This page describes the declension of nouns, adjectives and pronouns in Slovene. For information on Slovene grammar in general, see Slovene grammar.
This article follows the tonal orthography. For the conversion into pitch orthography, see Slovene national phonetic transcription.
Grammatical categories Nouns are declined for six cases and three numbers. Adjectives and most pronouns additionally decline for three genders.
Cases There are six cases (the Slovene names are given in brackets):
Nominative ( or ) Genitive ( or ) Dative ( or ) Accusative ( or ) Locative ( or ) Instrumental ( or )
Traditionally, the cases are given in the order above. They are also usually numbered accordingly: the nominative case is the first case, the genitive the second, and so on.
The nouns are usually listed and sorted by their nominative singular form, but declension is defined by the genitive singular form. For this reason, genitive singular form is commonly written with the nominative. Where it is not otherwise noted, the second form is in genitive singular form.
Vocative Vocative ( or ) was used with the original endings in Slovene up to the 18th century by, for example Janez Svetokriški, but has now been replaced with the endings of the nominative case. Some words, however, kept the vocative form, such as (instead of the nominative *otь̀cь) 'father'. Colloquially, vocative endings are still present, but the current use is taken from Croatian.
While having the same endings, it is still tonemically different from the nominative case, always having circumflex accent, but because of its similarity with nominative, it is often omitted from declension tables or is considered a special case of nominative, called 'addressive nominative' () in Slovene literature.
Numbers Slovene has three numbers:
Singular (), which refers to one object. Dual (), which refers to a pair of objects. Plural (), which refers to more than two objects.
There is, however, an exception to that rule. Plural is used instead of dual for nouns that represent things that usually come in pairs (such as body parts, socks, twins, and parents), except if one wants to stress that the noun relates to both parts and after words that signify a pair (such as 'both', etc. ): . (I asked parents if I can go out.) – plural is used. . (Both parents have to sign the application.) – dual is used.
Genders A noun in Slovene can have one of the following three genders:
Masculine (, abbreviated ); divided further into animate (accusative singular equals genitive) and inanimate (accusative singular equals nominative) in the first and fourth masculine declension, and in first adjective declension. Feminine (, abbreviated ) Neuter (, abbreviated ); which is in some dialects masculinized or feminized.
Native speakers usually identify a gender by placing a demonstrative pronoun 'that' in front of it. Since some nouns can only have a singular form and some only a plural form (extremely rarely also only dual, such as 'pisces'), both singular and plural endings must be remembered. Note that the feminine singular and neuter plural endings are the same so the number must be determined first.
Non-native speakers in most cases determine try to determine gender from the ending of a noun in nominative singular.
Masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, although a few end in a vowel, mostly in , and (some names, letters, nominalized adjectives etc.). Feminine nouns usually end in ; these are the "a-stem" nouns. A number of feminine nouns end in a consonant; these are mostly "i-stem" and "v-stem" nouns. The vast majority of neuter nouns end in or , but second and third neuter declension end with a variety of sounds since they have a null ending in nominative case.
Declensions Declensions are divided differently in international and Slovene literature. In Slovene literature, the declensions are defined by the ending in genitive singular, but in international literature, the nouns are often divided by the stem (the same way as in Proto-Slavic), which are more numerous. Thus, they can be considered as a subdivision of the declension. The stem declensions that are a subdivision of the main declension are a result of a stem lengthening alteration (), or is a subpattern ().
There are four different noun declension for every gender in Slovene and two for the adjectives. Besides the name, the identifying ending (ending in genitive singular) is written:
Masculine:
First masculine declension; ending , , or (word ) Masculine o-/e-stem declension Masculine t-stem declension Masculine n-stem declension Masculine j-stem declension Second masculine declension (masculine a-stem declension); ending (except ) Third masculine declension (masculine declension without endings); ending Fourth masculine declension (masculine i-/e-stem declension); ending
Feminine:
First feminine declension; ending , genitive plural ending is not Feminine a-stem declension Feminine r-stem declension Feminine v-stem declension Feminine n-stem declension Second feminine declension (feminine i-stem declension); ending Third feminine declension (feminine declensions without endings); ending Fourth feminine declension (feminine i-/e-stem declension); ending , genitive plural ending
Neuter:
First neuter declension; ending Neuter o-/e-stem declension Neuter n-stem declension Neuter s-stem declension Neuter t-stem declension Second neuter declension (neuter a-stem declension); ending Third neuter declension (neuter declension without endings); ending -ø Fourth neuter declension (neuter i-/e-stem declension); ending -ega Adjective:
First adjective declension (adjective declension with endings); ending Second adjective declension (adjective declension without endings); ending
Accentual types There are four different accentual types:
Fixed (), where the stress is always on the same stem syllable. Mobile (), where the stress is on different stem syllables. Ending (), where the stress is always on the ending. Mixed (), where the stress is sometimes on the stem and sometimes on the ending. In first masculine, second feminine and first adjectival declension, accentual types affect the endings in some cases.
Some words can also change accent from fixed to mixed in one number or in only one case. These nouns follow accent changes of the fixed type, except where they change to mixed type (they follow mixed accentuation). Some nouns can also change the accentuation after certain prepositions. These forms are always circumflex (for example, , accusative singular , but after , it changes into ).
Degrees of comparison There is a three-stage and two-stage comparison in Slovene.
The three-stage comparison has the following degrees:
Positive ( or ) Comparative ( or ) Superlative ( or )
The two-stage declension has the following degrees:
Positive ( or ) Elative ( or )
Animacy Masculine nouns and adjectives are divided between animate and inanimate nouns.
Animate nouns are nouns that represent a living or mythological being ( 'Frenchman', 'crab', 'ghost') and words that originally had that meaning, but have a different one now ( (a type of wine), 'monkey wrench', 'Orion'). In this category are also card names and suits, and some names of cars and mushrooms, such as 'ace', 'club', (Golf, a Volkswagen car), and 'bolete'. The word is animate when it means 'ghost' or 'mentality'. Some diminutives are animate, even if they represent an inanimate object (for example, 'little chair' ). Names of space objects that are named after gods are either animate or inanimate (e. g. 'Mercury')
This distinction is also applied to all words that modify the noun, such as adjectives, determiners and the like. Thus, adjectives in the masculine accusative singular will have either the form of the nominative (no ending or ), or the form of the genitive ().
Nouns, nominal pronouns, nominalized adjectives The declensions for nouns, nominal pronouns, and nominalized adjectives can be split by gender, as gender and declension pattern coincide. The dual and plural are not distinguished in the genitive and locative cases of nouns; the plural form is used for the dual as well. For neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are always the same, in all numbers.
Nominal and nominalized pronouns also follow this inflection patterns, however most of them are irregular. For irregularities among pronouns, see the pronouns section.
First Masculine declension First masculine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -a ( ), -u (mọ̑st mostȗ), and the noun dan (dȃn dnẹ̑). The vast majority of masculine nouns are declined following this inflection pattern. It is so common that masculine nouns following the second (and some following the third and the fourth) can be declined following the pattern of the first.
Masculine nouns are further divided between animate and inanimate nouns. This difference is only significant for the accusative singular.
For inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. For example, 'chair', genitive singular , accusative singular . For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular. For example, 'boy', genitive singular , accusative singular .
Masculine o-/e-stem declension
The standard declension of first masculine declension is the o-stem declension. O-stem nouns are divided between "hard" and "soft" stems, see the main Slovene grammar article for the meaning of these terms. +First masculine declension endingsHard declensionSoft declensionSingularDualPluralSingularDualPluralNominativeGenitiveDative / (styl.) / (styl.)Accusativenom or gennom or genLocative / (styl.) / (styl.)InstrumentalVocativestyl. – the form is stylistically marked
Masculine t-stem declension Proper names ending in normally follow this declension like the noun 'kid', adding the infix before the endings. For example, (a male name). This declension also follow some other nouns ending in if it represents hypocoristicity ( 'boy, immature man'). The noun 'father' also follows this declension.
Some historic Greek names, such as 'Xenophon' and 'Ajax the Great', also follow this inflection pattern, however, it is also common to already have a t-stem in nominative singular (/ , / ).
In speech or in writing of lower register, nouns that have the ending in nominative singular, such as (a male name) and 'little son' also follow this inflection pattern ( , ). In dialectal speeches this also happens to proper nouns ending in , such as and , and the is in some dialects changed to ( /, /), although in some dialects these words can be lengthened with another consonant, for example, with in Carinthian dialects ( , ).
Masculine n-stem declension A few nouns ending in have a stem ending in rather than dropping the fill vowel. For example, 'carnation' and (a male name). These nouns can be also declined normally ( , ), however, that is less common.
Some Latin names ending in can also follow this inflection pattern, such as 'Cato', but the can be already added in nominative singular ( ).
Masculine j-stem declension Nouns with a stem whose pronunciation ends in or a vowel (not to be confused with a noun having a vowel ending in nominative singular) have an added when an ending is attached, such as 'taxi' and 'security guard at a public event'.