Persons and numbers

Slovene has three numbers (singular, dual, plural), for more information see Slovene declension.

Slovene also has three persons:

1. First person (prva oseba), used to refer to the speaker or a group the speaker is a part of.
2. Second person (druga oseba), used to refer to the listener or for a general subject (the same as what one is used in English or man in German).
3. Third person (tretja oseba), used to refer to a person that does participate in a conversation, when there is no subject (with impersonal verbs) and when the subject is not in nominative case (e. g. mene ni doma 'I am not home', but literally 'I is not home').

First and third person can be used instead of second when talking to children. Second person can be used instead of the first when one is talking to oneself and want to sound detached.

Tenses

In Slovene, there are four tenses:

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

Moods

There are 4 verb moods:

1. Indicative mood (povednik), which is used to state a fact or opinion. It can be in all aforementioned tenses.
2. Imperative mood (velelnik), which is used to give commands. It can only be in present tense.
3. Conditional mood pogojnik, which is used to state possibilities or wishes, for example, If only I were... It can be in present or preterite tense.
4. Optative or hortative mood (optativ, hortativ), which is used to give commands, for assumptions and for encouragement. It can be in all tenses. Both names are usually used interchangeably, but since there are two ways of formation, terms in this article refer to different ways of formation, especially because only one of them can be used for encouragement (and can hence be called hortative). In Slovene literature, this mood is only considered to be extension of the indicative and conditional mood.

Non-finite forms

In addition, there are several non-finite forms:

1. Long infinitive in -ti/-či (dolgi nedoločnik) and short infinitive in -t/-č (kratki nedoločnik), the use of the latter one is limited to non-formal situations and mostly to speech.
2. Supine in -t/-č (namenilnik).
3. Two present active participles, in -č and in -e, indicating ongoing action.
4. Two past active participles, in -l and in -(v)ši, indicating a past or completed action.
5. A past passive participle in -n or -t, indicating an action having been performed on something.
6. Gerund (glagolnik), indicating an act or a thing being acted upon.

Aspect

As in all Slavic languages, Slovene verbs are classified based on their aspect:

1. Perfective (dovršni) verbs, which represent a completed action.
2. Imperfective (nedovršni) verbs, which represent an ongoing action.

Each verb is either perfective or imperfective, and most verbs occur in pairs to express the same meaning with different aspects. For example, the concept of jumping is expressed in the 2 different aspects is skákati, which has an imperfective aspect and can roughly be translated as to be jumping (continuously), and skočíti, which has a perfective aspect and can roughly be translated as to jump (once). While each aspect is represented by a full verb with its own distinct conjugation, certain combinations are not or rarely used in one aspect or the other. For example, imperfective verbs generally lack a past passive participle, while perfective verbs usually have no present participles. Additionally, the present tense has 2 different meanings depending on the aspect of a verb. For imperfective verbs, it has present meaning, while for perfective verbs, it has a future meaning expressing a desire to carry out the action. For example, To kravo hočem prodati. "I want to sell the cow" (compare this with the future tense To kravo bom prodal. "I will sell the cow").

Transitivity

As well, verbs can be classified based on their transitivity (glagolska prehodnost). Many verbs in Slovene can be both transitive and intransitive depending on their use in a sentence. However, all reflexive verbs, which are marked by the pronoun se (one self), are intransitive.

Impersonal verbs

There are also impersonal verbs; these can only have forms for third person and participles in neuter gender. These are mostly verbs to describe weather, such as dəževáti 'to rain' and grmẹ́ti 'to thunder'.

Voices

There are three voices: active (tvorni način), passive (trpni način), and reflexive (refleksivni način). Active and reflexive voice can be in all tenses, while passive voice cannot be in pluperfect or past (and future) conditional.

Verb classes

Verbs are often classified into six classes, depending on their verbal suffix in infinitive:

• Class I has no verbal suffix, e. g. nésti 'carry' and píti 'drink'.
• Class II has suffix -ni-, e. g. pogrẹ́zniti 'sink, sag'.
• Class III has suffix -e- or -a- and -i- in present stem, e. g. sedẹ́ti 'sit' and kričáti 'scream'.
• Class IV has suffix -i-, e. g. mẹ́riti 'aim'.
• Class V has suffixes -a-, -va-, -ja-, -ˈava-, -ˈeva-, -ira-, or -izira- (but a never changes into i), e. g. tkáti 'weave' and písati 'write'.
• Class VI has suffixes -ovˈa- (hard) or -evˈa- (soft), e. g. kupováti 'buy'

Accentual types

^{[examples needed]}

There are several different accentual types, that can be divided differently. It is rarely divided the same way as in Proto-Slavic because all the accent shifts have made such division impractical. It is usually divided where the accent is situated and thus the verbs are divided into seven groups.

• Accent is not directly before the endings (marked as I)
• Accent is directly before infinitive ending and not directly before present indicative endings (marked as II A)
• Accent can be on two different vowels in infinitive (marked as II B)
• Accent is on other vowel in infinitive and present indicative (marked as II C)
• Accent is on the last vowel (marked as II D); currently, only verb cvestȉ and its derivatives follows this pattern. In the past, verbs píti and īti also followed this pattern.
• Accent is directly before the endings (marked as III)
• Accent is not directly before infinitive ending and directly before present indicative endings (marked as IV)

Polite forms

Slovene has T–V distinction and has many different polite forms. See T–V distinction in the world's languages § Slovene for when they are used.

• Forms showed here are tikanje forms.
• Vikanje is formed by replacing second person singular with plural, participles are in masculine forms.
• Polvikanje is formed by replacing second person singular with plural, but participles stay in singular.
• Onikanje is formed by replacing second person and third person singular with third person plural, participles are in masculine forms.
• Onokanje is formed by replacing second person with third person, participles are in neuter forms.

Present indicative

In present indicative, verbs have mostly the same endings across all declensions, but those following accentual type II D, III, IV, and some following II A can also have a special stylistically marked ending in third person plural. Those that have ending -ø-m have the infix -s- in second person plural and second / third person dual. The extra -e- is added to the endings when the verb stem ends in a consonant. This -e- causes changes to stems ending in -k- or -g- (which have an infinitive in -); these become -č- and -ž- before the present tense endings.

The special ending in third person plural are always acute, but otherwise do not change the accent, except for the lengthening of short vowels. Verbs following II B, II C and III can be either acute or allow both accents in infinitive, but that does not affect the further accent changes. Verbs following II D, when accented on the same vowel on the stem as in infinitive also have the same accent. Dialectally, verbs in -ø-m can also omit the -s- infix, and it is common for speakers of Littoral dialect group to add the infix elsewhere, as well as to use the ending -do. Ending -o can also have some verbs in -ø-ti -e-m (those from Proto-Slavic accentual type a/c, and accentual type c if they had accent on a long vowel in the stem) e.g. pletọ́, porekọ́, tresọ́, as well as all vowels in -ø-ti -je-m, e. g. pijọ́.

Forms in brackets are not officially recognized to be correct in standard Slovene. All verbs in -i-m can archaically have short accent on the last syllable in dual and plural, as well as verb īti.

Imperative mood

The imperative mood is used to give commands, and only exists in the present tense. There are no forms for the third person plural, and use for first and third person singular and third person dual is stylistically marked.

The following endings are added to the present stem of a verb, to form the present indicative. If the present stem ends in -a-, the initial -i- of the ending changes to a -j-. Present stems ending with other vowels drop their final vowel. If the present stem ends in a vowel followed by -j-, then the initial -i- of the ending is omitted. The endings also cause changes to stems ending in -k- or -g- (which have an infinitive in -či); these become -c- and -z-, respectively before the imperative endings, although colloquially they keep the same consonants as in present indicative (-č- and -ž-, respectively).

Verbs change accent in imperative based on the accent in infinitive and indicative, as well as where in the word the accent is:

• Accentual type II A, circumflex indicative: singular is acute if the accent is not on the last syllable, otherwise it allows both accents, except final open-mid e, which is circumflex. In dual and plural, accent is circumflex if the accent is on the penultimate syllable, otherwise it is acute.
• Accentual type II C and III, circumflex indicative: accent is circumflex if on the last syllable in singular and on the penultimate syllable in dual and plural, otherwise it is acute.
• Accentual type II and III, cute indicative: singular is acute, but allows both accents on the last syllable. In dual and plural, accent is circumflex if the accent is on the penultimate syllable, otherwise it is acute.
• Accentual type III, short accent in indicative: accent is acute, except on the penultimate syllable in dual and plural.
• Accentual type IV: accent is acute except on the last syllable in singular and penultimate syllable in dual and plural, where it is circumflex.
• Some acute verbs following accentual type I can in imperative follow II B (example blískati, čákati). The accent therefore changes the same way as with those.
• Acute verbs following accentual type III that are circumflex in passive participle and the accent is on the same syllable in indicative can be acute or circumflex (example zakrivīti).
• Verbs -glẹ́dati, -štẹ́ti and -umẹ́ti change the accent irregularly.
• All verbs that change the accentuated vowel, except accentual type III, are in many dialects always accentuated on the first vowel throughout.

Examples:

• Pospravi svojo sobo. (Tidy your room.)
• Pojdimo se igrat. (Let's play. Literally, Let's go playing)
• Jaz delaj in garaj, ti pa boš zapravljal. (I should be working and toiling while you spend the money. – Such use is stylistically marked.)
• Pa bodi po tvojem. ([Let] it be your way. – Such use is stylistically marked.)

Present active participles

There are two present active participles, which are used almost exclusively with imperfective verbs. They correspond to the English participle in -ing, and indicate ongoing or current action.

The first is an adjectival participle. It is formed by adding -eč to verbs with present stem in -i- or those ending in p/b/v + -e- or rarely any other consonant (which lose their final vowel), -joč to verbs with present stem in -a- (the vowel is kept, so -ajoč), and -oč to other verbs with present stem ending in -e-. It declines as a regular soft adjective with fixed accent and is compared periphrastically. Adverb ending in -če is used when the participle is adjectivalized.

The accent is the same for all accentual types, however it is differentiated between different endings. The accent is always on the final o or e. o is long close-mid, but can be short in masculine singular nominative form when it is used as an adjective. e is short in masculine singular nominative form and long close-mid in others, but can also be long close-mid in all forms if not used as an adjective.

The accent is acute, except in masculine singular nominative form, where it allows both accents.

Examples:

• 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.)
• Vprašanje ga je boleče prizadelo. (The question painfully hurt his feelings.)

The second is an adverbial participle. It was originally the nominative singular of the first participle, which had an irregular form. It is formed by removing -č from the first participle and changing -o to -e. For verbs whose infinitive stem ends in -ova-ti or -eva-ti and some in -a-ti -a-m/-e-m, infinitive stem is used instead. Verbs with present stem in -uje-m usually also take the infinitive verbal suffix, but archaic form is made with present suffix. Again, the accent depends fully on the type of ending and not on the accentual type. If the accent is on the last syllable, then it allows both accents, otherwise it is circumflex.

Example:

• Sede se je pretegnil. ([While] sitting, he stretched.)

Infinitives and supine

There are 2 verbal nouns: the infinitive (nedoločnik), which can be long or short and the supine (namenilnik).

The long infinitive is the basic verb form found in dictionaries, and ends in -ti.

The supine and short infinitive are formed by dropping the last -i of the infinitive. Supine is used after verbs that designate motion. For example, the supine would be used in the following sentences (the supine has been put in bold):

• V novi svet so odšli iskat bogastvo. (They went to the New World to seek fortune.)
• Pojdi se solit. (Literally, Go salt yourself. This idiomatic statement is used to express annoyance or refusal)
• Stekli smo pogasit ogenj. (We ran to put out the fire.)

When the infinitive or supine ending is attached to an infinitive stem ending in a consonant, that consonant may change, as follows:

• -p-ti → -ps-ti (tépsti, tépem "beat")
• -b-ti → -bs-ti (grébsti, grébem "scratch, scrape")
• -d-ti → -s-ti (sẹ́sti, sẹ̑dem "sit down")
• -jd-ti → -j-ti (nájti, nájdem "find (something lost)")
• -t-ti → -s-ti (plésti, plétem "braid")
• -st-ti → -s-ti (rásti, rástem "grow")
• -z-ti → -s-ti (grísti, grízem "bite, chew")
• -g-ti → -č-i (lẹ́či, lẹ̑žem (lẹ́gel) "lie down")
• -k-ti → -č-i (réči, réčem (rékel) "say")

However, there is an accentual difference between short infinitive and supine. In addition, accent in supine is in some accentual types different between perfective and imperfective verbs. Short infinitive has the same accent as supine of perfective verbs, except for two irregular verbs detailed below. The accent is determined by the accentual type, as well as stem vowel and the position in a word:

• Supine is circumflex if the last syllable is accentuated, otherwise it is acute, except verbs that are circumflex in the infinitive – these are always circumflex.
• Verbs following accentual type I, II B, II D and IV have acute accent on the stem on same syllable as long infinitive.
• Other accentual types can have short accent on the last syllable, long accent on the last syllable or long accent on non-final syllable.
• Verbs in -č-ø-i and j-ø-ti follow the same accentual changes as other -ø-ti, but the -st changes into -č and -jt, respectively. The examples given below are added just to illustrate those changes and not to have separate accent changes.

Verbs in -č-ø-i usually have short infinitive and supine in -č-ø-ø, but some dialects add -t at the end, which is also common in colloquial speech.

Some verbs in -a-ti following accentual type II A, II C or III can follow two subpatterns, which are also present in participle in -l. The first subpattern has long accent in supine of imperfective verbs and masculine nominative singular form of participle in -l. The second subpattern transfers the accent to the syllable before and only exists in accentual types II C and III. Verbs in -e-ti -i-m following accentual type III can also have either long close-mid or short open-mid vowel in short infinitive.

Past active participles

There are two kinds of past active participle, used with different functions.

The l-participle exists for all verbs, and is used mainly to form the past and future tense. It is further split into two categories; the descriptive l-participle is used only for analytical forms and therefore can only exist in nominative case and always has to appear with an auxiliary verb. The stative l-participle denotes a state of an object and can also be used as a stand-alone adjective, but not all verbs have it.

It is formed by adding -l to the infinitive stem. A fill vowel (schwa, -e-) is inserted in the masculine singular form when attached to verbs with an infinitive stem ending in a consonant.

Stative l-participle can be the same as the descriptive l-participle (vrẹ́ti → vrȅł/vrẹ́ł), but it sometimes changes to have a fill vowel (otŕpniti → otŕpəł). The accent can also change between the two.

Accentually, masculine form has the same accent as imperfective verbs in supine, with the exception being verbs in -e-ti and accentual type II D, and the tone can also change. In feminine and neuter forms, short accent lengthens if short, and shifts in accentual types II B and II C.

Verbs in -e-ti, when the supine is accentuated on the last syllable, can have either long close-mid or short accent on e in masculine form. Verbs in -r-e-ti lose the e and the accent is on r. Verbs following accentual type II D have short accent on the last syllable.

Tone is determined by the tone in long infinitive and present indicative, as well as accent length and position in masculine form and accentual type. Based on the accent in masculine form, verbs can belong to one of three groups:

1. Long accent on the last syllable
2. Short accent on the last syllable
3. Long accent that is not on the last syllable

Similarly to imperative, the accent of some verbs following accentual type I can also shift to the next syllable. In these forms, accentual changes are the same as for verbs following accentual type II C.

There are also exceptions; verbs in prefix + -živeti that do not have an alternative version ending in živiti (e. g. razživẹ́ti) and verbs in prefix + -iti, which may change to -jti (e. g. najti) allow both accents in masculine form, the latter ones also in all other forms.

It further declines as a regular fixed or mobile accent adjective and is compared periphrastically. Other forms have the same accent as neuter gender.

Types where accent shifts between forms, however, can vary widely between dialects. Verbs following accentual type II A colloquially prefer to have fixed accent. Verbs in -i-ti can also have fixed accent on the first syllable.

Stative participles decline as regular hard adjectives with fixed accent and are compared periphrastically. Examples:

• Videl sem. (I saw.)
• Ob tej novici je prebledela. (Upon [hearing] the news, she became pale.)

The š-participle is also an adjectival participle, and is rarely used in modern Slovene and mostly as an adverb. It denotes completed action, and is equivalent to the English construct with having + past participle. It is formed by adding -vši to the infinitive stem. The ending is only -ši if the infinitive stem ends in a consonant. Accent is almost always circumflex and on the penultimate syllable, some can also have the same accent as l-participle (example vídeti). e before -vši is always close-mid, but o and e before -ši are the same as in l-participle.

The only example of š-participle used in modern Slovene is bȋvši, meaning "ex", but aside from that few other verbs have commonly used š-participle as an adjective.

Examples:

• Stopivši iz hiše, se je napotil v krčmo. (Having stepped out of the house, he headed to the pub.)
• Prišedši gost se je usedel za mizo. (Having come guest sat down by the table.)

Past passive participle

This participle corresponds to the English participle in -ed or -en, and is an adjective that indicates a state of having undergone an action. It exists only for transitive verbs, and almost only if they are perfective. It is formed with two possible suffixes, -n or -t, but further formation is affected by stem, as well as accentual type. Similarly to l-participle, it is also divided into descriptive and stative passive participle.

Both accentual type and stem affect the accent position, which is marked with ˈ in the following table. If it is not marked, then it is on the same syllable on the stem as in long infinitive. All accents are long, except in -i-ti -i-m and es-ø-ti / os-ø-ti forms, as well as accentual type II D, which are short if marked.

Participle further declines as a regular fixed accent adjective and is compared periphrastically.

When stem ending in a consonant is followed by j, it iotizes.

* These forms follow verbs ending in -r-e-ti (e. g. drẹ́ti, dȓt "gush, shout").

The t-participle is always circumflex, while n-participle is circumflex or acute, depending on the accentual type, and accent in infinitive and present indicative:

Examples of this participle are:

• 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.)

Gerund

Gerund is formed by adding an ending -je to the past passive participle. Accent position is the same as in the passive participle and accent is the same as in long infinitive, except when on -a-n-je or -e-n-je, when it becomes (apart from some irregularities) circumflex and acute, respectively. Some can also be archaically accented on the last syllable with a short accent. There are also some irregular gerunds, such as họ́ja.

Gerund is also split into two categories, but most verbs can have both (i. e. is not one or the other as is the case with participles). There is the true gerund (pravi glagolnik), which means an act of doing something, and objectified gerund (glagolnik opredmetenega dejanja), which means a thing being acted upon. Not all verbs also have objectified gerund.

Gerund declines as a regular soft o-stem nouns following first neuter declension, but some can be singularia tantum.

Negative forms

Three verbs, bīti, imẹ́ti, and hotẹ́ti have special negative forms in present indicative:

Future indicative

Only verbs bīti and īti have special future indicative forms. For bīti, this is the only correct way (but is colloquially also conjugated as other verbs), while īti can also be conjugated as other verbs.

Conditional

Verb bīti also has a special form when used as an auxiliary verb in conditional mood and is the same for all genders and persons: bi. Full lexical verb therefore still has an analytical form bi bȉl. In an affirmative sentence, it is not stressed, however its negative forms can be accented either on né or on bi (né bi or ne bȉ).

Aorist and imperfect

Standard Slovene lost both the aorist and the imperfect, which have been replaced by the preterite. These forms exist exclusively in the Resian dialect, but are slowly fading as well. In nowaday Resian, only the verbs bə̀t (SS bīti) "be", díwat (SS dẹ́vati) "give", dujájat (SS dohájati) "keep up with", mé̤t (SS imẹ́ti), moré̤t (SS móči) "be able", parájat (SS prihȃjati) "come", and té̤t (SS hotẹ́ti) "want" still have imperfective forms, others are considered obsolete.

Only a few verbs also have an aorist, and all of these forms are considered obsolete as they cannot be understood by most people anymore. There are only three such documented forms:

• hardúh (SS from īti) "(I) have gone"
• pridúh (SS from príti) "(I) have come"
• vzê (SS from vzẹ́ti) "(you) have taken / (he/she/it) has taken"

Aorist and imperfect have been in use in other dialects until the 15th century and vowel clusters in imperfect have already been contracted then.

Active voice

Passive & reflexive voice

The passive voice is formed using the passive past participle of the verb and auxiliary verbs. Reflexive voice is formed by turning a verb into a reflexive verb, by adding the reflexive pronoun se to the verb. Passive and reflexive voice is formed as shown in this table:

An example of the passive voice is:

• Izvoljen je bil za člana Kraljeve družbe (He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society).

However, this is more commonly stated using the active voice with an impersonal form of the third person plural (like English "impersonal they"):

• Izvolili so ga za člana Kraljeve družbe (They elected him a fellow of the Royal Society).

General

• Toporišič, Jože (2000). Slovenska slovnica / Jože Toporišič. - 4. prenovljena in razširjena izd (in Slovenian). Maribor: Obzorja. ISBN 961-230-171-9.
• Toporišič, Jože (2001). "Slovaropisna pravila". Slovenski pravopis (in Slovenian). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU. pp. 216–222. ISBN 961-6358-37-5.
• "Sheme za tonemski naglas". Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika (PDF) (in Slovenian). Ljubljana. 2016. pp. 53–59.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Herrity, Peter (2000). Slovene: A Comprehensive Grammar. London, New York: Routledge.
• Greenberg, Marc (2006). "A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene". Kansas.
• Šekli, Matej (2005). "Tonemski naglasni tipi glagola v (knjižni) slovenščini" [Tonal accentual verb types in (written) Slovene]. In Keber, Janez (ed.). Jezikovni zapiski. Letn. 11 Št. 2 (2005) (in Slovenian). Vol. 11. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU. pp. 31–61. doi:10.3986/jz.v11i2.2545. ISSN 0354-0448.

Dialectal and obsolete conjugation

• Steenwijk, Han (1992). Barentsen, A. A.; Groen, B. M.; Sprenger, R. (eds.). The Slovene dialect of Resia: San Giorno. Vol. 18. Amsterdam - Atlanta: Rodopi. ISBN 90-5183-366-0. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Toporišič, Jože (2003). Oblikoslovje v Gutsmanovem Slovenjem nauku (in Slovenian). Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Zuljan Kumar, Danila (27–29 September 2018). Žele, Andreja; Šekli, Matej (eds.). Slovenistika in slavistika v zamejstvu – Videm / Slovenski slavistični kongres (in Slovenian). Ljubljana: Zveza društev Slavistično društvo Slovenije. ISBN 978-961-6715-27-0. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
• Benacchio, Rosana (1998). "Oblikoslovno-skladenjske posebnosti rezijanščine" [Morphologically-sytactical features of Resian]. Slavistična revija : časopis za jezikoslovje in literarne vede [Journal for linguistics and literary studies]. 46/3 (in Slovenian). Translated by Gruden, Živa. Ljubljana: Slavistično društvo Slovenije. pp. 249–259. ISSN 0350-6894.

Examples

• "Fran". Fran. ZRC SAZU. 4 October 2022. ISSN 2385-8613. Retrieved 3 October 2022.