Slovak declension
From Freepedia
See also: Slovak language. Many Slovak words are given without translation on this page, for a translation see e. g. this (not very good) dictionary Slovak-English-Slovak Dictionary
Contents |
Introduction
The Slovak language, like most Slavic languages or like 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:
a)Gender: There are four grammatical genders in Slovak language: 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 (Vianoce) and words that are drifting into other gender and are currently in the middle (knieža), and masculine animals that are animate in singular and mostly inanimate in plural.
b)Number: Like in English, there is the singular and the plural. Morphological traces of ancient dual number remained, 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, e. g. jeden dub (one oak)
- 2, 3, 4 - nominative case plural, e. g. dva duby (two oaks)
- 0, 5 and more - genitive case plural, e. g. päť dubov (five [of] oaks)
(indication of ancient numbering up to four, anything above was "a lot of"?)
c)Morphological cases:
- the nominative case (N) = the subject; the basic form of the word; answers the question Who / What; e. g. father (sg), fathers (pl)
- the genitive case (G) =
- (1) in English "of x" or "x's" ; answers the questions Of whom / Of what; e. g. father's (sg. ), fathers' (pl);
- (2) is used after the prepositions bez, blízko, do, doprostred, mimo, miesto, okolo, od, podľa, pomimo, pomocou, pozdĺž, u, uprostred, vedľa, vnútri, vyše, z, *za
- the dative case (D) =
- (1) in English "to x"; answers the question To whom / To what; e. g. to the father (sg), to the fathers (pl);
- (2) is used after the prepositions k, kvôli, napriek, naproti, oproti, voči
- the accusative case (A) =
- (1) the direct object; answers the question Whom / What; e. g. [I see the] father (sg), fathers (pl);
- (2) is used after the prepositions: cez, *medzi, *na, *nad, *po, *o, *pod, pre, *pred, *v, vzhľadom na, *za
- the locative case (L) = used after the prepositions *na, *po, *o, pri, *v
- the instrumental case (I) =
- (1) in English "by (means of) x"; answers the question By (means of) whom / By (means of) what; e. g. [written] by the father;
- (2) is used after the prepositions: medzi, *nad, *pod, *pred, s, *za
- The (syntactic) vocative case (V) is not morphologically marked anymore in modern Slovak (unlike in modern Czech). Today the (syntactic) vocative is realised by the (morphological) nominative case, just like in English, German any many other languages. However, the ancient vocative declensions have survived (mostly in fairy tales or in an ironic sense) in some words, some examples: syn (V: synku), brat (V: brat(k)u), chlapec (V:chlapče), švagor (V: švagre or N), kmotor (V:kmotre or N), chlap (V: chlape), priateľ (V: priateľu or N), pán (V: pane or N), majster (V: majstre or N), boh (V: bože), mama (V: mamo) and was retrofitted (with the help of Czech influence) to some more words, like šéf (V: šéfe). There is a dispute among some Slovak linguists whether to include vocative into grammar categories but with declension (mostly) equal to the nominative, or to unify it with nominative case category. But since the morphological vocative is used only for the above restricted number of words and in addition only in some contexts, it is surely an exaggeration to say that the (morphological) vocative is still in the Slovak language. Note however that there is no dispute that the syntactic vocative is present in Slovak (and in every other language). Slovak schools have been teaching for at least 30 years that there is no grammar category of vocative anymore in use, and since 1990 they are not mentioning vocative at all. Also, the Slovak Encyclopedia of Linguistics (1993) explicitly says: the vocative is nowadays replaced by the nominative.
However, there is a different form of morphological vocative emerging in spoken language, used only with some proper names (Pali, Jani, Zuzi) and in kindship relations words, such as mami, oci, tati, babi. This usage is very similar to the "new Russian vocative" (Маш', Петь', мам'), and it is not accepted into standartized codified language. This probably developed out of proper names that were formed using the Hungarian diminuitive suffix -i and that are used in spoken Slovak, and therefore is often homonymous with nominative (semi-)diminuitive forms of the names.
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 (e.g. 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 (e. g. father, Peter) and an inanimate noun is any other noun (e. g. 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 (e. g. 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
For each gender, there are four basic declension paradigms (i. e. declension models).
Note that many nouns (especially those following the paradigm chlap) have different endings then those of the paradigms in one or several grammatical cases. They are neither defined, nor listed in the following. The complete number of different paradigms for nouns is somewhere about 200.
A very small number of foreign nouns is not declined (i. e. the stem and ending never change).
The Masculine Gender
| animate and ends in anything except -a | animate and ends in -a | inanimate and ends in a hard or neutral consonant | inanimate and ends in a soft consonant | |||||
| sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | |
| N | chlap | chlapi | hrdina | hrdinovia | dub | duby | stroj | stroje |
| G | chlap-a | chlap-ov | hrdin-u | hrdin-ov | dub-a | dub-ov | stroj-a | stroj-ov |
| D | chlapovi | chlapom | hrdinovi | hrdinom | dubu | dubom | stroju | strojom |
| A | chlapa | chlapov | hrdinu | hrdinov | dub | duby | stroj | stroje |
| L | chlapovi | chlapoch | hrdinovi | hrdinoch | dube | duboch | stroji | strojoch |
| I | 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 (e. g. pony, kuli, Tököli, Goethe, Krejčí, abbé, Poupě) and foreign personal names ending in -ü, -ö (e. g. 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 (e. g. -o, -u) the vowel is not part of the stem, but the ending in N sg: e. g. 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 (e. g. vrabec - vrabca);
- in some short nouns, the -e- changes its position in all cases except N sg (e. g. žnec - ženca)
- some nouns ending in -k / -ch change the k / ch in c / s in N pl, e. g. žiak - žiaci
- most Latin and Greek nouns in -us, -as, -es, -os lose the us / as / es / os in all cases except N sg (e. g. génius - génia; but e. g. fiškus - fiškusa)
Notes on hrdina: -
Notes on dub:
- many nouns lose an e/ o / i / í /ie/ á from the stem in all cases except N sg and A sg (e. g. výmysel - výmysla, chrbát - chrbta, ohníček - ohníčka, dnešok - dneška, ocot - octa )
- 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 Asg :, e. g. mráz - mraza, chlieb - chleba, vietor - vetra (here at the same time loss of o), stôl - stola, bôr - bora
- in G pl, some nouns change the a/e/i/o/u (without an acute or a preceding i) in the stem in á/é/í/ó/ú (raz - ráz, Vojany - Voján, Krompachy - Krompách) or in some cases in ia/ie/iu/ô (e. g. čas -čias, Margecany - Margecian, Žabokreky - Žabokriek), unless the preceding syllable in the stem already contains a vowel with an acute or a diphthong (e. g. Hájniky - Hájnik)
Notes on stroj:
- many nouns lose the e/ o / i / í /ie/ á in all cases except N sg and A sg (e. g. marec - marca, delenec- delenca, veniec- venca, deň- dňa, stupeň - stupňa, lakeť - lakťa )
- some nouns lose the acute or the i/u from a diphthong in all cases except N sg and Asg :, e. g. dážď - dažďa, nôž - noža
- 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 in á/é/í/ó/ú (e. g. Tlmače - Tlmáč) or in some cases in ia/ie/iu/ô (e. g. Ladce - Ladiec) in the G pl, unless the preceding syllable in the stem already contains an acute or a diphthong
The Feminine Gender
| ends in -hard or neutral consonant + a | ends in -soft consonant + a (or in -ia / -ya) | ends in a consonant other then for kosť (next column). | ends in -c /s / p / v / sť | |||||
| sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | |
| N | žena | ženy | ulica | ulice | dlaň | dlane | kosť | kosti |
| G | ženy | žien | ulice | ulíc | dlane | dlaní | kosti | kostí |
| D | žene | ženám | ulici | uliciam | dlani | dlaniam | kosti | kostiam |
| A | ženu | ženy | ulicu | ulice | dlaň | dlane | kosť | kosti |
| L | žene | ženách | ulici | uliciach | dlani | dlaniach | kosti | kostiach |
| I | ženou | ženami | ulicou | ulicami | dlaňou | dlaňami | kosťou | kosťami |
There is also a 5th paradigm for feminine nouns ending in -ná or -ovná (e. g. 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 (e. g. švagriná - švagrín), but otherwise an -ie- is inserted (e. g. 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 Lsg 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 ie/ e / o / á / ô is inserted in the last syllable of the stem (e. g. 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 / ie / 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, an ie is inserted (e. g. 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 /ie / ô/ ŕ respectively (e. g. 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, päsť.
- 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.
- most nouns in -eň lose the e in all cases except N sg and A sg (e. g. úroveň - úrovne)
Notes on kosť:
- see the first two notes under dlaň
- some nouns lose the e / o in all cases except N sg and A sg (e. g. ves - vsi, lož - lži, cirkev-cirkvi)
The Neuter Gender
ends in - o | <P ALIGN="center">ends in - e (except -ie) | <P ALIGN="center">ends in - ie | <P ALIGN="center">ends in - a or -ä | ||||||
| <P ALIGN="center">sg. | <P ALIGN="center">pl. | <P ALIGN="center">sg. | <P ALIGN="center">pl. | <P ALIGN="center">sg. | <P ALIGN="center">pl. | <P ALIGN="center">sg. | <P ALIGN="center">pl. | ||
| N | mesto | mestá | srdce | srdcia | vysvedčenie | vysvedčenia | dievča | dievčatá / dievčence | |
| G | mesta | miest | srdca | sŕdc | vysvedčenia | vysvedčení | dievčaťa | dievčiat/ dievčeniec | |
| D | mestu | mestám | srdcu | srdciam | vysvedčeniu | vysvedčeniam | dievčaťu | dievčatám/ dievčencom | |
| A | mesto | mestá | srdce | srdcia | vysvedčenie | vysvedčenia | dievča | dievčatá/ dievčence | |
| L | meste | mestách | srdci | srdciach | vysvedčení | vysvedčeniach | dievčati | dievčatách / dievčencoch | |
| I | mestom | mestami | srdcom | srdcami | vysvedčením | vysvedčeniami | dievčaťom | dievčatami / dievčencami | |
masculine | <P ALIGN="center">neuter | <P ALIGN="center">feminine | <P ALIGN="center">plural | ||||||
| N | pekný | pekné | pekná | pekné (masc. animate: pekní) | |||||
| G | pekného | pekného | peknej | pekných | |||||
| D | peknému | peknému | peknej | pekným | |||||
| A | pekný (animate: pekného) | pekné | peknú | pekné (masc. animate: pekných) | |||||
| L | peknom | peknom | peknej | pekných | |||||
| I | pekným | pekným | peknou | peknými |
masculine | <P ALIGN="center">neuter | <P ALIGN="center">feminine | <P ALIGN="center">plural | ||||||
| N | otcov | otcovo | otcova | otcove (masc. animate: otcovi) | |||||
| G | otcovho | otcovho | otcovej | otcových | |||||
| D | otcovmu | otcovmu | otcovej | otcovým | |||||
| A | otcov (animate: otcovho) | otcovo | otcovu | otcove (masc. animate: otcových) | |||||
| L | otcovom | otcovom | otcovej | otcových | |||||
| I | otcovým | otcovým | otcovou | otcovými |
I | <P ALIGN="center">you (sg) | <P ALIGN="center">he | <P ALIGN="center">she | <P ALIGN="center">it | <P ALIGN="center">we | <P ALIGN="center">you (pl. or polite form) | <P ALIGN="center">they (masculine animate, or mixed genders) | <P ALIGN="center">they (otherwise) | |
| N | ja | ty | on | ona | ono | my | vy | oni | ony |
| G | ma (mňa) | ťa (teba) | ho (jeho, neho,-ňho, -ň) | ju | ho (jeho, neho, -ňho, -ň) | nás | vás | ich (nich) | ich (ne) |
| D | mne (mi) | tebe (ti) | mu (jemu, nemu,-ňmu) | jej (nej) | mu (jemu, nemu,-ňmu) | nám | vám | im (nim) | im (nim) |
| A | ma (mňa) | ťa (teba) | ho (jeho, neho, -ňho, -ň, -eň) | ju | ho (-ň, -eň) | nás | vás | ich (nich) | ich (ne) |
| L | mne | tebe | ňom | nej | ňom | nás | vás | nich | nich |
| I | mnou | tebou | ním | ňou | ním | nami | vami | nimi | nimi |
masculine | <P ALIGN="center">neuter | <P ALIGN="center">feminine | <P ALIGN="center">plural | |
| N | ten | to | tá | tie (masc. animate: tí) |
| G | toho | toho | tej | tých |
| D | tomu | tomu | tej | tým |
| A | ten (masc. animate: toho) | to | tú | tie (masc. animate: tých) |
| L | tom | tom | tej | tých |
| I | tým | tým | tou | tými |
masculine | <P ALIGN="center">neuter | <P ALIGN="center">feminine | <P ALIGN="center">plural | |
| N | môj | moje | moja | moje (masc. animate: moji) |
| G | môjho | môjho | mojej | mojich |
| D | môjmu | môjmu | mojej | mojim |
| A | môj (animate: môjho) | moje | moju | moje (masc. animate: mojich) |
| L | mojom | mojom | mojej | mojich |
| I | mojím | mojím | mojou | mojimi |



