out is a subsequent omission not performed by the original author, the ellipsis is enclosed in round or square brackets ((), []), or, more often, in solidi (//).

• 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.)

An ellipsis may indicate an inserted sentence, though a dash is more often used in such cases:

• 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.

An ellipsis usually indicates pausing or abrupt interruption. When used as a sentence closing punctuation mark, the pitch is cadent, thus decreased towards the end of such a sentence, or semi-cadent, indicating a half-finished thought, or there is no change in pitch.

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 hairy bears) is a traditional – and one of the only ones present in Slovene – profanity, though rather innocent and extremely seldom used.)

Exclamation Mark (Klicaj)

Syntactical Use

An exclamation mark (!) is a left-leaning punctuation mark. It is used as a closing punctuation mark of emphatic sentences and clauses, and as a non-closing punctuation mark finishing inserted sentences. They are typical of imperative mood, but only if emotionally charged.

• Gregor, utihni! (Gregor, shut up!)
• Mojbog! (My god!)
• Na pomoč! (Help!)
• Pleši, pleši, dokler ti petke dopuste! (Dance, dance, as long as your shoe heels allow for that!)
• To se mi je zdela odlična ideja! (That I thought a marvellous idea!)
• Spoštovani! (Respected! (at the beginning of a letter, though more usual is "Spoštovani,"))
• Ubil te bom! (I shall kill you!)
• Če mi še kdaj izustiš kaj takega ...! (If you ever say something like that again ...!)
• Mnogo let nazaj – joj, da bi le že pozabila na to! – sem živela na kmetiji. (Many years ago – oh, if only I should forget this already! – I lived on a farm.)
• Reci mu vendar, naj pride domov! (Tell him to come home! – the exclamation mark is likely bound to 'come home', however, and not 'tell')
• Zrecitiraj Kons V! (Recite Kons V!) (But: "Zrecitiraj: Kons V.")
• "Gremo!" je vzkliknila Janja. ("Let's go!" exclaimed Janja.)

See the note on the use of the combination with a question mark below under question mark. One may use the combination !! (or even more exclamation marks) to express further exclamatory mood.

• Kaj?! (What?!)
• Izgini!! (Get lost!!)

Non-Syntactical Use

An exclamation mark may be used for emphasis of a certain point in a text.

• Morda je to res, a emancipacijo (!) testov smo pričakovali. (Perhaphs that is true, but the emancipation (!) of tests has been expected. – used to emphasise a word used, which should probably be evalvacijo (evaluation))
• Nuna (!) je strastno govorila o umetnosti ljubljenja. (The nun (!) passionately talked about the art of making love.)

Question Mark (Vprašaj)

Syntactical Use

A question mark (?) is a left-leaning punctuation mark. It is used in single clause sentences and in compound sentences in which the independent clause expresses enquiries.

• Imaš čik? (colloquial, Have you got a fag?) (proper Slovene is Imaš cigareto? (Have you got a cigarette?)
• Si res želiš, Ana, dobiti enojko? (Do you, Ana, really wish to get a one (the worst grade at school)?)
• Tukaj? (Here?)
• Oh, kaj res? (Oh, really? (in a bored tone))
• Rok, kam greš? (Rok, whither are you going? (normally, the English would say 'Where', but it is important to distinguish between whither (kam) and where (kje) in Slovene))
• Pogovarjali smo se, bilo je zelo zanimivo, potem pa je Luka nenadoma rekel – uganeš kaj? (We had been talking, it had been very interesting, but then Luka suddenly said – guess what?)
• "Je to res, Urša?" je zavpil profesor. ("Is this true, Urša?" shouted the professor.)

When a question without a question word or with ali, or with ?? or ?! is articulated, the pitch is anticadent, thus increased towards the end of such a sentence. Otherwise, the pitch is cadent, thus decreased towards the end of such a sentence.

It should be noted that in a compound sentence in which the independent clause is not interrogative, the sentence ends with a full stop or an exclamation mark. This is similar to reported speech in English.

• Vprašali so me, če grem peš ali s taksijem. (They asked me if I should walk or go by taxi.)
• O čem se gre predstava, tega pač ne vem. (What the performance is about, that I just don't know. (with the implied meaning that the original question is stupid, for how am I to know?))

After a colon, the clause keeps its own punctuation mark.

• Čigav je že izrek: Užij dan. (Whose is, again, the saying, Seize the day?)
  • This sentence can also be written as "Čigav je že izrek Užij dan?" or "Čigav je že izrek 'Užij dan'?".

A question mark need not be a sentence terminating punctuation mark; it may be used in inserted sentences.

• Govorim o hibridizaciji sp² – to veš, kaj je? – ogljikovega atoma v tej organski molekuli. (I am talking about the sp² hybridisation – do you know what this is? – of the carbon atom in this organic molecule.)

In certain cases, the question mark may be doubled (for emphasis of a repeated question), or it may be combined with an exclamation mark in emphatic and emotional contexts.

• Kako narediš to? Kako?? (How do you do this? How??)
• Le kako si lahko dovoliš kaj takega?! (However can you allow yourself something like that?!)

Non-Syntactical Use

A question mark can be used non-syntactically if it denotes doubt.

• Dejali so, da se je nafta (?) razlila. (They have said that oil (?) has spilt.) (the speaker is not certain whether it was oil or something else, or perhaps if this is indeed how the word is spelt)

Colon (Dvopičje)

Syntactical Use

A colon (:) is a left-leaning punctuation mark. It is used in various ways as described below.

1. to introduce direct speech after an accompanying sentence

• Zadregetala je od same jeze: "Kaj? Tako drago?" (She shivered with pure anger: "What? So expensive?")
• Kot v zboru so dejali: Seveda. (As though in a choir they said: Naturally.)
• Kot v zboru so dejali: "Seveda."
• Estragon: Pejva. (Estragon: Let's go.) (from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (Čakajoč Godota))

2. in enumeration, expatiation or explanation

• So stvari, o katerih ne vem popolnoma nič: fiziologija, oftalmologíja, socialna antropologija. (There are things I know absolutely nothing about: physiology, ophthalmology, social anthropology.)
• Potrebuje se: moka, mleko, med in sojina omaka. (Needed are: flour, milk, honey and soya sauce.) – this may also be written as "Potrebuje se moka, mleko, med in sojina omaka."
• Zahvaliti se želim še posebej: (I wish to thank especially:)
  • Jožetu,
  • Pulheriji,
  • Cvetki,
  • Cirilu.
• Sodelujemo vsi: to vključuje tudi tebe, Metka. (Everyone participates: this includes you, Metka.)
• To je lepo: neizmerna umetnina. (This is beautiful: an unmeasurable piece of art.) – this may also be written as "To je lepo, in pri tem neizmerna umetnina." (This is beautiful, and an unmeasurable piece of art at that.) or similarly
• Rekel sem: ne rekel, vzkliknil! (I said: not said, exclaimed!) – this may also be written as "Rekel sem – ne rekel, vzkliknil!" or "Rekel sem, ne rekel, vzkliknil!"
• V najbolj preprosti obliki ti povem, ker vem, da ne razumeš dobro: spelji se mi izpred oči. (I tell you in the simplest form, for I know you do not understand well: get out of my sight.)

3. optionally after form data

• Ime in priimek: (Name and surname:)
• Datum: (Date:)

When a colon is encountered in reading, the pitch is semi-cadent, thus decreased.

Non-Syntactical Use

1. for the meaning 'proti' (to, against) (usually non-leaning):

• Rezultat je bil 1 : 2 [ena proti dva]. (The result was 1 : 2.)
• Množini ogljika in klorove (VII) kisline sta v razmerju 1 : 1 [ena proti ena]. (The amounts of carbon and chloric (VII) acid are in the ratio 1 : 1.)

2. for the meaning 'deljeno' (divided):

• 15 : 3 = 5 (petnajst deljeno s tri je pet) (fifteen divided by three is five)

Inverted Comma (Narekovaj)

An inverted comma (? ?) is a two part left- and right-leaning punctuation mark. There are many types of inverted commas used in Slovene texts, videlicet:

• standard double up-down: ?ABC?
• standard single up-down: ?ABC?
• line centred double (used in some printed material): »ABC«
• line centred single (used in some printed material): ?ABC?
• double up (used in some printed material): "ABC" or ?ABC?
• single up (used in some printed material): 'ABC' or ?ABC?

The most prominent use of inverted commas is