In Slovene grammar, verbs are a part of speech.
Grammatical categories
Persons and numbers
Slovene has three grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural.
It also has three grammatical persons:
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First person (), used to refer to the speaker or a group the speaker is a part of.
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Second person (), used to refer to the listener or for a general subject.
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Third person (), used to refer to a person who participates in a conversation, when there is no subject (with impersonal verbs) and when the subject is not in the nominative case.
The first and third person are used when talking to children. The second person can be used instead of the first when one is talking to themself and wants to sound detached.
Tenses
In Slovene, there are four grammatical tenses:
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The present tense ().
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The Past tense or preterite tense ().
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The pluperfect tense ().
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The future tense ().
Moods
There are four grammatical moods:
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Indicative mood (), which is used to state a fact or opinion in any tense.
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Imperative mood (), which is used to give commands in the present tense.
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Conditional mood (), which is used to state possibilities or wishes in the present or preterite tenses.
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Optative mood or hortative mood ( or ), which is used to give commands, for assumptions, and for encouragement in all tenses. In Slovene literature, it is considered an extension of the indicative and conditional mood.
Non-finite forms
There are several
:
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Long infinitive in -ti/-či () and short infinitive in -t/-č (). The latter is only used in informal situations.
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Supine in -t/-č ().
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Two present active participles, in -č and in -e, indicating ongoing action.
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Two past active participles, in -l and in -(v)ši, indicating a past or completed action.
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A past passive participle in -n or -t, indicating an action having been performed on something.
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Gerund (), indicating an act or a thing being acted upon.
Aspect
As in all
Slavic languages, Slovene verbs are classified based on their grammatical aspect:
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Perfective (dovršni) verbs represent a completed action.
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Imperfective (nedovršni) which represent an ongoing action.
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 , which has an imperfective aspect and can roughly be translated as to be jumping (continuously), and , 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
Transitive verb (). 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 (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 'to rain' and 'to thunder'.
Voices
There are three voices: active (), passive (), and reflexive (). 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:
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Class I has no verbal suffix, e. g. 'carry' and 'drink'.
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Class II has suffix -ni-, e. g. 'sink, sag'.
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Class III has suffix -e- or -a- and -i- in present stem, e. g. 'sit' and 'scream'.
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Class IV has suffix -i-, e. g. 'aim'.
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Class V has suffixes -a-, -va-, -ja-, -ˈava-, -ˈeva-, -ira-, or -izira- (but a never changes into i), e. g. 'weave' and 'write'.
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Class VI has suffixes -ovˈa- (hard) or -evˈa- (soft), e. g. 'buy'
Accentual types
This is an example.
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.
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Accent is not directly before the endings (marked as I)
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Accent is directly before infinitive ending and not directly before present indicative endings (marked as II A)
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Accent can be on two different vowels in infinitive (marked as II B)
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Accent is on other vowel in infinitive and present indicative (marked as II C)
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Accent is on the last vowel (marked as II D); currently, only verb and its derivatives follows this pattern. In the past, verbs and also followed this pattern.
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Accent is directly before the endings (marked as III)
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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.
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Forms showed here are forms.
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is formed by replacing second person singular with plural, participles are in masculine forms.
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is formed by replacing second person singular with plural, but participles stay in singular.
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is formed by replacing second person and third person singular with third person plural, participles are in masculine forms.
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is formed by replacing second person with third person, participles are in neuter forms.
Morphological structure
Verbs in Slovene have a complex morphological structure as they consist of several phonemes. The core of a verb form prefixes, roots and root suffixes. Root is the only of these three morphemes that is not optional and other morphemes are added to it. In most cases only one is present in a verb, but there are also verbs with more than one root, e. g. 'to urbanize'. Prefixes often indicate a perfective verb. Most verbs have none or one prefix, but some can also have more, such as 'split evenly'. Root suffixes are not so common; an example would be 'cut wood' or 'to urbanize'. These parts together convey the meaning of a verb.
The stem is formed by adding a verbal suffix, which influences the aspect ( vs. 'break'; the first one is perfective, the other one imperfective) and the conjugation. Verbs have two stems. The present stem forms the base for all forms of the present indicative and the imperative, as well as the present participles. The infinitive stem forms the infinitives, supine, gerund, and past participles.
Stem is then followed by the form suffix, e. g. -ti for long infinitive, -l for past active participle and -i for imperative. The suffix is then followed by the ending, which is specific for each person/number/case. There are also free morphemes, such as 'pretend', 'make mistakes' or 'love'.
Conjugation
Only the present indicative, the imperative and the non-finite forms are usually formed synthetically, by changing the form of the verb directly. All other forms are
Periphrasis (analytic), and are formed using auxiliary verbs or other additional words.
Verbs are separated based on the ending vowel of their stem.
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.
+Present indicative endings
! colspan="3" | Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="4" | Plural |
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*Only if the stressed e is open-mid |
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. , , , as well as all vowels in -ø-ti -je-m, e. g. .
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 .
+Present indicative accentual changes
! rowspan="2" | Accentual
type
! rowspan="2" | Infinitive
! colspan="3" | Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="3" | Plural |
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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).
+Imperative endings
!
!Singular
! colspan="2" | Dual
! colspan="2" | Plural |
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Verbs change accent in imperative based on the accent in infinitive and indicative, as well as where in the word the accent is:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Accentual type III, short accent in indicative: accent is acute, except on the penultimate syllable in dual and plural.
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Accentual type IV: accent is acute except on the last syllable in singular and penultimate syllable in dual and plural, where it is circumflex.
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Some acute verbs following accentual type I can in imperative follow II B (example , ). The accent therefore changes the same way as with those.
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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 ).
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Verbs , and change the accent irregularly.
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All verbs that change the accentuated vowel, except accentual type III, are in many dialects always accentuated on the first vowel throughout.
+Imperative accentual changes
! rowspan="2" | Accentual
type
! rowspan="2" | Infinitive
! rowspan="2" | Indicative
!Singular
! colspan="2" | Dual
! colspan="2" | Plural |
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Examples:
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Pospravi svojo sobo. ( Tidy your room.)
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Pojdimo se igrat. (Let's play. Literally, Let's go playing)
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Jaz delaj in garaj, ti pa boš zapravljal. (I should be working and toiling while you spend the money. – Such use is stylistically marked.)
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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.
+Present active participle in -č endings
!
! colspan="4" | Singular nominative
! rowspan="2" | Adverb |
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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.
+Present active participle in -č accentual changes
!
! colspan="4" | Singular nominative
! rowspan="2" | Adverb |
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Examples:
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italic=no. (A child that cries is a crying child.)
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italic=no. (He entered the room singing loudly.)
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italic=no (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.
+Present active participle in -e endings
!
!Ending
!Example |
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Example:
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italic=no. (While sitting, he stretched.)
Infinitives and supine
There are 2 verbal nouns: the
infinitive (), which can be long or short and the
supine ().
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):
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italic=no. (They went to the New World to seek fortune.)
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italic=no. (Literally, Go salt yourself. This idiomatic statement is used to express annoyance or refusal)
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italic=no. (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:
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-p-ti → -ps-ti (, tépem "beat")
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-b-ti → -bs-ti (, grébem "scratch, scrape")
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-d-ti → -s-ti (, sẹ̑dem "sit down")
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-jd-ti → -j-ti (, nájdem "find (something lost)")
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-t-ti → -s-ti (, plétem "braid")
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-st-ti → -s-ti (, rástem "grow")
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-z-ti → -s-ti (, grízem "bite, chew")
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-g-ti → -č-i (, lẹ̑žem (lẹ́gel) "lie down")
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-k-ti → -č-i (, réčem (rékel) "say")
+Infinitives and supine endings
! colspan="2" | Infinitive
! rowspan="2" | Supine |
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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:
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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.
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Verbs following accentual type I, II B, II D and IV have acute accent on the stem on same syllable as long infinitive.
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Other accentual types can have short accent on the last syllable, long accent on the last syllable or long accent on non-final syllable.
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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.
+Infinitives and supine accentual changes
! rowspan="2" | Ending
! rowspan="2" | Accentual
type
! colspan="2" | Infinitive
! colspan="2" | Supine |
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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.
+Accentual subpatterns
!
! rowspan="2" | Verb
! colspan="2" | Supine
! rowspan="2" | Short Inf.
! rowspan="2" |
(masc. nom. sing.) |
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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.
+Past active participle in -l endings |
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Stative l-participle can be the same as the descriptive l-participle ( → vrȅł/vrẹ́ł), but it sometimes changes to have a fill vowel ( → 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:
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Long accent on the last syllable
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Short accent on the last syllable
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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 + that do not have an alternative version ending in (e. g. ) and verbs in prefix + , which may change to -jti (e. g. ) 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.
+Past active participle in -l accentual changes
! rowspan="2" | Accentual
type
! rowspan="2" | Infinitive →
present
! colspan="3" | Used as a participle
! rowspan="2" | Notes |
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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:
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italic=no. (I saw.)
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italic=no. (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.
+Past active participle in -š endings and accent
!
!Infinitive
!Masculine
!Feminine
!Neuter
!Adverb |
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Examples:
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italic=no. ( Having stepped out of the house, he headed to the pub.)
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italic=no ( 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.
+Masculine singular ending in past passive participle
!
!I
!II a
!II b
!II c
!II d
!III
!IV |
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When stem ending in a consonant is followed by j, it
Iotation.
* These forms follow verbs ending in -r-e-ti (e. g. , 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:
+Past passive participle in -n accentual changes |
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Examples of this participle are:
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italic=no. (The parked car was stolen.) (perhaps better in the active voice, " Parkiran avto so ukradli.")
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italic=no. (The court tried the accused robber.)
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italic=no. (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 .
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 (), which means an act of doing something, and objectified gerund (), 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.
+Gerund accentual changes
! rowspan="2" | ! rowspan="2"Passive
participle
! colspan="2" | True gerund in singular
! colspan="2" | Objectified gerund in singular |
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*This form does not exist and is there only for demonstrative purposes. |
Negative forms
Three verbs, , , and have special negative forms in present indicative:
+Negative present indicative forms
! rowspan="2" | Infinitive
! colspan="3" | Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="3" | Plural |
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Future indicative
Only verbs and 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.
+Future indicative forms
! rowspan="2" | Infinitive
! colspan="3" | Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="3" | Plural |
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Conditional
Verb 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 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 ) "be", díwat (SS ) "give", dujájat (SS ) "keep up with", mé̤t (SS ), moré̤t (SS ) "be able", parájat (SS ) "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 ) "(I) have gone"
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pridúh (SS from ) "(I) have come"
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vzê (SS from ) "(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.
Analytical forms
Forms given here are in the way they appear in a typical sentence. However, in the dictionary form, lexical verb is first and then everything else, except in negative forms (e. g. naj bi bil delal → delal naj bi bil)
Active voice
Past indicative
The past (or preterite) indicative is used to indicate events that occurred in the past. Modern Slovene does not distinguish the past tense ("saw") from the perfect tense ("have seen"); this distinction was common in Alpine Slovene when
aorist served the past tense form.
It is formed with the auxiliary verb (to be) in the present tense, plus the l-participle of the verb. The participle must agree with the subject in number and gender. For example:
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sem videl (I saw, said by a male)
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sem videla (I saw, said by a female)
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je odšla (she went)
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so odkrili (they discovered)
Pluperfect indicative
The pluperfect indicative is used to indicate an action that occurred before some other future action. It is rarely used in colloquial speech, where it is replaced by the past tense.
It is formed as though it were the past tense of the past tense: the auxiliary verb (to be) in the present tense, plus the l-participle of the verb biti (to be), plus the l-participle of the verb. The participles must agree with the subject in number and gender. For example:
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sem bil videl (I had seen, said by a male)
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sem bila videla (I had seen, said by a female)
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je bila odšla (she had gone)
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so bili odkrili (they had discovered)
Future indicative
The future indicative tense is used to state events that will happen in the future.
The verb biti (to be) has its own unique set of future tense forms, with the stem bo-. Other verbs are usually formed using biti in the future tense, plus the l-participle of the verb. The participle must agree with the subject in number and gender. For example:
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videl bom (I will see, said by a male)
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videla bom (I will see, said by a female)
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odšla bo (she will go)
-
bodo odkrili (they will discover)
Dialectally, is used in future indicative as an auxiliary verb, followed by infinitive.
Conditional mood
The conditional mood is used to express desires, wishes, and hypothetical (often impossible) conditions.
The present conditional is formed using the special particle bi, plus the l-participle of the lexical verb. The past conditional is rarely used, like the pluperfect, and is formed analogously: the particle bi, plus l-participle of the verb biti (to be), plus the l-participle of the verb. Examples of the conditional mood are:
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Če bi mi postalo slabo, mi, prosim, podajte tiste tablete. (Literally: If it became sick to me, to me, I kindly ask, pass those pills.; If I should become sick, kindly pass me those pills.)
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V primeru, da bi prišlo do požara, bomo umrli. (Should there be a fire, we would die.)
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Če bi (bili) končali prej, bi bili zdaj prosti. (If we had finished earlier, we would be free now.)
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Želi si, da bi bil maneken, vendar s svojimi obraznimi nečistočami nima možnosti. (He wishes that he were a model, but with his facial impurities, he has no chance.)
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O, da bi bila jesen! (O, if only it were autumn!) (literary)
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O, ko bi le bila jesen! (O, if only it were autumn!)
In the 18th century, future conditional was also rarely used, which was formed by
bom bil + l-participle, e. g.
bom bil baral (If I asked in). Such use has only been recorded to be in active voice.
Optative
An additional kind of imperative, which may be called the
Optative mood or
Hortative mood, is formed by using the particle (ne) with the indicative or conditional. This acts as a substitute for the imperative in the third person and other tenses as well. It is usually not translated as 'may', because nowadays use is closer to the imperative, so a more appropriate word would be 'should'. However, this kind of form has many uses, so it may also sometimes be translated as 'let' or with passive voice.
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On naj mi pride pomagat. (He should come to help me.)
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Pa naj bo po tvojem. (Let it be your way.)
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Naj ti povem, kako se je zgodilo. (Let me tell you, how it happened.)
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A naj je bil še tako utrujen, je dospel do cilja. (But let him be so tired, he reached the finish line).
-
Ta proces naj bi povzročale glivice. (This process is thought to be caused by fungi.)
Negative forms
It is formed by simply adding in front of the verb, only naj is before. In dictionary forms, the lexical verbs is in last place, except where it combines with the auxiliary verb:
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Nas ni nihče vprašal. (Noone asked us.)(lit. Noone has not asked us.)
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Ne bi ga rad srečal. (I would not like to meet him.)
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Bolje je ne delati kot delati škodo. (It is better not to work than to do (lit. work) harm.)
-
Delal nisem nič manj kot drugi. (I have not worked any less than others.)
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 to the verb. Passive and reflexive voice is formed as shown in this table:
+Formation of passive and reflexive voice
!
! colspan="2" | Passive voice
! colspan="2" | Reflexive voice |
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An example of the passive voice is:
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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).
Full conjugation of a regular verb
The following table presents full conjugation of a regular verb
dẹ́lati:
+Class V: -a-ti, -a-m, accent paradigm I
! colspan="2" | ! colspan="3"Singular
! colspan="3" | Dual
! colspan="3" | Plural |
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General
Dialectal and obsolete conjugation
Examples
External links