The following is an overview of the grammar of the Slovene language.

Common phonological changes

As in most other Slavic languages, changes to consonants and vowels often occur between related forms of words. Most of these can be traced back to changes that occurred in the ancestral Proto-Slavic language. Over time, many of the original changes have been reversed or levelled out.

Consonant alternations

  • The Slavic first palatalization causes alternations in the velar consonants k, g and h. It occurs in the present tense of consonant stem verbs, and when certain suffixes (often beginning with e or i) are attached to words. When endings begin with -o-, this vowel usually becomes -e- after a soft stem; this is called "preglas" in Slovene. This happens in many noun and adjective declensions, and also in some verbs. For example, the instrumental singular form of korak "step" is korakom, while for stric "uncle" it is stricem.

There are also some instances where the vowel stays as o, such as the accusative singular of feminine nouns. These instances can be traced back to an earlier nasal vowel ǫ in Proto-Slavic, which did not undergo this change.

Fill vowel

When certain hard-to-pronounce consonant clusters occur word-finally, an additional fill vowel is inserted before the last consonant(s) of the word to break up the cluster. This typically happens where there is no ending, like in the nominative singular, or the genitive dual and plural. The fill vowel is usually a schwa (, spelled e). For example, the noun igra "game" has the genitive plural form iger, not igr.

If the last consonant is j, then i is used as the fill vowel instead. For example, ladja "boat" has the genitive plural ladij. However, if the stem ends in lj, nj or rj, then the fill vowel is the normal e and is inserted before both consonants. The noun ogenj "fire", for example, loses the fill vowel in the genitive singular form ognja.

There are a few cases where the fill vowel is instead a stressed a. Slovenian nouns are divided into 3 genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter).

Negative adjectives are formed by prefixing the negative ne-, which is almost always a proper form even though sometimes, a Latin prefix is an alternative.

  • lep -> nelep (beautiful, not beautiful (but not ugly (grd))
  • reverzibilen -> nereverzibilen (reversible, irreversible)
  • moralen -> nemoralen (moral, immoral) (note that 'amoral' in English has a different meaning)
  • legitimen -> nelegitimen (legitimate, illegitimate)

Comparative

The comparative is formed by adding the ending -ši (-ša, -še), -ejši (-ejša, -ejše) or -ji (-ja, -je) to an adjective, or using the word bolj (more) in front of an adjective in case of stressing and also when the adjective in question cannot be formed by adding an ending, such as when dealing with colours, or when the adjective ends in such a sound that it would be difficult to add the appropriate ending:

Personal pronouns

A personal pronoun denotes the speaker (I), the addressee (you) or a third person (it). Personal pronouns in Slovene are inflected in a somewhat unusual way, for there are many different forms for each of the pronouns.

Several of the pronouns have unstressed and clitic forms that are unstressed, and may attach to another word. For example:

  • Zanj mi je dal denar. "He gave me the money for him." (Note: if the 'he' was referring to the same person, the reflexive personal pronoun would be used.)
  • Za njega mi je dal denar. "He gave me the money for him (in particular)."
  • Sledili smo jim. "We followed them."
  • 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!"
  • Zame ni več rešitve: pugubljena sem. "For me there is no solution any more: I am doomed."
  • Pogledal ga je s kancem ironije v očeh. "He looked at him with a drop of irony in the eyes."
  • Pogledal je njega. "He looked at him (in particular)."

The nominative forms of personal pronouns are not used in neutral sentences, only when emphasizing the subject, especially so for the first person singular jaz "I".