The official language in Slovenia is Slovene, which belongs to the South Slavic, a subfamily of the Indo-European family. Besides Slovenia, Slovene is spoken by minorities in other countries, especially Austria, Hungary, Italy and also Canada and the USA. It has about two and a half million speakers around the world.
[Pronunciation]
[Useful vocabulary]
Pronunciation
The alphabet used by the Slovenes is the Latin and consists of 25 letters:
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Zz
To this 22 letters you must add "C", "S" and "Z" with the "strešica", the only sign in the Slovenian language, which is a little "v" over the letter. The alphabet is similar to the one used in English, but without the letters "Q", "W", "X" and "Y" and with "Č", "Š " and "Ž". The "strešica" changes the sound of the letter it is over. Thus:
- the sound of the letter "Č" is "tch", as in the word "chocolate";
- the sound of the letter "Š" is "ch" as in the word "show";
- o som da letra "Ž" is "j" as in the word "pleasure".
Other letters with a different sound from that they have in the English language are:
- "C", which sounds like "ts", as in the word "tsé-tsé ;
- "H", which sounds like the "j" in the Spanish word "Juan";
- "J", which sounds like "y", as in the word "hey".
Besides that, the letters "L" and "V" at the end of a word or before a consonant are read like "w". So... yes, the name of the former FC Porto player Miran Pavlin is actually "Miran Pawlin", with the stress in the "in".
Useful vocabulary
Now that you already have a slight idea of how to pronunce words in Slovene, here is some useful vocabulary. Enjoy!
- Greetings
good morning - dobro jutro (before 8 a.m.) / dober dan
good evening - dober večer
good night - lahko noč
goodbye - na svidenje / Adijo
please - prosim
thank you - hvala
I'm sorry - oprostite
happy birthday - vse najboljše za rojstni dan.
Merry Christmas - Vesel Božic.
Happy New Year - Srečno Novo Leto.
congratulations - čestitam
good luck - srečno
have a nice trip - srečno pot
bon apetit - dober tek
- Time
today - danes
tomorrow - jutri
day - dan
week - teden
month - mesec
year - leto
Monday - ponedeljek
Tuesday - torek
Wednesday - sreda
Thursday - četrtek
Friday - petek
Saturday - sobota
Sunday - nedelja
weekend - vikend
January - januar
February - februar
March - marec
April - april
May - maj
June - junij
July - julij
August - avgust
September - september
October - oktober
November - november
December - december
Spring - Pomlad
Summer - Poletje
Auntumn - Jesen
Winter - Zima
what time is it? - koliko je ura?
noon - opoldne
midnight - polnoč
- Transportation
train - vlak
bus - avtobus
taxi - taksi
airport - letališče
train station - železniška postaja
bus stop - avtobusna postaja
departures - odhodi
arrivals - prihodi
- Services and shopping
gasoline station - bencinska črpalka
post office - pošta
pharmacy - lekarna
hospital - bolnišnica
hotel - hotel
restaurant - restavracija
opened - odprto
closed - zaprto
how much are these - po čem so?
the check, please - račun, prosim
toilet - štranisče
men - moški
ladies - ženske
- Directions
right - desno
forward - naprej
backward - nazaj
north - sever
south - jug
east - vzhod
west - zahod
where is...? - kje je...?
- Other important words and expressions
no - ne
maybe - mogoče
information - informacija
I don't understand - ne razumem.
no smoking - kaditi prepovedano
can you help me? - mi lahko pomagate?
0 - nic
1 - en/ena (f)
2 - dva/dve (f)
3 - trije/tri (f)
4 - štirje/štiri (f)
5 - pet
6 - šest
7 - sedem
8 - osem
9 - devet
10 - deset
100 - sto
1000 - tisoč
If you wish to know more about how the Slovenian language works, vocabulary and even hear sound files to learn the exact pronunciation of the words, see the Links, part, where you'll find websites which provide all these things.
