Substantival Pronoun s can replace a noun in a sentence; this is, as opposed to, say, an adjective or an adverb.
A Personal Pronoun denotes the speaker (''I''), the addressee (''you'') or a third person (''it''). Personal pronouns in Slovenian are inflected in a somewhat unusual way, for there are many different forms for each of the pronouns, as indicated below. Solidi (/) separate the masculine, feminine and neuter forms if applicable.
The first person (I, the two of us, we):
|
The second person:
The third person (masculine) (he, they (2), they):
The third person (feminine) (she, they (2), they):
The third person (neuter) (it, they (2), they):
It should be noted that forms of the accusative starting with only appear in compound words. For example:
- Zanj mi je dal denar. (He (person 1) gave me the money for him (person 2).) (if the 'he' was referring to the same person, the reflexive personal pronoun would be used (Zase mi je dal denar. (He gave me the money for himself.))
- Za njega mi je dal denar. (same, except that person 2 is emphasised)
- Sledili smo jim. (We followed them.)
- Jaz mislim drugače. (''I'' think otherwise.)
- Spodbudili smo jih, da naj se pokažejo vredne našega zaupanja, a so nas nesramno zavrnili. (We encouraged them to prove themselves worthy of our trust, but they rejected us rudely.)
- Nanjo se je zgrnila ena nesreča za drugo. (She was struck by one misfortune after another.)
- Da bi le njim to lahko dopovedali! (If only we could make ''them'' understand this!) (the dative pronoun is stressed, though the translation uses the accusative)
- Zame ni več rešitve: pugubljena sem. (For me there is no solution any more: I (feminine) am doomed.)
- Pogledal ga je s kancem ironije v očeh. (He (person 1) looked at him (person 2) with a drop of irony in the eyes.)
- Pogledal je njega. (He (person 1) looked at ''him'' (person 2).) (the stress is on person 2)
The nominative forms of personal pronouns are not used in neutral sentences, but rather only when stressing the subject, especially so for the first person singular (''I'' (''Jaz'')). While regular forms, they are so seldom used, peculiarly in spoken language, that their use strikes one as odd. This is likely because, unlike in English, the form of the verb gives all applicable information such as the gender, grammatical number and person by itself.
The
Reflexive Pronoun in Slovenian is ''se'' or ''sebe''. The reflexive personal pronoun is special in that it does not have the nominative form. It is, however, the same for all persons and grammatical numbers; that it, it is dependent solely on case.
''Se'' (''sebe'') is the accusative form of the reflexive pronoun.
For example:
- Dative: umivam ''si'' roke (I am washing my hands. (in German, Ich wasche ''mir'' die Hände))
- Accusative: umivam ''se'' (I am washing myself. (in German, Ich wasche ''mich''.))
- Dative: umivate ''si'' roke (You are washing your hands. (in German, Sie waschen ''sich'' die Hände))
- Accusative: umivate ''se'' (You are washing yourselves. (in German, Sie waschen ''sich''.))
Similarly as in German and English, the reflexive pronoun can sometimes be replaced by the reciprocal phrase ''drug drugega'' (each other, one another; in German, einander). Thus: "Drug drugemu umivata roke." (The two of them are washing each other's hands; or in German, Sie waschen einander die Hände) or "Umivata drug drugega." (The two of them are washing each other, or in German, Sie waschen einander).
The accusative ''se'' can bind with prepositional words just like other personal pronouns; it is, namely, an
Enclitic :
- Na''se'' je nanesla lepotilno kremo. (She put beautifying cream on herself.)
- Ampak ko dela za''se'', dela učinkovito. (But when he/she works for him-/herself, he/she works efficiently.)
Other cases and examples:
- ''Sebi'' gradi grobnico. (He/She is building a tomb for ''him-/herself''.)
- Gradi ''si'' grobnico. (the same, but the emphasis is not so much on for whom the tomb is, but rather the tomb or the building itself)
- ''S sabo/seboj'' ni zadovoljna. (She is not happy ''with herself''.) (instrumental case)
- Najprej počisti ''pri sebi'', potlej šele kritiziraj druge! (First clean up ''at yourself'', only then criticise others!) (locative case)
- Ko je videl odsev ''sebe'' v ogledalu, mu je ta pogled povsem pokvaril dan. (When he saw the reflexion ''of himself'' in the mirror, this sight completely ruined the day for him.) (genitive case, but a clumsy and not widely used construction at that, since genitive possession is much better expressed with an adjectival possessive pronoun: 'Ko je videl ''svoj'' odsev v ogledalu ...')
The substantival above.
- ''Kaj'' je ta stvar, ki se premika? (''What'' is this thing that is moving?)
- Vprašal sem ga, ''o kom'' je bil govoril. (I asked him ''about whom'' he had been talking.)
- ''Komu'' naj dam to? (''Whom'' ought I to give this?)
- Česa ne smem storiti? (What mayn't I do?)
The substantival
Relative Pronoun ends in ''-r'': kdor (someone who), kar (something that).
To obtain other possessive pronouns, ''moj-'' should be replaced with:
- ''najin-'' for the first person dual
- ''naš-'' for the first person plural
- ''tvoj-'' for the second person singular
- ''vajin-'' for the second person dual
- ''vaš-'' for the second person plural
- ''njegov-'' for the third person singular for masculine and neuter nouns
- ''njen-'' for the third person singular for feminine nouns
- ''njun-'' for the third person dual
- ''njihov-'' for the third person plural
The endings remain the same.
Example sentences:
- ''Moj'' bog pravi drugače! (''My'' god says otherwise!)
- ''Njegove'' oči so kot kupi koruze na polju. (''His'' eyes are like heaps of maize on a field.)
- Letalo je bilo last vojske in ''njene'' države. (The aeroplane was the property of the military and ''her'' (the military's or another person's, depending on the context) country.)
- Vaše kraljevo veličanstvo, klanjam se pred Vami. (''Your'' royal highness, I bow before You.)
- Cerkev je ''njen'' grob na pokopališču prodala, kajti ''njeni'' potomci niso imeli dovolj denarja, da bi plačali pristojbino. (The church has sold ''her'' grave at the graveyard, since ''her'' descendants did not have enough money to pay the fee.)
- ''S tvojim'' avtom smo šli: saj ne zameriš, kajne? (We went ''with your'' car: you do not resent {Link without Title} , do you?)
When the possessive pronoun refers to the subject of the sentence in question, it is of a special kind, namely the so-called
Reflexive Possessive Pronoun , (in the appropriate form, as above).
- Stopam v ''svojo'' sobo. (I am walking into ''my'' room.) – to say 'Stopam v mojo sobo.' is considered incorrect
- Kupili so jim lepo darilo; vso svojo domiselnost so vložili v njegovo izbiranje. (They (person 1) bought them (person 2) a beautiful gift; all their (person 1) ingenuity have they (person 1) invested into its (the gift's) choosing.
- Svojega leva je pustila na dežju. (She left her lion in the rain.)
It should be noted that the reflexive possessive and 'normal' possessive pronouns make some ambiguous English sentences perfectly clear in Slovenian. The sentence "She has taken her towel into the bathroom." can be translated into the following two ways:
- Njeno brisačo je vzela v kopalnico. (the towel she has taken is of some other feminine person)
- Svojo brisačo je vzela v kopalnico. (the towel she has taken belongs to her)
| Qualitative (''Kakovostni'') |
Relational (''Vrstni'') |
Possessive (''Svojilni'') |
Quantitative (''Količinski'') |
|---|
Interrogative (''Vprašalni'') |
kakšen, kolikšen (what kind of, to what extent) |
kateri (which, what) |
čigav (whose) |
koliko (how much) |
|---|
Relative (''Oziralni'') |
kakršen (the kind that) |
kateri, ki (which, that) |
čigar, katerega (whose) |
kolikor (as much) |
|---|
Negative (''Nikalni'') |
nikakršen (of no kind) |
noben, nobeden (no one) |
nikogar, ničesar (of no one, of nothing) |
nič, noben (nothing, none) |
|---|
Total (''Celostni'') |
vsakršen (of every kind) |
vsak (everyone) |
vsakogar, vsega (of everyone, of everything) |
ves, oba (all, both) |
|---|
Indefinite (''Nedoločni'') |
nekak(šen) (some kind of) |
neki (some(one)) |
nekoga, nečesa (someone's, something's) |
nekoliko (somewhat) |
|---|
Unspecified (''Poljubnostni'') |
kak(šen) |
kateri |
čigav |
koliko |
|---|
Relative Unspecified (''Oziralni poljubnostni'') |
kakršenkoli (whatever kind) |
katerikoli (whichever) |
čigarkoli (whosever) |
kolikorkoli (however much) |
|---|
Mnogostni (''Manifold'') |
marsikak(šen) (of many kinds) |
marsikateri |
marsičigav |
dokaj, precej (quite a bit, quite a lot) |
|---|
Differential (''Drugostni'') |
drugačen (different) |
drug (someone else) |
drugega (of someone else) |
ne toliko (not that/as much) |
|---|
Equal (''Istostni'') |
enak (of the same kind) |
isti (the same) |
istega (of the same one) |
enako (the same {Link without Title} ) |
|---|
Demonstrative (''Kazalni'') |
tak(šen) (of this kind) |
ta, tisti, oni (that one) |
tega (of that one) |
toliko (this much) |
|---|
Quantitative adverbial pronouns are non-inflected at all times. All other pronouns are normally inflected.
Examples:
- Čeprav mi je ''tisti'' avtobus bolj všeč, moram na ''tega'', kajti ''tisti'' ''drugi'' vozi v drugo smer. (Even though I like ''that'' bus more, I have to board ''this one'', for ''that'' ''other one'' is driving in another direction.)
- ''Mnogokakšna'' želja se mi je že uresničila, vendar mi je ''marsikatera'' prinesla tudi ''kakšne'' stranske neprijetnosti. (''Many a'' wish has come true for me, however ''many'' have (singular in Slovenian) brought me ''some'' side inconveniences.)
- Vlak, ''ki'' smo ga videli, je pravzaprav ''tisti'', ''na katerega'' bi se bili morali usesti. (The train ''that'' we have seen is actually ''the one'' ''onto which'' we should have boarded. (literally: sat on))
- ''čigav'' svinčnik je ''to''? (''Whose'' pencil is ''this''?)
- ''Nekakšna'' radirka je bila nameščena na ''drugem'' koncu. (''Some kind of'' rubber was mounted on ''the other'' end.)
- ''Enak'' kalkulator imam kot ti. (I have ''the same type of'' calculator as you.)
- Vzemi mnenje, ''katerega'' ne odobravaš, in ga poskusi spremeniti. (Take an opinion ''that'' you do not approve of and try to change it.)
- ''Nekoliko'' pozni ste, a nič ne de. (You are ''somewhat'' late, but that is all right.)
- Zaradi ''nekega'' bedaka mi je ''vsako'' letalo ušlo. (Because of ''some'' fool ''every'' aeroplane got away from me.) (=I missed every plane because of some fool; in the sense that this person has taught me to get to an airport too late or similar, not that all planes have left without me.)
- ''Toliko'' truda ''za nič'' učinka. (''So much'' effort ''to no'' avail.)
