Slovene declension

This page describes the declension of nouns, adjectives and pronouns in Slovene. For information on Slovene grammar in general, see Slovene grammar.

Grammatical categories

Nouns are declined for six cases and three numbers. Adjectives and most pronouns additionally decline for three genders.

There are six cases (the Slovene names are given in brackets):

1. Nominative (imenovalnik or nominativ)
2. Genitive (rodilnik or genitiv)
3. Dative (dajalnik or dativ)
4. Accusative (tožilnik or akuzativ)
5. Locative (mestnik or lokativ)
6. Instrumental (orodnik or instrumental)

Traditionally, the cases are given in the order above. They are also usually numbered accordingly: the nominative case is the first case, the genitive the second, and so on. For convenience, this article lists the accusative between the nominative and genitive.

Slovene has three numbers:

1. Singular (ednina), which refers to one object.
2. Dual (dvojina), which refers to a pair of objects.
3. Plural (množina), which refers to more than two objects.

A noun in Slovene can have one of the following three genders:

1. Masculine (moški); divided further into animate (accusative singular equals genitive) and inanimate (accusative singular equals nominative).
2. Feminine (ženski)
3. Neuter (srednji)

Most nouns contain distinct forms for each combination of case and number. Adjectives have distinct forms for each combination of case, number and gender. The dual and plural are not distinguished in the genitive and locative cases. In the dual and plural of adjectives, only the nominative and accusative cases distinguish the genders, the other dual and plural case forms are the same in all three genders.

Nouns

The declensions for nouns can be split by gender, as gender and declension pattern normally coincide. However, some nouns of one gender follow the declension of another gender, so this is not an absolute rule.

Every declensional class has a small subset of nouns following the so-called "mobile accent" paradigm. These nouns have the accent on the ending in some of the forms, in particular in the genitive singular, and some of the endings may also be different. The mobile paradigms were inherited from Common Slavic, where they were more numerous. In modern Slovene, they are best treated as irregular because there are relatively few of them, but the declensional patterns are usually still regular enough to consider them as cohesive subclasses. Most nouns with mobile accent are commonly used, which has helped to preserve them.

There are also a few nouns with a stressed fill vowel (/ə/ or occasionally /a/) in the last syllable of the stem. These usually shifted the accent onto the ending in most forms, but are different from mobile-accent nouns in that the endings have a short vowel, whereas mobile-accent nouns mostly have long vowels in the ending.

Masculine nouns

Masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, these are the hard and soft masculine "o-stem" nouns. Some masculine nouns end in a vowel, but these are rare.

Masculine nouns are further divided between animate and inanimate nouns. This difference is only significant for the accusative singular.

• For inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. For example, stòl "chair", genitive singular stôla, accusative singular stòl.
• For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular. For example, fànt "boy", genitive singular fánta, accusative singular fánta.

This distinction is also applied to all words that modify the noun, such as adjectives, determiners and the like. Thus, adjectives in the masculine accusative singular will have either the form of the nominative (no ending or -ni), or the form of the genitive (-ega).

Masculine o-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene masculine hard o-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene masculine soft o-stem nouns

The masculine o-stem declension is very common, and is the default pattern for masculine nouns. Nouns are divided between "hard" and "soft" stems, see the main Slovene grammar article for the meaning of these terms.

The following table shows the declension for inanimate masculine nouns. The declension for animate nouns can be derived via the above rules.

	Hard declension			Soft declension
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	korák	koráka	koráki	stròj	strôja	strôji
Accusative	korák	koráka	koráke	stròj	strôja	strôje
Genitive	koráka	korákov	korákov	strôja	strôjev	strôjev
Dative	koráku	korákoma	korákom	strôju	strôjema	strôjem
Locative	koráku	korákih	korákih	strôju	strôjih	strôjih
Instrumental	korákom	korákoma	koráki	strôjem	strôjema	strôji

• If a noun has a fill vowel, it appears in the nominative singular. It is dropped in all other forms. For example: vrélec "hot spring", genitive singular vrélca, kôzel "he goat", genitive singular kôzla.
• A few nouns ending in -elj add the infix -n- after the stem, rather than dropping the fill vowel. For example, nágelj "carnation", genitive singular nágeljna.
• If the stem of a noun ends in -rj-, the nominative singular ends only in -r. For example, redár "security guard at a public event", genitive singular redárja.

A number of masculine o-stem nouns have a mobile accent paradigm. These have the accent on the ending in the genitive singular, rather than on the stem. All other forms of the singular have the accent on the stem. In the dual and plural, these nouns have regular endings, but preceded by the accented infix -ôv-. Nouns with mobile accent almost always allow the regular o-stem declension (with plural in just -i), either as the primary form or as an alternative.

There are two possibilities for the genitive singular ending, -á or -ú. The former reflects the Common Slavic mobile o-stems, while the latter is a remnant of the u-stem inflection, which has otherwise disappeared in Slovene. The infix -ôv- in the plural also originates from the old u-stems.

	Genitive singular in -á			Genitive singular in -ú
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	svét	svetôva	svetôvi	grád	gradôva	gradôvi
Accusative	svét	svetôva	svetôve	grád	gradôva	gradôve
Genitive	svetá	svetôv	svetôv	gradú	gradôv	gradôv
Dative	svétu	svetôvoma	svetôvom	grádu	gradôvoma	gradôvom
Locative	svétu	svetôvih	svetôvih	grádu	gradôvih	gradôvih
Instrumental	svétom	svetôvoma	svetôvi	grádom	gradôvoma	gradôvi

Certain nouns have minor irregularities:

• Some nouns have the ending -je/-jé in the nominative plural instead of -i. This is a remnant of the Common Slavic masculine i-stem inflection, which was mostly lost in Slovene except for this ending. For example: zób "tooth", nominative plural zobjé, študènt "student", nominative plural študêntje, gospód "sir, lord", nominative plural gospódje, kmèt "farmer", nominative plural kmétje, etc.. Usually, the regular form is also allowed, or even preferred.
• In the 19th century the ending -i was often used instead of -u in the dative/locative singular, for example, nominative ôče "father", dative/locative očéti. Nowadays this ending is considered archaic or dialectal.
• In the accusative singular animate nouns have the genitive singular ending -a/-á, or very rarely-ú, instead of the zero ending, for example: Videl je bráta (tatú, sínú') "He saw a brother (thief, son)". For tát the ending -ú is more usual and for sín only the ending -a is used nowadays.
• The noun gòst "guest" has the accusative plural gôste or gosté and the locative plural gôstih or gostéh. The irregular endings are used only in fixed phrases.
• The noun dólg "debt" has the accusative plural dolgôve or dolgé and the locative plural dolgôvih or dolgéh. The irregular endings are archaic or dialectal. However, they are used in church liturgy, for example in the prayer Ôče nàš "Our Father".
• The noun dár "gift" has the accusative plural darôve and darí. The ending -í is archaic.
• The noun bóg "god" has a stylistically coloured ending -ú in the dative singular. It is stylistically unmarked only in the phrase hvala bogú "thank god". In the singular this noun follows the mobile-accent paradigm. In the nominative/accusative dual its forms can be bogá or bogôva, whereas in the dative/locative dual and in the plural it declines like the mobile-accent nouns.
• A small number of nouns have the ending -éh besides the regular -ih or -ôvih in the locative dual/plural, for example, dól, kòl, kônec, brég, gròb, lóg, rób, vŕh,... In the past there were many more nouns with this ending, nowadays it is stylistically coloured and rarely used with most of them.
• A small number of nouns have the ending -mí besides the regular -i or -ôvi in the instrumental plural, vòl, vŕh, róg, lás,... This ending has no stylistic connotation only with the following nouns: móž, zób, vóz, lás, ljudjé. For all other nouns the ending -mí sounds archaic or dialectal.
• Several nouns have no ending in the genitive dual/plural instead of the regular -ov: móž, zób, vóz, lás, kònj(genitive plural kónj and kônjev), otròk(genitive plural otrók), vòl, pénez, róg. In modern colloquial Slovene the forms in -ov are more usual for some nouns, even though they are not always considered correct in standard Slovene.
• Some nouns have the infix -ôv- in the dual and plural, like the mobile-accent nouns, but are regular in the singular. For example, krés "bonfire", genitive singular krésa, nominative dual kresôva, nominative plural kresôvi, genitive plural kresôv. Usually, the regular form is also allowed, or even preferred.

Masculine vowel-stem nouns

A relatively small number of masculine nouns have a nominative singular ending in a vowel. These can be declined in various ways, depending on the individual noun.

• Those ending in -o (and rarely -e) decline as regular masculine o-stems with simply an additional vowel in the nominative singular (and accusative, if inanimate). In the other forms, the ending replaces this vowel. For example, kíno "cinema", genitive singular kína, nominative plural kíni; Číle "Chile", genitive singular Číla. Personal names ending in -o (which are fairly common) decline in this way.
• Those ending in -i or -u (primarily loanwords), as well as all words ending in a stressed vowel, add -j- after the stem when endings are attached, and therefore decline as soft o-stems. For example, Víšnu "Vishnu", genitive singular Víšnuja; bé "B (letter)", genitive singular bêja, nominative plural bêji; apartmá "apartment", genitive singular apartmája, nominative plural apartmáji.
• Those ending in -a usually decline as feminine a-stems (accusative -o, genitive -e), but can optionally also decline as regular o-stems as above. For example, vójvoda "duke", genitive singular vójvode/vójvoda, nominative plural vójvode/vójvodi. If declined as feminine a-stems, these nouns do not show animacy themselves (since the nominative, accusative and genitive singular all have their own distinct forms), but adjectives and other modifying words will still show animacy as appropriate.
• Proper names ending in -e normally follow the neuter declension like the noun otročè, adding the infix -t- before the endings. For example, Zvóne, genitive singular Zvóneta. Despite declining as neuters, these nouns still show animacy, so the accusative singular follows the genitive.

Irregular masculine nouns

The most common irregular masculine noun is dán "day". The declension pattern is:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	dán	dnéva	dnévi
Accusative	dán	dní, dnéva	dní, dnéve
Genitive	dné, dnéva	dní, dnévov	dní, dnévov
Dative	dnévu	dnéma, dnévoma	dném, dnévom
Locative	dnévu	dnéh, dnévih	dnéh, dnévih
Instrumental	dném, dnévom	dnéma, dnévoma	dnémi, dnévi

The noun móž "husband, man" partially preserves the archaic Slavic masculine i-stem declension, which has otherwise disappeared in Slovene. In modern terms, its forms are a mixture of the mobile-accented masculine o-stem and feminine i-stem declensions. The genitive dual/plural has no ending.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	móž	možá	možjé
Accusative	možá	možá	možé
Genitive	možá	móž	móž
Dative	móžu	možéma	možém
Locative	móžu	možéh	možéh
Instrumental	móžem	možéma	možmí

The nouns vóz "wagon", zób "tooth" and lás "hair" are declined like móž in the plural. In the singular vóz has the mobile-accented masculine o-stem endings, whereas zób and lás can decline either like the fixed-accent or mobile-accent nouns. In the dual zób declines either like the regular masculine o-stem nouns or more rarely like móž, whereas lás declines like the fixed-accent nouns and vóz like the mobile-accent nouns with stress on the infix -ov-. In the case of vóz the regular masculine o-stem plural endings are much more common in modern Slovene.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	vóz	vozôva	vozôvi, vozjé
Accusative	vóz	vozôva	vozôve, vozé
Genitive	vozá	vozôv	vozôv, vóz
Dative	vózu, vôzu	vozôvoma	vozôvom, vozém
Locative	vózu, vôzu	vozôvih	vozôvih, vozéh
Instrumental	vózom	vozôvoma	vozôvi, vozmí

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	zób	zóba, zobá	zobjé
Accusative	zób	zóba, zobá	zobé
Genitive	zóba, zobá	zób	zób
Dative	zóbu	zóboma, zobéma	zobém
Locative	zóbu	zobéh	zobéh
Instrumental	zóbom	zóboma, zobéma	zobmí

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	lás	lása	lasjé
Accusative	lás	lása	lasé
Genitive	lasú, lása	lás	lás
Dative	lásu	lásoma	lasém
Locative	lásu	laséh	laséh
Instrumental	lásom	lásoma	lasmí

The nouns róg "horn", vŕh "peak" and vòl "ox" usually follow the fixed-accent paradigm in the singular, although róg and vŕh can also follow the mobile-accent paradigm. In the dual and plural róg and vŕh can have the fixed- or mobile-accent noun endings. All three nouns also partly preserve the archaic declension in the plural, which is somewhat akin to that of vóz, but is considered obsolete and is hardly ever used for these nouns.

• Declension of róg in the plural, nominative rogôvi, rógi, accusative rogôve, róge, rogé, genitive rogôv, róg, dative rogôvom, rógom, rogém, locative rogôvih, rógih, rogéh, instrumental rogôvi, rógi, rogmí.
• Declension of vŕh in the plural, nominative vrhôvi, vŕhi, accusative vrhôve, vŕhe, vrhé, genitive vrhôv, vŕhov, dative vrhôvom, vŕhom, locative vrhôvih, vŕhih, vrhéh, instrumental vrhôvi, vŕhi, vrhmí.
• Declension of vòl in the plural, nominative vôli, volóvi, accusative vôle, vôli, genitive vôlov, volóv, dative vôlom, volém, locative vôlih, voléh, instrumental vôli, volmí.

The noun člôvek "human, person" is suppletive and has a different stem ljud- in the plural which follows the mobile-accent i-stem declension.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	člôvek	človéka	ljudjé
Accusative	človéka	človéka	ljudí
Genitive	človéka	ljudí	ljudí
Dative	človéku	človékoma	ljudém
Locative	človéku	ljudéh	ljudéh
Instrumental	človékom	človékoma	ljudmí

• The noun otròk "child" shows the effects of the second palatalization in the nominative plural and locative dual/plural: otrôci, otrócih. Its declension in the plural is: nominative otrôci, accusative otrôke, genitive otrók, dative otrôkom, locative otrócih, instrumental otróki.
• The noun vólk also shows the effects of the second palatalization in the nominative plural before the ending -jé volcjé. But this form is rare, the usual nominative plural of vólk is volkôvi.

Feminine nouns

Feminine nouns usually end in -a; these are the "a-stem" nouns. A number of feminine nouns end in a consonant; these are "i-stem" nouns.

Feminine a-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine a-stem nouns

The feminine a-stem declension is very common, and is the default pattern for feminine nouns. There is no distinction between hard and soft stems (the declension used in modern Slovene was historically the soft one). This declension can also be used for masculine nouns in -a.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	lípa	lípi	lípe
Accusative	lípo	lípi	lípe
Genitive	lípe	líp	líp
Dative	lípi	lípama	lípam
Locative	lípi	lípah	lípah
Instrumental	lípo	lípama	lípami

• If a noun has a fill vowel, it appears in the genitive dual/plural. It is dropped in all other forms. For example, vôžnja "fare", genitive dual/plural vôženj; ígra "game", genitive plural íger; ládja "ship", genitive plural ládij, zárja "dawn", genitive plural zárij.

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine a-stem nouns with mobile accent

Some a-stem nouns have declensions with mobile accent, usually as rarer alternatives to the more common fixed-accent forms described above. These nouns have the accent on the ending in all forms except the nominative, dative and locative singular. The endings of the nominative and accusative dual differ slightly from those of the fixed-accent nouns, having -é instead of -i.

The genitive dual/plural can either end in -á, or have no ending. In the latter case, the stem vowel is stressed and any ê and ô are converted to é and ó. It is not fully predictable which of the two genitive plural forms a given noun will use. Statistically, most nouns having ê or ô in the nominative singular will have the stressed -á ending, while other nouns will have the endingless form with stem accent, but there are exceptions, such as nôga "leg", genitive plural nóg. A few nouns have stressed -á- as a fill vowel before the final consonant in the genitive plural, like ôvca "sheep", genitive plural ovác.

	Gen. plural in -á			Gen. plural no ending
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gôra	goré	goré	gláva	glavé	glavé
Accusative	goró	goré	goré	glavó	glavé	glavé
Genitive	goré	gorá	gorá	glavé	gláv	gláv
Dative	gôri	goráma	goràm	glávi	glaváma	glavàm
Locative	gôri	goràh	goràh	glávi	glavàh	glavàh
Instrumental	goró	goráma	gorámi	glavó	glaváma	glavámi

Feminine i-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine i-stem nouns

The feminine i-stem declension is less common. It is used primarily by the widely productive abstract noun suffix -ost, but a fair number of other nouns (mostly of Common Slavic origin) also follow it.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	perút	perúti	perúti
Accusative	perút	perúti	perúti
Genitive	perúti	perúti	perúti
Dative	perúti	perútma	perútim
Locative	perúti	perútih	perútih
Instrumental	perútjo	perútma	perútmi

• If a noun has a fill vowel, it appears in the nominative and accusative singular. These nouns also get a fill vowel -i- before the ending in the instrumental singular (-ijo), dative and instrumental dual (-ima) and instrumental plural (-imi). For example, pésem "song", genitive singular pésmi, instrumental singular pésmijo, dative and instrumental dual pésmima, instrumental plural pésmimi.

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine i-stem nouns with mobile accent

Nouns with mobile accent are common among the i-stem nouns. These nouns have the accent on the ending in all forms except the nominative, accusative, dative and locative singular. The endings of the dual and plural differ slightly from those of the fixed-accent nouns, in that they have -e- where there is normally -i- or no vowel.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	vás	vasí	vasí
Accusative	vás	vasí	vasí
Genitive	vasí	vasí	vasí
Dative	vási	vaséma	vasém
Locative	vási	vaséh	vaséh
Instrumental	vasjó	vaséma	vasmí

• In some mobile i-stem nouns with é or ó in the nominative singular, the dative and locative singular has ê and ô respectively. For example, kóst "bone" and pést "fist", dative/locative singular kôsti and pêsti.

Feminine v-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine v-stem nouns

A fair number of feminine nouns belongs to the feminine v-stem declension, with the ending -ev (in which the -e- is a fill vowel). Examples are cérkev "church", bréskev "peach", léstev "ladder", žétev "harvest". These inflect as a-stems, but with some i-stem forms mixed in:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	léstev	léstvi	léstve
Accusative	léstev	léstvi	léstve
Genitive	léstve	léstev	léstev
Dative	léstvi	léstvama	léstvam
Locative	léstvi	léstvah	léstvah
Instrumental	léstvijo	léstvama	léstvami

• Many nouns in this group can also inflect as regular a-stems, with the nominative singular ending in -va and accusative and instrumental singular in -vo.

Irregular feminine nouns

The noun gospá "lady, madam" follows an unusual variety of the mobile-accent a-stem paradigm with stress only on the endings, and several irregular endings with -e-.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gospá	gospé	gospé
Accusative	gospó	gospé	gospé
Genitive	gospé	gospá	gospá
Dative	gospé	gospéma	gospém
Locative	gospé	gospéh	gospéh
Instrumental	gospó	gospéma	gospémi

• The colloquial forms in dative and locative singular are gospêj, and are also limited to certain dialects and should be avoided in the standard language.

The nouns hčí "daughter", and máti "mother" follow the a-stem paradigm, but have irregular nominative and accusative forms, and the instrumental singular ending -jo of the i-stems.

	Singular	Singular
Nominative	máti	hčí
Accusative	máter	hčér
Genitive	mátere	hčére
Dative	máteri	hčéri
Locative	máteri	hčéri
Instrumental	máterjo	hčérjo

The noun krí "blood" follows the mobile-accent i-stem declension, but replaces the final -v with -i in the nominative and accusative singular.

	Singular
Nominative	krí
Accusative	krí
Genitive	krví
Dative	kŕvi
Locative	kŕvi
Instrumental	krvjó

Neuter nouns

Neuter nouns end in -o or -e, these are the hard and soft neuter "o-stems".

Neuter o-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene neuter hard o-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene neuter soft o-stem nouns

The neuter o-stem declension closely resembles its masculine counterpart. The differences are in the nominative and accusative (of all numbers), which have their own unique endings, and in the genitive dual/plural, which has no ending like in the feminine a-stems. The neuter o-stems are divided between "hard" and "soft" stems, like the masculines.

	Hard declension			Soft declension
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	mésto	mésti	mésta	líce	líci	líca
Accusative	mésto	mésti	mésta	líce	líci	líca
Genitive	mésta	mést	mést	líca	líc	líc
Dative	méstu	méstoma	méstom	lícu	lícema	lícem
Locative	méstu	méstih	méstih	lícu	lícih	lícih
Instrumental	méstom	méstoma	mésti	lícem	lícema	líci

• If a noun has a fill vowel, it appears in the genitive dual/plural. It is dropped in all other forms. For example: ôkno "window", genitive plural ôken; vesêlje "happiness", genitive plural vesêlij.

A small number of neuter nouns in -ó or -é have a mobile-accent paradigm. These are stressed on the endings in the nominative, accusative and genitive singular, but on the root in all other cases, for example:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	srcé	sŕci	sŕca
Accusative	srcé	sŕci	sŕca
Genitive	srcá	sŕc	sŕc
Dative	sŕcu	sŕcema	sŕcem
Locative	sŕcu	sŕcih	sŕcih
Instrumental	sŕcem	sŕcema	sŕci

Nouns in this category include blagó "goods", prosó "millet, nebó "sky", zlató "gold" and a few others.

Neuter n-, s- and t-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene neuter n-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene neuter s-stem nouns

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene neuter t-stem nouns

A small group of neuter nouns that follow the neuter n-stem, neuter s-stem or neuter t-stem declensions. These decline as hard o-stems, but have an additional consonant infix (-en-, -es-, -et-) in all forms except the nominative/accusative singular. The n-stem and t-stem nouns have a nominative/accusative in -e, while the s-stem nouns have -o or -e depending on whether the preceding stem is hard or soft.

	n-stem			s-stem			t-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	imé	iméni	iména	teló	telési	telésa	deklè	dekléti	dekléta
Accusative	imé	iméni	iména	teló	telési	telésa	deklè	dekléti	dekléta
Genitive	iména	imén	imén	telésa	telés	telés	dekléta	deklét	deklét
Dative	iménu	iménoma	iménom	telésu	telésoma	telésom	deklétu	deklétoma	deklétom
Locative	iménu	iménih	iménih	telésu	telésih	telésih	deklétu	deklétih	deklétih
Instrumental	iménom	iménoma	iméni	telésom	telésoma	telési	deklétom	deklétoma	dekléti

• The noun okó "eye" follows the s-stem declension, and shows the effects of the Slavic first palatalization, i.e. in all forms but the nominative and accusative singular the stem is očés-. It also has a shorter plural stem oč- when referring to human eyes, which is feminine: nominative/accusative plural očí, genitive očí, dative očém, locative očéh, instrumental očmí.
• The noun uhó "ear" also follows the s-stem declension, and shows the effects of the Slavic first palatalization, i.e. in all forms but the nominative and accusative singular the stem is ušés-.
• The noun igó "yoke" shows the same effects of palatalization as uhó and okó, i.e. except in the nominative and accusative singular the stem is ižés-.

Irregular neuter nouns

The noun dnò "bottom" is irregular in the genitive and locative of the dual/plural.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	dnò	dnì	dnà
Accusative	dnò	dnì	dnà
Genitive	dnà	dnòv, dnóv, dán	dnòv, dnóv, dán
Dative	dnù	dnôma	dnòm
Locative	dnù	dnìh, dnéh	dnìh, dnéh
Instrumental	dnòm	dnôma	dnì

The noun tlà "floor, ground, soil" is plurale tantum and has irregular locative and instrumental.

	Plural
Nominative	tlà
Accusative	tlà
Genitive	tál
Dative	tlòm
Locative	tléh
Instrumental	tlémi, tlí

The noun dŕva "fire wood, fuel wood" is plurale tantum and has irregular forms in the genitive, locative and instrumental.

	Plural
Nominative	dŕva
Accusative	dŕva
Genitive	dŕv, drvà
Dative	dŕvom
Locative	drvéh, dŕvih
Instrumental	drvmí, dŕvi

The noun črevó "intestine, bowel, gut" follows the s-stem declension in the singular and dual, but has regular neuter o-stem endings in the plural.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	črevó	črevési	čréva
Accusative	črevó	črevési	čréva
Genitive	črevésa	črév	črév
Dative	črevésu	črevésoma	črévom
Locative	črevésu	črévih	črévih
Instrumental	črevésom	črevésoma	črévi

Indeclinable nouns

Acronyms and symbols generally do not decline, and have the same form in all cases and numbers. They may also be declined as the masculine soft declension, with a hyphen and j added before the ending.

Thus, for the noun NLP "UFO":

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	NLP	NLP or NLP-ja	NLP or NLP-ji
Accusative	NLP	NLP or NLP-ja	NLP or NLP-ji
Genitive	NLP or NLP-ja	NLP or NLP-jev	NLP or NLP-jev
Dative	NLP or NLP-ju	NLP or NLP-jema	NLP or NLP-jem
Locative	NLP or NLP-ju	NLP or NLP-jih	NLP or NLP-jih
Instrumental	NLP or NLP-jem	NLP or NLP-jema	NLP or NLP-ji

Substantivized adjectives

Adjectives may occasionally be used as nouns. They are declined as the original adjective.

Adjectives

All adjectives decline more or less the same way. Some masculine and neuter forms resemble the equivalent o-stem nouns, while the feminine forms are somewhat like the a-stem nouns. Like nouns, a distinction is made between hard and soft stems, but this is only relevant for the neuter nominative/accusative singular, which has -o for hard stems and -e for soft stems. All other forms use the soft endings regardless of the final consonant of the stem.

The following table shows the declension of a hard stem adjective. Differences with the corresponding noun inflections are shown in blue.

	Singular
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	móder, módri	módra	módro
Accusative	nom or gen	módro	módro
Genitive	módrega	módre	módrega
Dative	módremu	módri	módremu
Locative	módrem	módri	módrem
Instrumental	módrim	módro	módrim
	Dual
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	módra	módri	módri
Accusative	módra	módri	módri
Genitive	módrih	módrih	módrih
Dative	módrima	módrima	módrima
Locative	módrih	módrih	módrih
Instrumental	módrima	módrima	módrima
	Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	módri	módre	módra
Accusative	módre	módre	módra
Genitive	módrih	módrih	módrih
Dative	módrim	módrim	módrim
Locative	módrih	módrih	módrih
Instrumental	módrimi	módrimi	módrimi

The masculine nominative singular has two possible forms:

• With no ending, and a fill vowel when applicable (like in nouns). This form is "indefinite" in meaning, and is used to indicate a particular kind of something, much like the indefinite article a in English.
• With the ending -i. This form is "definite" in meaning, and acts to distinguish one thing from another, using the quality indicated by the adjective as the distinguishing feature. This is like the definite article the in English.

Not all adjectives have an indefinite form, some (those whose base form already ends in -i) only have a definite form. This includes comparatives and adjectives in -ski. A few pronoun-like adjectives have only the indefinite form.

The masculine accusative singular is like either the nominative or the genitive, as in masculine nouns. Which form is used depends on which form the accompanying noun uses, which in turn depends on whether the noun is animate or inanimate. If the nominative form is used for the accusative, then either the definite or indefinite form can be used, with the same distinction in meaning.

Pronouns

Pronouns generally inflect like adjectives, although many do not have a definite form in the masculine nominative singular. Some pronouns are irregular; these are detailed here.

Personal pronouns

The first and second person pronouns are very irregular, and do not fit neatly into any other declensional category. The nominative forms of the dual and plural have different forms for the genders, depending on who is speaking or who is being spoken to. The accusative, genitive and dative forms of the singular have stressed and unstressed forms; the stressed forms are used when particular emphasis is needed. The accusative singular also occurs in clitic form, which is unstressed and attaches to the preceding word.

The reflexive pronouns are used to refer back to the subject or to some other word, have only a single set of forms for all three numbers, which inflect like the first- and second-person singular pronouns. There is no nominative form.

	Singular
	1st person	2nd person	Reflexive
Nominative	jàz	tí	—
Accusative	méne (me, -me)	tébe (te, -te)	sébe (se, -se)
Genitive	méne (me)	tébe (te)	sébe (se)
Dative	méni (mi)	tébi (ti)	sébi (si)
Locative	méni	tébi	sébi
Instrumental	menój, máno	tebój, tábo	sebój, sábo
	Dual
	1st person	2nd person
Nominative	mídva m, médve/mídve f, n	vídva m, védve/vídve f, n
Accusative	náju	váju
Genitive	náju	váju
Dative	náma	váma
Locative	náju	váju
Instrumental	náma	váma
	Plural
	1st person	2nd person
Nominative	mí m, mé f, n	ví m, vé f, n
Accusative	nàs	vàs
Genitive	nàs	vàs
Dative	nàm	vàm
Locative	nàs	vàs
Instrumental	nàmi	vàmi

The third-person pronouns inflect similar to adjectives, but irregularly. Like in the first- and second-person pronouns, the accusative mostly normally the genitive, and the ending -ih in the dual forms is replaced with -iju. The nominative is formed from a different stem than the other cases. There are also unstressed and clitic forms for several of the cases.

	Singular
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	òn	ôna	ôno
Accusative	njêga (ga, -(e)nj)	njó (jo, -njo)	njêga (ga, -(e)nj)
Genitive	njêga (ga)	njé (je)	njêga (ga)
Dative	njêmu (mu)	njéj, njèj, njì (ji)	njêmu (mu)
Locative	njêm	njéj, njèj, njì	njêm
Instrumental	njím	njó	njím
	Dual
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ônadva	ônidve, onédve	ônidve, onédve
Accusative	njíju (ju, -nju)	njíju (ju, -nju)	njíju (ju, -nju)
Genitive	njíju (ju)	njíju (ju)	njíju (ju)
Dative	njíma (jima)	njíma (jima)	njíma (jima)
Locative	njíju	njíju	njíju
Instrumental	njíma	njíma	njíma
	Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ôni	ône	ôna
Accusative	njìh (jih, -nje)	njìh (jih, -nje)	njìh (jih, -nje)
Genitive	njìh (jih)	njìh (jih)	njìh (jih)
Dative	njìm (jim)	njìm (jim)	njìm (jim)
Locative	njìh	njìh	njìh
Instrumental	njími	njími	njími

There are also possessive forms for each of the pronouns. These inflect like regular adjectives.

ta and ves

The demonstrative ta "this" inflects like an adjective, but -i- in the endings is replaced with -e-.

	Singular
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tá	tá	tó
Accusative	nom or gen	tó	tó
Genitive	téga	té	téga
Dative	tému	tèj	tému
Locative	tém	tèj	tém
Instrumental	tém	tó	tém
	Dual
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tá	tí	tí
Accusative	tá	tí	tí
Genitive	téh	téh	téh
Dative	téma	téma	téma
Locative	téh	téh	téh
Instrumental	téma	téma	téma
	Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tí	té	tá
Accusative	té	té	tá
Genitive	téh	téh	téh
Dative	tém	tém	tém
Locative	téh	téh	téh
Instrumental	témi	témi	témi

The word ves "all" inflects much like ta, but it inflects as if it were a soft stem, having -e in the neuter nominative/accusative singular. It has a fill vowel in the masculine nominative singular.

	Singular
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	vès	vsà	vsè
Accusative	nom or gen	vsò	vsè
Genitive	vsèga	vsè	vsèga
Dative	vsèmu	vsèj	vsèmu
Locative	vsèm	vsèj	vsèm
Instrumental	vsèm	vsò	vsèm
	Dual
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	vsà	vsì	vsì
Accusative	vsà	vsì	vsì
Genitive	vsèh	vsèh	vsèh
Dative	vsèma	vsèma	vsèma
Locative	vsèh	vsèh	vsèh
Instrumental	vsèma	vsèma	vsèma
	Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	vsì	vsè	vsà
Accusative	vsè	vsè	vsà
Genitive	vsèh	vsèh	vsèh
Dative	vsèm	vsèm	vsèm
Locative	vsèh	vsèh	vsèh
Instrumental	vsèmi	vsèmi	vsèmi

Interrogative, relative and negative pronouns

The interrogative pronouns kdo "who" and kaj "what" have only singular forms, and have irregular stem changes. kaj also replaces the normal -g- in the genitive with -s-.

Nominative	kdó	káj, kàj
Accusative	kóga	káj, kàj
Genitive	kóga	čésa
Dative	kómu	čému
Locative	kóm	čém
Instrumental	kóm	čím

The relative pronouns kdor "who, that" and kar "which, that" inflect like kdo and kaj, but add -r to the end of each form, adding a fill vowel if necessary.

Nominative	kdór	kàr
Accusative	kógar	kàr
Genitive	kógar	čésar
Dative	kómur	čémur
Locative	kómer	čémer
Instrumental	kómer	čímer

The pronouns nihče "nobody" and nič "nothing" follow the declensions of kdor and kar, but the nominative and accusative are different.

Nominative	nihčè	nìč
Accusative	nikógar	nìč
Genitive	nikógar	ničésar
Dative	nikómur	ničémur
Locative	nikómer	ničémer
Instrumental	nikómer	ničímer