Unlock 10+ Advanced Slovenian Grammar Secrets

You’ve come a long way with learning Slovenian. You’ve nailed the basics, worked through the tricky grammar, and gained confidence in conversations. That’s something to be proud of!

Now, let’s take it up a notch. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at advanced Slovenian grammar topics like adjective types, comparisons, and declinations. I’ll also explain the importance of commas and other challenging concepts that will bring you closer to mastering the language

Advanced Slovenian Grammar Topics

By now, you should be familiar with the basics of Slovenian grammar. Now, we’re going to take it a step further and discover it on more intermediate and advanced levels, which will help you use Slovenian more naturally and accurately. We’ll pay special attention to adjectives, as they are a rich area to learn from.

Advanced Slovenian Adjectives Rules

An adjective (pridevnik) is a word that describes a noun by adding a quality to it. In Slovenian, there are three types of adjectives: qualitative (lastnostni), relational (vrstni), and possessive (svojilni).

Qualitative Adjectives

Qualitative adjectives describe the characteristics or features of an object, person, animal, or concept. They describe things like their color or size. For example:

• A hairy dog – Kosmat pes
• A tall building – Visoka stavba
• A blue sky – Modro nebo
  
  

The question word for this adjective is Kakšen? which means ”What sort/kind of?” So, for the sentences above, we would ask:

• What kind of dog? – Kakšen pes?
• What kind of building? – Kakšna stavba?
• What kind of sky? – Kakšno nebo?

Relational Adjectives

Relational adjectives describe a type of object, animal, person, or concept. For example:

• The city bus – Mestni avtobus
• Forest animals – Gozdne živali
• Two-story house – Dvonadstropna hiša
  
  

The question word for relational adjectives is Kateri? This means ”Which?”. For the sentences above, you have to ask yourself:

• Which bus? – Kateri avtobus?
• Which animals? – Katere živali?
• Which house? – Katera hiša?

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives simply name the owner of an object or concept. The way it works is that the adjective ending is going to agree with the gender of a noun. Let’s imagine a girl named Maja. Here’s how we would change the possessive adjective based on the gender of the noun:

• Maja’s bag – Majina torba
• Maja’s phone – Majin telefon
• Maja’s city – Majino mesto
  
  

Now let’s take a boy’s name: Jan. The ending would be different in this case, but still agree with the gender of the noun:

• Jan’s bag – Janova torba
• Jan’s phone – Janov telefon
• Jan’s city – Janovo mesto
  
  

However, it can be different for certain names. For example, the name Matej:

• Matej’s bad – Matejeva torba
• Matej’s phone – Matejev telefon
• Matej’s city – Matejevo mesto
  
  

So for girl names and feminine nouns, the ending is always -in, and for boy names or masculine and neuter nouns, the adjective ending is either -ov or -ev.

The question word for possessive adjectives is Čigav? which means ”Whose?”. Here’s how you would ask the question:

• Whose bag? – Čigava torba?
• Whose phone? – Čigav telefon?
• Whose city? – Čigavo mesto?

Comparatives And Superlatives

An adjective in Slovenian has three degrees: positive (osnovnik), comparative (primernik), and superlative (presežnik).

There are two ways in which you can form the comparative and the superlative in Slovenian.

Comparison With Endings

The first way is to add endings like -ši, -ša, -še, or -ejši, -ejša, -ejše for comparative. The superlative (most) is formed by adding “naj” in front of the comparative. Here’s how it works:

Comparison With ”More” And ”Most”

Instead of adding any suffixes to words you can just say more (bolj) and the most (najbolj):

If you ask a native speaker, even they couldn’t tell you for sure sometimes which adjective goes into which group. What sounds more natural? You can easily say ”more beautiful” as bolj lep, but it’s more correct to say lepši. The first one isn’t exactly incorrect, but you’ll hear lepši more often.

And then there are words like childish (otročji). As a native speaker, it sounds weird to say otročjejši (more childish) and more natural to say bolj otročji. Imagine saying ”beautifuler” or ”beautifulest” in English. Just doesn’t work, right?

Generally, there are rules: Colors and adjectives that come from participles are usually compared using more (bolj) and most (najbolj) instead of adding endings. Participles are words formed from verbs but used as adjectives. For example heated (vroč), or wilted (ovenel).

Adjective And Noun Declinations

By now, you know the six Slovenian cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and instrumental.

But just knowing the cases isn’t enough. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives also need to match in gender, number, and case. Slovenian has three genders (feminine, masculine, neuter) and three numbers (singular, dual, plural). Let’s see how adjectives and nouns change their endings for each gender and number.

Feminine Noun Declension

Let’s start with feminine nouns. We’ll use the adjective beautiful (lepa) and the noun house (hiša) to see how their endings change in each case.

Masculine Noun Declensions

Next up, let’s look at masculine nouns. We’ll use the adjective beautiful (lep) and the noun dog (pes) to see how their endings change in each case.

Neuter Noun Declensions

Lastly, let’s take a look at neuter nouns. We’ll use the adjective beautiful (lepo) and the noun tree (nebo) to see how their endings change in each case.

Helpful tip: Use the Slovene Morphological Lexicon to check the noun and adjective endings if unsure!

Commas And Conjunctions

If you really want to blend in with advanced Slovenian grammar, get ready for commas! In fact, if you don’t get the comma rules right, Slovenian people might just look at you and say: ”You don’t really know grammar, do you?”

As kids in school, starting with grammar, we learn this little rhyme: ”Pred ki, ko, ker, da, če, vejica skače!” Roughly translated, this means: ”before ki, ko, ker, da, če, a comma is jumping!”

What does this mean? Any time you see the little words like ki (that), ko (when), ker (because), da (that), and če (if), put a comma before them! They are subordinating conjunctions, meaning they introduce subordinate clauses. That means they are dependent on the main clause to complete their meaning. For example:

• I’m cold because it’s winter – Zebe me, ker je zima
• I didn’t know that you were coming! – Nisem vedel, da prideš!
• I’ll see you when I get home – Se vidiva, ko pridem domov
  
  

Of course, then you can’t forget to put a comma if the sentence begins with any of their conjunctions either. Why? It still means the clause is dependent!

• If you come, let me know – Če prideš, mi sporoči
  
  

Now, let me confuse you all over again: there isn’t always a comma before these little words. Why? Because Slovenian conjunctions can sometimes be made up of two words! In that case, no comma is needed before the first word.

These are the so-called compound conjunctions, and they’re quite common in Slovenian texts. Examples include tako da (so that), medtem ko (meanwhile), potem ko (after), namesto da (instead of), že ko (already when), in ker (and because), in da (and that), in če (and if), šele ko (only when), and many others. In these cases, always put the comma only in front of the first one!

• I went to a party instead of studying – Šel sem na zabavo, namesto da bi se učil.

Two-Part Conjunctions

In Slovenian, we also know two-part conjunctions, which are made up of two separate parts that stand in different parts of sentences and work together to connect ideas. They can either be identical or different.

Identical Two-Part Conjunctions

With these conjunctions, we never use a comma!

Different Two-Part Conjunctions

With these conjunctions, always use a comma!

Want to make sure a comma applies in a sentence? Use a Slovenian comma tool to help yourself!

Tips For Learning Advanced Slovenian Grammar

Here are some quick tips for studying advanced grammar that can help you make sense of it all.

1. Break down complex sentences into smaller parts to understand the structure. Ask yourself what’s a noun, verb, adjective, adverb or conjunction in the sentence.
   
   
2. Start reading more complex texts, like Slovenian books and newspaper articles. During reading, try and notice any grammar features, and write down any words you don’t know.
   
   
3. Write short paragraphs and focus on applying the grammar rules.
   
   
4. Go over and practice Slovenian verb conjugations often to help remember them better. Learn a new verb every day and try to conjugate it.
   
   
5. Avoid feeling overwhelmed. Once you feel like a topic is becoming too much information at once, take a break and come back to it later.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Are There Any Tricks For Remembering Slovenian Cases?

Memorize the endings! They always follow a pattern, so once you get familiar with them, they’ll start to feel more intuitive. Make simple example sentences for each case and say them out loud. It helps with muscle memory!

2. How Can I Tell The Difference Between Qualitative And Relational Adjectives?

For qualitative adjectives, you can always find an opposite, and for relational, you can’t! Another thing is that you can always find comparative and superlative forms for qualitative adjectives, but not for relational.

3. How Can I Improve Slovenian Vocabulary?

You can use several resources to improve Slovenian vocabulary. Language learning apps for learning Slovenian phrases are a great tool, and one of the best for rare languages like Slovenian is the Ling app. It offers a variety of topics to help you learn different words and expand your vocabulary.

Expose yourself to the language as much as possible. Listen to Slovenian podcasts, watch Slovenian TV, and read books and articles in Slovenian. Don’t be afraid to practice with native speakers if you have the chance.

Keep Up The Momentum!

This post covered several advanced Slovenian grammar topics, like types of adjectives, their forms, and rules of comparison and declination. We also dove into the tricky area of commas and double conjunctions. You should now have a clearer understanding of how to use adjectives, nouns, and cases more naturally in Slovenian.

Since you’ve come this far, keep going! Practice these concepts, and soon, you’ll be on your way to perfect fluency!

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