Slovene pronouns

Substantival Pronoun (Samostalniški zaimek)

Substantival pronouns can replace a noun in a sentence; this is, as opposed to, say, an adjective or an adverb.

Personal Pronoun (Osebni zaimek)

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, as indicated below. Solidi (/) separate the masculine, feminine and neuter forms if applicable.

The first person (I, the two of us, we):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	jaz	midva / midve | medve / midve | medve	mi / me / me
2	mene | me	naju (dveh) | nas dveh	nas
3	meni | mi	nama (dvema)	nam
4	mene | me | -me	naju (dva / dve / dve) | nas (dva / dve / dve)	nas
5	pri meni	pri naju (dveh) | pri nas dveh | pri nama (dvema)	pri nas
6	z menoj | z mano	z nama (dvema)	z nami

The second person:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	ti	vidva / vidve | vedve / vidve | vedve	vi / ve / ve
2	tebe | te	vaju (dveh) | vas (dveh)	vas
3	tebi | ti	vama (dvema)	vam
4	tebe | te | -te	vaju (dva / dve / dve) | vas (dva / dve / dve)	vas
5	pri tebi	pri vaju (dveh) | pri vas dveh | pri vama (dvema)	pri vas
6	s teboj | s tabo	z vama (dvema)	z vami

The third person (masculine) (he, they (2), they):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	on	onadva | ona	oni
2	njega | ga	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dveh) | nju | -nju	njih | jih
3	njemu | mu	njima (dvema) | jima	njim | jim
4	njega | ga | -nj, -enj	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dva) | nju | -nju	njih | nje | jih | -nje
5	pri njem	pri njiju | pri njih (dveh) | pri njima (dvema)	pri njih
6	z njim	z njima (dvema)	z njimi

The third person (feminine) (she, they (2), they):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	ona	onidve | onedve	one
2	nje | je	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dveh) | nju | -nju	njih | jih
3	njej | nji | ji	njima (dvema) | jima	njim | jim
4	njo | jo | -njo	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dve) | nju | -nju	njih | nje | jih | -nje
5	pri njej | pri nji	pri njiju | pri njih (dveh) | pri njima (dvema)	pri njih
6	z njo	z njima (dvema)	z njimi

The third person (neuter) (it, they (2), they):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	ono	onidve | onedve	ona
2	njega | ga	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dveh) | nju | -nju	njih | jih
3	njemu | mu	njima (dvema) | jima	njim | jim
4	ono | njega | ga | -nj | -enj	njiju | ju | jih | njih (dve) | nju | -nju	njih | nje | jih | -nje
5	pri njem	pri njiju | pri njih (dveh) | pri njima (dvema)	pri njih
6	z njim	z njima (dvema)	z njimi

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)

Note: 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.

Reflexive Personal Pronoun (Povratni osebni zaimek)

The reflexive pronoun in Slovene 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:

• Nase je nanesla lepotilno kremo. (She put beautifying cream on herself.)
• Ampak ko dela zase, 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 ...')

Interrogative Pronoun (Vprašalni zaimek)

The substantival interrogative pronouns introduce direct and indirect questions. There are two nominative forms: kdo (who) and kaj (what). They are declined as shown at cases 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?)

Relative Pronoun (Oziralni zaimek)

The substantival relative pronoun ends in -r: kdor (someone who), kar (something that).

1. kdor | kar
2. kogar | česar
3. komur | čemur
4. kogar | kar
5. pri komer | pri čemer
6. s komer | s čimer

• Kdor krade, ni pošten. (Someone who steals is not honest.)
• Kar poveš, tega ne moreš več obvladovati. (Something that you say, that you cannot control any more.)
• Odrekli so ji možnost do izbire odvetnika, s čimer je bila kršena njena ustavna pravica. (They refused her the option of choosing a solicitor, with which her constitutional right was violated.)

Negative Pronoun (Nikalni zaimek)

The negative pronoun, a substantival pronoun at that, starts with ni-: nihče (nobody), nič (nothing) (similar are also the adverbs nikjer (nowhere), nikoli (never), nikdar (never), however they are not true pronouns, since they are not inflected).

A negative pronoun demands a negative predicate, resulting in the so-called double negation, a characteristic of Slovene that is purportedly responsible for the high number of suicides.

• Nihče me nikoli ni maral. (Nobody ever liked me.) (literally: Nobody never did not like me.)
• Nikjer ni nikogar. (There is no one anywhere.) (literally: Nowhere isn't no one.)
• Nič ni resnično. (Nothing is real.) (literally: Nothing isn't real.)
• Od nikogar ne želim ničesar. (I want nothing from no one. / I don't want anything from anyone.) (literally: From no one I don't want nothing.)
• Nikogaršnja (adjectival negative (possessive) pronoun) neolikanost ni nikdar in nikjer in na nikakršen način nikomur pridobila nič drugega kot neodobravanje. (No one's impropriety gained ever anyone anywhere and in whatever way anything else than disapproval.) (literally: No one's impropriety did not never and nowhere and in no way gain nothing else than disapproval.)

Total Pronoun (Celostni zaimek)

The substantival total pronouns are vsakdo (everyone) and vse (everything). Vsak (everyone) is an adjectival pronoun that can function as a substantival one, and is thus declined as per the adjectival declension. Also in this category are vsakateri (-e, -a) (everyone) and vsakteri (-e, -a) (everyone, but also used in other, adjectival senses), both of which are old-fashioned and not used in modern language.

Inflexion:

1. vsakdo | vse
2. vsakogar | vsega
3. vsakomur | vsemu
4. vsakogar | vse
5. pri vsakomer | pri vsem
6. z vsakomer | z vsem

• Vsemu so namenjali pozornost. (They dedicated attention to everything.)
• Vsakogar bodo vrgli iz službe, če ne bo izpolnjeval zahtev. (They will sack everyone who will not fulfil requirements.)

Indefinite Pronoun (Nedoločni zaimek)

The substantival indefinite pronoun is a pronoun starting with ne-: nekdo (someone), nekaj (something). The indefinite pronoun refers to an unknown or deliberately untold person or object. The inflexion follows the pattern of kdo and kaj.

• Nekoga so videli stati ob oknu, a niso mogli ugotoviti, kdo bi to lahko bil. (They saw someone standing near the window, but they could not figure out who could have been that.)
• Zgodilo se je nekaj strašnega! (Something horrible has happened!)
• Zataknilo se jima je pri nečem, a nikakor se ne morem spomniti, pri čem. (They faltered at something, but I cannot in any way remember at what.)
• Nekdo prihaja. Skrijmo se. (Someone is coming. Let us hide.)

Unspecified Pronoun (Poljubnostni zaimek)

The substantival unspecified pronouns are kdo (someone, anyone) and kaj (something, anything), referring to any unspecified person or object, or one that can be chosen at will. They are inflected in the same way as kdo and kaj in the interrogative sense.

• Sporoči mi, prosim, če se bo kaj spremenilo. (Please let me know if anything changes.)
• Seveda dvomim o čem: kaj to ni normalno? (Naturally I doubt about something: is this not normal?)
• Česa podobnega še nisem videl! (I have never seen anything like that!)
• Uporabi klorovodikovo kislino ali kaj drugega, da nevtraliziraš to bazo. (Use hydrochloric acid or something else to neutralise this base.)
• Denar, ki si ga kdo sposodi, seveda ni njegov, pač pa z njim le upravlja. (Money that someone borrows is obviously not his; he merely manages it.)
• Naj stopi kdo vendar do tega DJ-ja in ga nekajkrat lopne po glavi. (May someone go to this DJ and smack him on the head a few times.)
• Ojej, kakšne lepe govorice! O tem se res moram s kom pogovoriti. (Oh dear, what beautiful gossip! I really must talk to someone about this.)

In some cases, the indefinite and unspecified pronouns can stand in the place of one another, but not always, especially not in literary language.

Relative Unspecified Pronoun (Oziralni poljubnostni zaimek)

The substantival relative unspecified pronouns are kdorkoli or kdor koli (whoever) and karkoli or kar koli (whatever). The meaning conveyed is very similar to the unspecified pronoun. The inflexion follows the pattern of the relative pronoun with -koli or  koli appended. The space, as shown, is optional, but for sake of consistency, once one method has been adopted, one should not use the other.

• Kdorkoli pokliče 112, mora znati povedati, kaj je narobe. (Whoever rings 112 must know how to say what is wrong.)
• Kogarkoli poslušam od teh politikov, vsi govorijo iste neumnosti. (To whichever of these politicians I listen, they all speak the same stupidities.)
• Karkoli stori, stori to dobro. (Whatever he/she does, he/she does it well.)

Manifold Pronoun (Mnogostni zaimek)

The substantival manifold pronouns are marsikdo (many [persons]) and marsikaj (many [things]). The inflexion follows the basic pattern of kdo and kaj. These pronouns refer to many people and many things, however they are singular in nature in Slovene. In addition to marsi-, other prefixes are possible, such as redko- (redkokdo: rarely anyone), mnogo- (mnogokdo = marsikdo, although perhaps somewhat less usual) and malo- (malokdo: few [persons]).

• Marsikdo pravi, da je lepše živeti na deželi, a jaz jim seveda ne verjamem. (Many people say that it is nicer to live in the countryside, but I of course do not believe them.)
• Res je, da marsičesa ne vem, pa vendar veš ti še mnogo manj. (It is true that I do not know many things, but you know far less still.)
• Z marsičim je že bila obdarjena, a česa takšnega, kar ji je prinesel egiptovski odposlanec, ni bila nikdar poprej še videla. (Many things she had been gifted, but something like that which the Egyptian emissary brought she had never before seen.)
• Redkokdo bi priznal, da je storil takšno napako. (Rarely anyone would admit that he has made such a mistake.)
• Mnogokaj mi je šlo po glavi, a bolje je, da ne povem, kaj. (Many things went though my mind, but it is better that I do not say which.)
• Maločesa se loti, če ve, da se popolnosti pri stvari ne da doseči. (He attempts to do few things if he knows that perfection cannot be achieved at them.)

Adjectival Pronoun (Pridevniški zaimek)

Personal Possessive Pronoun (Osebni svojilni zaimek)

The adjectival possessive pronoun denotes, obviously, possession of someone or something. Solidi separate the masculine, feminine and neuter forms of the adjectival pronoun respectively if applicable.

An example for the first person singular (I):

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	moj / moja / moje	moja / moji / moji	moji / moje / moja
2	mojega / moje / mojega	mojih	mojih
3	mojemu / moji / mojemu	mojima	mojim
4	mojega / mojo / moje	moja / moji / moji	moje / moje / moja
5	pri mojemu / pri moji / pri mojemu	pri mojih	pri mojih
6	z mojim / z mojo / z mojim	z mojima	z mojimi

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 [us], do you?)

Reflexive Possessive Pronoun (Povratni svojilni zaimek)

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, svoj (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 Slovene. 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)

Non-Personal Adjectival Pronouns (Neosebni pridevniški zaimki)

	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 [amount])
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 Slovene) 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.)