Slovak, like most Slavic languages and Latin, is an inflected language, meaning that the endings (and sometimes also the stems) of most words (nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals) change depending on the given combination of the grammatical gender, the grammatical number and the grammatical case of the particular word in the particular sentence.
Legend "ends in" in the following refers to the ending in the nominative singular (N sg), unless stated differently; Soft consonants are: all consonants with the diacritic mark ˇ (for example š, ľ) + c, dz, j. Hard and neutral consonants are all the remaining consonants; For masculine nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals it is necessary to distinguish between animate and inanimate ones. An animate noun is a person (for example father, Peter) and an inanimate noun is any other noun (for example table, fear, democracy). Animals are usually viewed as persons only in sg. For the animate nouns, the G is identical with the A (both in sg. and in pl.), and for the inanimate nouns, the N is identical with the A (both in sg. and in pl.). Animate/Inanimate adjectives, pronouns and numerals are those referring to an animate/inanimate noun respectively (for example in "my father" the "my" is animate, because father is animate); sg = singular, pl = plural; N, G, D, A, L, I are abbreviations of grammatical cases (see above).
Nouns There are four grammatical genders in Slovak: animate masculine, inanimate masculine, feminine, and neuter. In popular description, the first two genders are often covered under common masculine gender. Almost all Slovak nouns and adjectives, as well as some pronouns and numerals can be categorized into one of these genders. Exceptions are pluralia tantum ( – Christmas, though there are rules for deriving the gender), words that are drifting into another gender and are currently neuter ( – prince), and masculine animals that are animate in singular and mostly inanimate in plural.
For each gender, there are four basic declension paradigms, i.e. declension models.
Like in English, Slovak has singular and plural nouns. Morphological traces of the ancient Indo-European dual number remain, but are not a separate grammar category anymore. A particular case is associated with three distinct groups of numerals associated with nouns: 1 (one) – nominative case singular, for example (one oak) 2, 3, 4 – nominative case plural, for example (two oaks) 0, 5 and more – genitive case plural, for example (five [of] oaks)
Note that many nouns (especially those following the paradigm chlap) have different endings than those of the paradigms in one or more grammatical cases. They are neither defined, nor listed in the following. The complete number of different paradigms for nouns is somewhere around 200.
A very small number of foreign nouns are not declined, i.e. the stem and ending never change.
The Masculine Gender AnimateInanimate Ends in anything except -a Ends in -a Ends in a hard/neutral consonant Ends in a soft consonant singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural Nominative chlap chlapi hrdina hrdinovia dub duby stroj stroje Accusative chlap-a chlap-ov hrdin-u hrdin-ov Genitive dub-a dub-ov stroj-a stroj-ov Dative chlapovi chlapom hrdinovi hrdinom dubu dubom stroju strojom Locative chlapoch hrdinoch dube duboch stroji strojoch Instrumental chlapom chlapmi hrdinom hrdinami dubom dubmi strojom strojmi
There is also a 5th paradigm for foreign nouns ending in .-i, -y, -e, -í, -é, -ě, -ä (for example pony, kuli, Tököli, Goethe, Krejčí, abbé, Poupě) and foreign personal names ending in -ü, -ö (for example Jenö), which goes as follows: Sg: N: pony, G: ponyho, D: ponymu, A: ponyho, L and I: ponym; Pl: like hrdina.
Masculine animal nouns are declined like chlap in the singular, but in plural usually like dub (if they end in a hard or neutral consonant) or like stroj (otherwise).
Notes on chlap: For the nouns ending in a vowel (for example -o, -u) the vowel is not part of the stem, but the ending in N sg: for example dedo has G / D sg... deda / dedovi etc. (not *dedoa / *dedoovi etc.) many nouns lose an e / o / i from the stem in all cases except N sg (for example vrabec – vrabca); in some short nouns, the -e- changes its position in all cases except N sg (for example žnec – ženca); some nouns ending in -k / -ch change their final /k/ or /ch/ into /c/ and /s/, respectively in N pl (for example žiak – žiaci); words ending in -h use the N pl ending for hrdina instead (such as vrah - vrahovia, súdruh - súdruhovia) most Latin and Greek nouns ending in -us, -as, -es lose it in all cases except N sg (for example génius – génia; but for example fiškus – fiškusa).
Notes on hrdina:
Notes on dub: many nouns lose e / o / i / í / / á from the stem in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example výmysel – výmyslu, chrbát – chrbta, ohníček – ohníčka, dnešok – dneška, ocot – octu ) some Greek and Latin nouns in -us, -es, -os lose the -us / -es / -os in all cases except N sg and A sg (e.g. komunizmus – komunizmu; but e.g. autobus – autobusu, cirkus – cirkusu); some Slovak words lose the acute or the i / u from a diphthong in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example mráz – mraza, chlieb – chleba, vietor – vetra (here along with loss of o), stôl – stola; but bôr – bôru); in G sg, inanimate masculine nouns declined by the pattern dub have the ending of either -a or -u. There is no quick rule to tell which noun uses which ending. in G pl, some nouns change the a / e / i / o / u (without an acute or a preceding i) in the stem to á / / í / ô / ú (Krompachy – Krompách, Žabokreky – Žabokriek, Poniky – Poník, sloha – slôh) or in some cases to ia / iu (for example čas – čias, Margecany – Margecian), unless the rhythmical rule prevents it, i.e. the preceding syllable in the stem already contains a vowel with an acute or a diphthong (for example Hájniky – Hájnik); in L sg, nouns ending in g / k / h have -u rather than -e.
Notes on stroj: many nouns lose the e / o / i / í / / á in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example – , – , – , – , – , – ); some nouns lose the acute or the i/u from a diphthong in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example – , – ); in G pl, geographical names in pl. (plurale tantum) change the a / e / i / o / u (without an acute or a preceding i) in the stem to á / é / í / ó / ú (for example – ) or in some cases to ia / / iu / ô (for example – ) in the G pl, unless the rhythmical rule prevents it, i.e. the preceding syllable in the stem already contains an acute or a diphthong.
The Feminine Gender Ends in hard/neutral consonant + a Ends in -soft consonant + a (or in -ia / -ya) Ends in a consonant (other than those in the next column). Ends in -c / s / p / v / sť singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural Nominative žena ženy ulica ulice dlaň dlane kosť kosti Accusative ženu ulicu Genitive ženy žien ulice ulíc dlane dlaní kosti kostí Dative žene ženám ulici uliciam dlani dlaniam kostiam Locative ženách uliciach dlaniach kostiach Instrumental ženou ženami ulicou ulicami dlaňou dlaňami kosťou kosťami
There is also a 5th paradigm for feminine nouns ending in -ná or -ovná (for example princezná), where the singular and N pl and A pl are like pekná (see under adjectives) and the remaining plural is like žena. In the G pl, there are changes in the stem: if the noun ends in -vowel + ná, then this vowel receives an acute (for example švagriná – švagrín), but otherwise -- is inserted (for example princezná – princezien).
There is also a 6th paradigm for the feminine nouns ending in -ea (idea, Kórea), which goes like žena, except that D sg and L sg are idei, and G pl is ideí without change in the stem.
Notes on žena: The following nouns are declined like ulica instead of žena: večera, rozopra, konopa, Hybe and (the plurale tantum) dvere; In the G pl of some nouns, an / e / o / á / ô is inserted in the last syllable of the stem (for example hra – hier, čipka – čipiek/čipôk, karta – kariet/karát, kvapka – kvapiek/kvapák/kvapôk, vojna – vojen, látka – látok); In the G pl of some nouns, in the last syllable of the stem the a / i / y / u / ä / e / o / syllabic r / syllabic l (without an acute or a preceding i) is changed into á (or ia) / í / ý / ú / ia / / ô / ŕ / ĺ respectively (sila - síl, skala - skál, chyba – chýb, ruka – rúk, fakulta – fakúlt, päta – piat, slza – sĺz, črta – čŕt, brzda – bŕzd, slza – sĺz).
Notes on ulica: In the G pl of some nouns is inserted (for example jedľa – jedieľ, sukňa – sukieň); In the G pl of some nouns, in the last syllable of the stem the a / i / y / u / e / o / syllabic r (without an acute or a preceding i) is changed into á (or ia) / í / ý / ú / / ô / ŕ respectively (for example ulica – ulíc, sudkyňa – sudkýň, Krkonoše – Krkonôš, košeľa – košieľ, guľa – gúľ, hoľa – hôľ, fľaša – fliaš).
Notes on dlaň: The following nouns are declined like dlaň, not like kosť: obec, päsť, čeľusť; The following feminine nouns are not declined like dlaň, but like kosť: jar, zver, chuť, ortuť, pamäť, smrť, pleť, sneť, rukoväť, smeť, púť, spleť, svojeť, reč, seč, meď, soľ, hluš, myš, voš, lož, bel, Sereď, Sibír, Budapešť, Bukurešť, Lešť and a few other nouns. The words myseľ, chuť, raž, tvár, hneď can be declined like dlaň or like kosť in the singular, but only like dlaň in the plural. The word hrsť is declined like dlaň in the singular, but like kosť in the plural. The word pamäť is declined like kosť when it refers to human memory, but like dlaň when it refers to computer memory; most nouns in -eň lose -e- in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example úroveň – úrovne).
Notes on kosť: see the first two notes under dlaň; some nouns lose -e-/-o- in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example ves – vsi, lož – lži, cirkev – cirkvi).
The Neuter Gender Ends in - o Ends in - e (except -) Ends in - Ends in - a or -ä singular plural singular plural singular plural singular plural Nominative, accusative mesto mestá srdce srdcia vysvedčenie vysvedčenia dievča dievčatá/dievčence Genitive mesta miest srdca sŕdc vysvedčenia vysvedčení dievčaťa dievčiat/dievčeniec Dative mestu mestám srdcu srdciam vysvedčeniu vysvedčeniam dievčaťu dievčatám/dievčencom Locative meste mestách srdci srdciach vysvedčení vysvedčeniach dievčati dievčatách/dievčencoch Instrumental mestom mestami srdcom srdcami vysvedčením vysvedčeniami dievčaťom dievčatami/dievčencami
For (any) neuter nouns ending in -vowel+um/on (for example štúdium, ganglion) there is actually a 5th paradigm (štúdium), which is declined like mesto except that the -um- / -on- is omitted in all cases except N sg and A sg., L sg ends in -u (štúdiu), and G pl in -í (štúdií).
Notes on mesto: Latin and Greek neuter nouns ending in consonant + -um/-on (for example fórum, epiteton) are declined like mesto, except that the -um/-on is omitted in all cases except N sg and A sg (for example, N sg and A sg: publikum, G sg: publika, D sg: publiku etc.); in the G pl of some nouns, an / e / o / á / (rarely é) is inserted in the last syllable of the stem (for example clo – ciel, mydlo –mydiel, zvieratko – zvieratiek, jedlo – jedál, vrecko – vrecák/vreciek, vlákno – vláken/vlákien, číslo – čísel / čísiel, lajno – lajen, lýtko – lýtok, teliesko – teliesok; in the G pl of some nouns, in the last syllable of the stem, the a / i / y / u / ä / e / o / syllabic r / syllabic l (without an acute or a preceding i) is changed into á / í / ý / ú / ia / / ô / ŕ / ĺ respectively (kladivo – kladív, zrno – zŕn).
Notes on srdce: In the G pl of some nouns, an /e is inserted in the last syllable of the stem (for example citoslovce – citosloviec, okience – okienec, vajce – vajec);