Nouns generally end in a consonant or the vowel a, o or e. There is no article to distinguish a words gender or definiteness, meaning that bčela can mean “a bee” or “the bee” depending on the context. The plural is formed by placing i at the end of a noun the ends in a consonant or by replacing the final vowel with i, ex. muž “man” > muži “men”, psa “dog” > psi “dogs”, drevo “tree” > drevi “trees”, etc.
Adjectives and adverbs always go before the word they modify, ex. mali golub “small pidgeon”. Adjectives generally end in i, and adverbs are formed from adjectives by replacing the final i with an o, ex. bogski “divine” > bogsko “divinely”, bogsko krasni “divinely beautiful”.
Comparatives are formed by adding vece before the adjective or adverb, ex. vece dobri “better”. The superlative is formed by adding naj- directly before the adjective or adverb, ex. naj-dobri “best”. “Less” is translated with menje, ex. menje dobri “less good”, and the negative superlative is formed with najmenje, ex. najmenje dobri “worst”.
| Person/Number | Pronoun | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | me | moj |
| 2nd singular | te | tvoj |
| 3rd singular* | on, ono | go |
| 1st plural | nas | naš |
| 2nd plural | vas | vaš |
| 3rd plural* | oni | jih |
| Reflexive** | se | svoj |
*The third person pronoun is always gender neutral. On is animate and thus equivalent to “he/him, she/her, they/them”, whereas ono, being inanimate, is equivalent to “it”. Oni is the plural of both.
**The reflexive pronoun is equivalent to “myself, yourself, theirselves, etc.”
| This | That* | Which | Some | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thing | ov, to ** | tam-to, to** | čto | nečto |
| Person | ov, to ** | tam-to, to** | kto | nekto |
| Time | segda, sečas | togda | kogda | nekogda |
| Place | sda | tam | kde | nekde |
| Way | ovako, tako | tam-tako, tako | kako | nekako |
| Kind of | ovaki | tam-taki, taki | kaki | nekaki |
| Quanity | seliko | toliko | koliko | nekoliko |
| Every | No | Any | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thing | vsečto, vse | ničto | čto-koli |
| Person | vsekto, vsi | nikto | kto-koli |
| Time | vsegda | nikogda | kogda-koli |
| Place | vsekde | nikde | kde-koli |
| Way | vsekako | nikako | kako-koli |
| Kind of | vsekaki | nikaki | kaki-koli |
| Quanity | ∅ | nikoliko | koliko-koli |
*“There” is expressed with tam, and it is used as hyphenated prefixes for other words in the “That” column that explicitly refer to distant concepts, ex. Me ne znal, že bi on tam-toliko mlovil “I didn’t know he would talk that much.”
**The plural of to is ti, and the plural of ov is ovi.
The relative pronouns are the relative word under the “Which” column. Ov je dom, kde on žive, “This is the house where he lives,” Včera bil den, kogda me peva, “Yesterday was the day when I sang.” The equivalent to the English “which” or “who” is koj, ex. Bobi, koj je tam, “The beans which are there”, Muž, koj mlovi, “The man who is speaking.”
The first 10 cardinal numbers are: 1 jedin, 2 dva, 3 tri, 4 čtire, 5 pet, 6 šest, 7 sedme, 8 osme, 9 devet, 10 deset.
The teens are formed by adding na deset after the cardinal number: 11 jedin na deset, 12 dva na deset, 13 tri na deset, 14 čtire na deset, 15 pet na deset, 16 šest na deset, 17 sedme na deset, 18 osme na deset, 19 devet na deset.
The tens are formed by adding deset at the end of the cardinal number: 20 dvadeset, 30 trideset, 40 čtiredeset, 50 petdeset, 60 šestdeset, 70 sedmedeset, 80 osmedeset, 90 devetdeset.
The hundreds are formed by adding sto “hundred”: 200 dvasto, 300 tristo, 400 čtiresto, 500 petsto, 600 šeststo, 700 sedmesto, 800 osmesto, 900 devetsto.
The higher numbers are tisoč “thousand”, miljon “million”, miljard “billion”.
The first 4 ordinals have a particular form: 1st pervi, 2nd vtori, 3rd treti, 4th četverti. “Hundredth” also has a particular form: stoti. The rest are formed by placing i at the end of the cardinal number or by replacing the final vowel with i.
Collective numbers are number words used to express a group of that number and are formed by adding ero to the cardinal number, ex. deset > desetero, as in deseteri ot domi “tens of houses”. 2–4 have unique forms: 2 dvoje, 3 troje, 4 četvero. Oba “both” can also be used collectively in the form oboje: oba človeki “both people” vs. oboje ot človeki. Oboje can also be used as a pronoun: Me kazal k oboje, “I spoke to both.”
The present tense for all persons and numbers is represented by the basic stem found in the dictionary, ex. Žena mlovi, “The woman is speaking,” Kot prijde “The cat is coming.”
There is only irregular verb that does not adhere to the following rules for verbs, je “be”. Its noun form (“being”, “existing”) is bitje, its past is bil, its future is bude, its imperative (used for commands and suggestions) is budejte and its past active participle is suči.
Verbal nouns are formed by removing any final vowel and adding enje to the end, ex. prijde “come” > prijdenje “arrival”.
The past tense is formed by placing an l at the end of a verb stem, ex. Me tanceval “I danced”, On bil ščestni “They were happy”.
The future tense is formed by placing hte before the verb, ex. Či ti hte tancova s me? “Will you dance with me?”
The imperative, used to form commands or requests, is formed by adding jte to the end, ex. prijde “come” > Prijdejte! “Come!” Prosim, kazajte k me, “Please tell me.”
The conditional, used to talk about wishes and hypotheticals, is formed by placing bi before a verb’s past tense, ex. Me bi bil ščestni, či on bi jest sde, “I would be happy if they were here.” The past tense of the conditional is created by placing a bil before the bi, ex. Me bil bi delal to, “I might have done that.”
The present active participle is formed by adding or replacing final vowel with uči (smeja se “laugh”, > smejuči “laughing”.
The past active participle is formed by adding vši to the end, dela “do”, delavši “having done”.
The present passive participle is formed by adding or replace the final vowel with omi, ex. poče “begin” > počomi “(being) began”.
The past passive participle is formed by adding ni to the end of a verb stem, ex. sveti “consecrate” > svetini “sacred”.
The general word order is Subject-Verb-Object, ex. Psa ljuba kot, “The dog loves the cat.”
Yes-no questions are formed by placing či at the start of the sentence, leaving the rest undisturbed, ex. Či te je moj drug, “Are you my friend?” Other questions are formed by placing the question word at the start of the sentence, ex. Kde nas hodi? “Where are we going?” Kto to jest bil? “Who was that?”
If-then phrases are formed by using či as “if” and using the conditional mood with bi on whichever clause is hypothetical, ex. Či bčela poseti kvet, ono hte nese ovoc, “If a bee visits a flower, it will bear fruit,” Či me bil bi delal to, me bi bil zaspani, “If I had done that, I would be sleepy.”
Negation is done with the negative particle ne, which can be used as a particle in a sentence, ex. On ne plaka, “They aren’t crying,” or as a negating prefix, ex. neplakuči “un-crying”. Multiple negatives are encouraged for emphasis, ex. Me ne kazal ničto k nikto! “I ain’t tell nothing to nobody!”
Relative clauses are made by preceding the relative clause with že, ex. Me ne znal, že te znal on, “I didn’t know that you knew him.” If the relative clause illustrates purpose or goal, being equivalent to the phrases “so that” or “in so that”, the phrase že bi is used along with the past tense in the following clause, ex. Bčeli poseti kveti, že bi ono možel dela med, “Bees visit flowers so that they can make honey.”
Passive phrases are formed a few ways. The way most accustomed to English speakers is to a a participle with je, using ot to introduce the agent, ex. Med je delani ot bčeli, “The honey was made by bees,” Med je delomi od bčeli, “The honey is being made by bees.” While this is an option, it should be avoided. When the agent of an action is unknown or not important enough to be mentioned, the reflexive works as a passive, ex. Nehaj tvoj ime sveti se, “May your name be hallowed,” (literally, “May your name hallow itself.”). If the agent is known or important enough to mention, passive constructions should be avoided.