Slovak language

Morphology

Articles (?leny):

There are no articles in the Slovak language. If it is really necessary to emphasize that the thing that one is talking about was already mentioned, the demonstrative pronoun ten (fem: tá, neuter: to) can be used in front of the noun.

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Nouns (Podstatné mená)

See: Slovak declension

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Adjectives (Prídavné mená)

See: Slovak declension

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Pronouns (Zámená)

See: Slovak declension

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Numerals (?íslovky)

The basic formation of Slovak numerals is like in English: There are special words for 0-19 and for 20, 30 . . . 90, 100, 1000 etc. and the compound numerals (21, 1054) are simply combinations of these special words formed in the same order as their mathematical symbol is written (for example 21 = dvadsa?jeden (that is literally ?twentyone?)).

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The numerals are: (1) jeden, (2) dva, (3) tri, (4) ?tyri, (5) pä?, (6) ?es?, (7) sedem, (8) osem, (9) devä?, (10) desa?, (11) jedenás?, (12) dvanás?, (13) trinás?, (14) ?trnás?, (15) pätnás?, (16) ?estnás?, (17) sedemnás?, (18) osemnás?, (19) devätnás?, (20) dvadsa?, (21) dvadsa?jeden . . . ., (30) tridsa?, (31) tridsa?jeden . . . (40) ?tyridsa?, . . . (50) pä?desiat, . . . (60) ?es?desiat, . . . (70) sedemdesiat, . . . (80) osemdesiat, . . . (90) devä?desiat, . . . (100) sto, (101) stojeden, . . . . (200) dvesto, . . . (300) tristo, . . . (900)devä?sto, . . . (1,000) tisíc, . . . (1,100) tisícsto, . . . (2,000) dvetisíc, . . (100,000) stotisíc, . . . (1,000,000) milión, . . .

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See also: Slovak declension

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Verbs (Slovesá)

• Verbs have three major conjugations distinguishing 3 persons and 2 numbers (singular and plural) ? just like in English. There are several conjugation paradigms- like in most European languages. Here is the conjugation of some randomly chosen verbs (the forms are given in the order: I ? you (sg) ? he/she/it ? we ? you (pl) ? they ):

:to be (by?): som ? si ?je ?sme ?ste- sú

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:to have (ma?): mám ? má? ?má ?máme ?máte ?majú

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:to work (pracova?): pracujem ? pracuje? ?pracuje ?pracujeme- pracujete ? pracujú

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:to carry (nies?) nesiem ? nesie? ?nesie ?nesieme ? nesiete ? nesú

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:to hide (skry?): skryjem ? skryje? ?skryje ?skryjeme ? skryjete - skryjú

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• Subject personal pronouns are often omitted unless they are emphatic - like in Italian or Spanish, unlike in Russian or English.
• The infinitive always ends in -? (see for example the above examples).
• The English continuous form (that is to be . . . ing) is expressed by a change in the stem of the verb or by removing the prefix (note however that this statement is a strong simplification). The non-continuous version is called a perfective verb and the continuous version an imperfective verb. Example: :to hide = skry?, to be hiding = skrýva?
• There are only two past tenses. Both are formed analytically. The latter, however, is not used in the modern language and is considered dated and/or grammatically incorrect. Examples for two verbs (note that the continuous form is considered a separate verb in Slavic languages):

:skry? (to hide) : skryl som (I hid / I have hid); bol som skryl (I had hid)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): skrýval som (I was hiding); bol som skrýval (I had been hiding)

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• There is only one future tense. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is identical with the present tense. Examples:

:skry? (to hide) : skryjem (I will hide / I will have hid)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding) : budem skrýva? (I will be hiding)

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• There are two conditional forms. Both are formed analytically from the past tense:

:skry? (to hide) : skryl by som (I would hide), bol by som skryl (I would have hid)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding) : skrýval by som (I would be hiding), bol by som skrýval (I would have been hiding)

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• The passive voice is formed either like in English (to be + past participle) or like in Romance languages (using the reflexive pronoun 'sa'):

:skry? (to hide): je skrytý (he is hid); sa skryje (he is hid)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): je skrývaný (he is being hid); sa skrýva (he is being hid)

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• The active present participle (=which is ...ing) is formed using the suffixes ?úci/ -iaci / - aci

:skry? (to hide) : skryjúci (which is hiding)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): skrývajúci (which is being hiding)

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• The gerund (=by/when ...ing) is formed using the suffixes ?úc / -uc / ?iac/-ac

:skry? (to hide): skryjúc (by/when hiding)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): skrývajúc (by/when being hiding)

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• The active past participle (= which was ...ing) was formerly formed using the suffix ?v?í, but is no longer used.
• The passive participle (= ...ed (adj.)) is formed using the suffixes -ný / -tý / -ený:

:skry? (to hide): skrytý (hid)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): skrývaný (being hid)

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• The 'verbal noun' (= the ...ing) is formed using the suffix ?ie:

:skry? (to hide): skrytie (the hiding)

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:skrýva? (to be hiding): skrývanie (the continuous hiding)

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Adverbs (Príslovky)

Adverbs are usually formed by replacing the adjectival ending with the ending ?o or sometimes ?e / -y(sometimes both ?o an d-e are possible). Examples:

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:vysoký (high) ? vysoko (highly)

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:pekný (nice) ? pekne (nicely)

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:priate?ský (friendly) ? priate?sky (in a friendly manner)

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:rýchly (fast) ? rýchlo / rýchle (quickly)

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The comparative/superlative of adverbs is formed by replacing the adjective comparative/superlative ending - (ej)?í by the ending ?(ej)?ie. Examples:

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:rýchly (fast)? rýchlej?í (faster) ? najrýchlej?í (fastest):rýchlo (quickly) ? rýchlej?ie (more quickly) ? najrýchlej?ie (most quickly)

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Prepositions (Predlo?ky)

They are used like in English, except that, in addition, each single preposition is associated with a particular grammatical case and the noun following the preposition must take the ending of the case required by the preposition.

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Example:

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:from friends = od priate?ov (priate?ov is the genitive case of priatelia, because the preposition od (=from) always calls for its objects to be in the genitive case)

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Conjunctions (Spojky), Particles (?astice), Interjections (Citoslovce)

They work more or less like in the English language.

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Note: The Slovak (and Czech) definition of particles has been taken from Russian linguistics. Although the English linguists subsume them under the conjunctions, interjections and other word types, they nevertheless work like in English. Examples of particles as they are understood by Slovak linguists are the English words (the text in the brackets gives a sentence as an example): Well (, what will we do?), yes, anyway, obviously, above all, not ...at all, And ( what do you think?), But ( that is impossible!), so (, that's it!), hardly, really, most importantly, also, (what) the hell (is he doing?), actually, please, even, in sum, believe it or not, maybe, unfortunately, of course, I wonder where (you have been), in one word ...

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