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

This article follows the tonal orthography. For the conversion into pitch orthography, see Slovene national phonetic transcription.

Grammatical categories

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

Cases

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.

The nouns are usually listed and sorted by their nominative singular form, but declension is defined by the genitive singular form. For this reason, genitive singular form is commonly written with the nominative. Where it is not otherwise noted, the second form is in genitive singular form.

Vocative

Vocative (zvalnik or vokativ) was used with the original endings in Slovene up to the 18th century by, for example Janez Svetokriški, but has now received the endings of the nominative case. Some words, however, kept the vocative form, such as oče (instead of the nominative *otь̀cь) 'father'. Colloquially, vocative endings are still present, but the current use is taken from Serbo-Croatian.

While having the same endings, it is still tonemically different from the nominative case, always having circumflex accent, but because of its similarity with nominative, it is often omitted from declension tables or is considered a special case of nominative, called 'addressive nominative' (ogovorni imenovalnik) in Slovene literature.

Numbers

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.

There is, however, an exception to that rule. Plural is used instead of dual for nouns that represent things that usually come in pairs (such as body parts, socks, twins, and parents), except if one wants to stress that the noun relates to both parts and after words that signify a pair (such as oba 'both', etc. ):

• Starše sem vprašal, če lahko grem ven. (I asked parents if I can go out.) – plural is used.
• Na vpisnico se morata podpisati oba starša. (Both parents have to sign the application.) – dual is used.

Genders

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

1. Masculine (moški, abbreviated m. sp.); divided further into animate (accusative singular equals genitive) and inanimate (accusative singular equals nominative) in the first and fourth masculine declension, and in first adjective declension.
2. Feminine (ženski, abbreviated ž. sp.)
3. Neuter (srednji, abbreviated sr. sp.); which is in some dialects masculinized or feminized.

Native speakers usually identify a gender by placing a demonstrative pronoun tisti 'that' in front of it. Since some nouns can only have a singular form and some only a plural form (extremely rarely also only dual, such as ribi 'pisces'), both singular and plural endings must be remembered. Note that the feminine singular and neuter plural endings are the same so the number must be determined first.

Non-native speakers in most cases determine try to determine gender from the ending of a noun in nominative singular.

• Masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, although a few end in a vowel, mostly in -a, -o and -i (some names, letters, nominalized adjectives etc.).
• Feminine nouns usually end in -a; these are the "a-stem" nouns. A number of feminine nouns end in a consonant; these are mostly "i-stem" and "v-stem" nouns.
• The vast majority of neuter nouns end in -o or -e, but second and third neuter declension end with a variety of sounds since they have a null ending in nominative case.

Declensions

Declensions are divided differently in international and Slovene literature. In Slovene literature, the declensions are defined by the ending in genitive singular, but in international literature, the nouns are often divided by the stem (the same way as in Proto-Slavic), which are more numerous. Thus, they can be considered as a subdivision of the declension. The stem declensions that are a subdivision of the main declension are a result of a stem lengthening alteration (premena), or is a subpattern (podvzorec).

There are four different noun declension for every gender in Slovene and two for the adjectives. Besides the name, the identifying ending (ending in genitive singular) is written:

Masculine:

• First masculine declension; ending -a, -u, or -e (word dȃn)
  • Masculine o-/e-stem declension
  • Masculine t-stem declension
  • Masculine n-stem declension
  • Masculine j-stem declension
• Second masculine declension (masculine a-stem declension); ending -e (except dȃn)
• Third masculine declension (masculine declension without endings); ending -ø
• Fourth masculine declension (masculine i-/e-stem declension); ending -ega

Feminine:

• First feminine declension; ending -e, genitive plural ending is not -ih
  • Feminine a-stem declension
  • Feminine r-stem declension
  • Feminine v-stem declension
  • Feminine n-stem declension
• Second feminine declension (feminine i-stem declension); ending -i
• Third feminine declension (feminine declensions without endings); ending -ø
• Fourth feminine declension (feminine i-/e-stem declension); ending -e, genitive plural ending -ih

Neuter:

• First neuter declension; ending -a
  • Neuter o-/e-stem declension
  • Neuter n-stem declension
  • Neuter s-stem declension
  • Neuter t-stem declension
• Second neuter declension (neuter a-stem declension); ending -e
• Third neuter declension (neuter declension without endings); ending -ø
• Fourth neuter declension (neuter i-/e-stem declension); ending -ega

Adjective:

• First adjective declension (adjective declension with endings); ending -ega
• Second adjective declension (adjective declension without endings); ending -ø

Accentual types

There are four different accentual types:

• Fixed (nepremični), where the stress is always on the same stem syllable.
• Mobile (premični), where the stress is on different stem syllables.
• Ending (končniški), where the stress is always on the ending.
• Mixed (mešani), where the stress is sometimes on the stem and sometimes on the ending.

In first masculine, second feminine and first adjectival declension, accentual types affect the endings in some cases.

Some words can also change accent from fixed to mixed in one number or in only one case. These nouns follow accent changes of the fixed type, except where they change to mixed type (they follow mixed accentuation). Some nouns can also change the accentuation after certain prepositions. These forms are always circumflex (for example, primẹ̑r, accusative singular primẹ̑r, but after na, it changes into na prȋmer).

Degrees of comparison

There is a three-stage and two-stage comparison in Slovene.

The three-stage comparison has the following degrees:

1. Positive (osnovnik or pozitiv)
2. Comparative (primernik or komparativ)
3. Superlative (presežnik or superlativ)

The two-stage declension has the following degrees:

1. Positive (osnovnik or pozitiv)
2. Elative (pridvignjena stopnja or elativ)

Animacy

Masculine nouns and adjectives are divided between animate and inanimate nouns.

Animate nouns are nouns that represent a living or mythological being (Francọ̑z 'French', rȁk 'crab', dȗh 'ghost') and words that originally had that meaning, but have a different one now (vipȃvec (a type of wine), francọ̑z 'monkey wrench', Oriọ̑n 'Orion'). In this category are also card names and suits, and some names of cars and mushrooms, such as as 'ace', pȋk 'club', gọ̑lf (Golf, a Volkswagen car), and gobȃn 'bolete'. The word duh is animate when it means 'ghost' or 'mentality'. Some diminutives are animate, even if they represent an inanimate object (for example, stolček 'little chair' ). Names of space objects that are named after gods are either animate or inanimate (e. g. Merkur 'Mercury')

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 -i), or the form of the genitive (-ega).

Nouns, nominal pronouns, nominalized adjectives

The declensions for nouns, nominal pronouns, and nominalized adjectives can be split by gender, as gender and declension pattern coincide. The dual and plural are not distinguished in the genitive and locative cases of nouns; the plural form is used for the dual as well. For neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are always the same, in all numbers.

Nominal and nominalized pronouns also follow this inflection patterns, however most of them are irregular. For irregularities among pronouns, see the pronouns section.

First Masculine declension

First masculine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -a (korȃk korȃka), -u (mọ̑st mostȗ), and the noun dan (dȃn dnẹ̑). The vast majority of masculine nouns are declined following this inflection pattern. It is so common that masculine nouns following the second (and some following the third and the fourth) can be declined following the pattern of the first.

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, stȍl 'chair', genitive singular stóla, accusative singular stȍl.
• For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular. For example, fȁnt 'boy', genitive singular fánta, accusative singular fánta.

Masculine o-/e-stem declension

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

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

The standard declension of first masculine declension is the o-stem declension. O-stem nouns are divided between "hard" and "soft" stems, see the main Slovene grammar article for the meaning of these terms.

Masculine t-stem declension

Proper names ending in -e normally follow this declension like the noun otročȅ 'kid', adding the infix -t- before the endings. For example, Zvọ̑ne Zvọ̑neta (a male name). This declension also follow some other nouns ending in -e if it represents hypocoristicity (fantȅ fantẹ́ta 'boy, immature man'). The noun oče 'father' also follows this declension.

Some historic Greek names, such as Ksenofọ̑n 'Xenophon' and Ȃjas 'Ajax the Great', also follow this inflection pattern, however, it is also common to already have a t-stem in nominative singular (Ksenofọ̑n/Ksenofọ̑nt Ksenofọ̑nta, Ȃjas/Ajant Ajanta).

In speech or in writing of lower register, nouns that have the ending -o in nominative singular, such as Márko (a male name) and sȋnko 'little son' also follow this inflection pattern (Márko Márkota, sȋnko sȋnkota). In dialectal speeches this also happens to proper nouns ending in -a, such as Míha and Lúka, and the a is in some dialects changed to e (Míha Míhata/Míheta, Lúka Lúkata/Lúketa), although in some dialects these words can be lengthened with another consonant, for example, with n in Carinthian dialects (Márko Márkona, Lúka Lukana).

Masculine n-stem declension

A few nouns ending in -elj have a stem ending in -eljn- rather than dropping the fill vowel. For example, nágelj nágeljna 'carnation' and Fráncelj Fránceljna (a male name). These nouns can be also declined normally (nágelj náglja, Fráncelj Fránclja), however, that is less common.

Some Latin names ending in -o can also follow this inflection pattern, such as Kȃto Katọ̑na 'Cato', but the n can be already added in nominative singular (Kȃton Katọ̑na).

Masculine j-stem declension

Nouns, of which the pronunciation of the stem ends in /ɾ/ or a vowel (not to be confused with a noun having a vowel ending in nominative singular), the stem, when followed by an ending, has an added -j- at the end, such as tȃksi tȃksija 'taxi' and redár redárja 'security guard at a public event'.

There are exceptions, though. Monosyllabic words follow the o-stem declension (mȋr mirȗ 'peace'), except cār cārja 'tsar', and similarly also stȃr (old way of measuring cereal), júr 'bolete, 1000 units of currency' and fȃr 'priest'. Nouns derived from verbs, such as gȏvor 'speech', vȋr 'source' and prodȍr 'penetration' also follow o-stem declension. The same is true for nouns that have a fill vowel, followed by /ɾ/, such as vẹ̑ter vẹ̑tra 'wind' and blȃgor blȃgra 'well-being'. Compound nouns that have a non-j-stem noun (such as dvogȏvor dvogȏvora 'dialogue' and pȍdodbȍr pȍdodbóra 'subcommittee') are also excluded, except names that end in -mir, such as Vlȃdimir (a male name) and Čȓtomir, which can be declined either way (Vlȃdimir Vlȃdimira/Vlȃdimirja, Čȓtomir Čȓtomira/Čȓtomirja). Some nouns that end in r and silent e can also be declined either way (Tesnière Slovene pronunciation: [tɛnˈjɛ́ːɾ] 'Tesnière' Tesnièra Slovene pronunciation: [tɛnˈjɛ́ːra]/Tesnièrja [tɛnˈjɛ́ːrja], Shakespeare Slovene pronunciation: [ˈʃéːkspiɾ] Shakespeara Slovene pronunciation: [ˈʃéːkspira]/Shakespearja [ˈʃéːkspirja]) 'Shakespeare. Some nouns, such as Madžȃr 'Hungar', sẹ́ver 'north', and Alžir 'Algiers' also follow the o-stem declension. Note that in loanwords, the vowel can be written differently than expected, such as Disney [ˈdíːzni] Disneyja [ˈdíːznija]'Disney' (but Broadway Slovene pronunciation: [ˈbróːdvɛj] Broadwaya [ˈbróːdveja] 'Broadway'). Note that Latin and Greek words can have an ending that ends with a consonant in nominative singular, but they are still j-stem nouns (Ovidius Ovidija 'Ovid').

Nouns ending in non-silent r or vowel, followed by a silent consonant also follow this declension, but the /j/ is only pronounced and not written: (Dumas [diˈmáː] Dumasa [diˈmáːja]) 'Dumas'.

Alternations and other exceptions of the first masculine declension

First masculine declension has many alternations:

• A relatively small number of masculine nouns have a nominative (and accusative, if inanimate) singular an ending -a (slúga (mostly the nouns that can also follow second masculine declination) 'servant'), -e (finȃle 'final'), -o (Márko (a male name), or -u (Enẹ̑scu 'Enescu'). Sometimes, but not always, the suffixes in Latin loanwords -as, -es, -is, -os, -us, and -um are considered an ending. Examples of this include Leonȋdas Leonȋda 'Leonidas', Ȃvgijas Ȃvgija 'Augeas', Aristọ̄teles Aristọ̄tela 'Aristotle', Juvenȃlis Juvenȃla 'Juvenal', Arhȋlos Arhȋloha 'Archilochus', Tȃcitus Tȃcita 'Tacitus, and Tarẹ̑ntum Tarẹ̑nta 'Taranto'. These suffixes can be omitted (Leonȋd, Aristọ̄tel, Juvenȃl etc.), but if we do so, the stems that end with a vowel must be lengthened with a j, even in nominative case (Ȃvgij 'Augeas', Menelȃj 'Menelaus', Lívij 'Livius', etc.). The lengthening of the stem is also present in other cases if one does not decide to omit the suffix. Other times, the suffix is considered as a part of the stem, such as Rọ̑dos Rọ̑dosa 'Rhodes', and some can be declined both ways, such as ọ̑bolos ọ̑bola/ọ̑bolosa 'Obol' and alpinẹ̑tum alpinẹ̑ta/alpinẹ̑tuma 'Alpine botanical garden'. Modern Greek names are considered not to have an ending in nominative (Makȃrios Makariosa 'Macarios').
• The surname Nepos can have alternatively a stem Nepot- in other cases (Nẹ̑pos Nẹ̑pota).
• some monosyllabic nouns have an -u ending in genitive singular (mọ̑st mostȗ 'bridge', rọ̑d rodȗ 'lineage').
• Many nouns have the stem shortened in cases where the ending is not a null ending (as it is nominative singular), mainly because they have a fill vowel, which is there to ease the pronunciation. The change can be evident in writing, pronunciation, or both:
  • In writing, -e at the end of the stem is omitted in some loanwords Wilde Slovene pronunciation: [ˈʋáːjlt] Wilda Slovene pronunciation: [ˈʋáːjlda] 'Wilde' and Laforgue Slovene pronunciation: [laˈfóːrg] Lafforgua [laˈfóːrga] 'Laforgue', but not in cases where that would affect the pronunciation of preceding letters, such as in Wallace [ˈwáːləs]/[ˈváːlis] Wallacea [ʋálisa] 'Wallace' and George [ˈdʒóːɾdʒ] Georgea [ˈdʒóːɾdʒa] 'George', except if it is preventing the nasalisation of the consonant + m/n that precede it, such as Lamartine [lamaɾˈtíːn] Lamartina [lamaɾˈtíːna] 'Lamartine'. If e is followed by other letters, it is kept in all cases, whether it is pronounced or not (Holmes [xóːlms] Holmesa [xóːlmsa] 'Holmes' and Jacques [ʒáːk] Jacquesa [ʒáːka] 'Jacques').
  • In pronunciation, when the sound is not written with an e or o, such as in žánr žánra and fílm fílma.
  • In both vhen the sound is written by its own letter, usually with an e, but also with a or o, such as pósəł pósla 'business' and sejəm sejma 'fair'. In loanwords from other Slavic languages, fill vowels are preserved if the removal would break other grammatical rules. Examples include Muromec Muromca 'Muromets', Dudok Dudka 'Dudok', Čapek Čapka 'Čapek', Kragujevac Kragujevca 'Kragujevac', and Zadar Zadra 'Zadar', but not Lev 'Leo', because Lev Lva would violate other grammatical rules, so it is declined as Lev Leva. The omission of the sound is also present in some non-Slavic loanwords, such as München [ˈmýːnxən]/[ˈmíːŋxən] Münchna [ˈmíːŋxna] 'Munich', ráster rástra 'raster', but sometimes the sound is preserved in all cases, where it is transformen into /e/ or /o/, such as Ȃndersen Ȃndersena 'Andersen' and Olafsson [ˈóːlafsɔn] Olafssona [ˈóːlafsɔna] 'Ólafsson'.
• In the 19th century the ending -i was often used in the dative/locative singular instead of -u. For example, nominative óče 'father', dative/locative očẹ́ti. Nowadays this ending is considered archaic or dialectal.
• Nouns ending in -io (such as radio [ˈɾáːdijɔ]/[ˈɾàːdijɔ] 'radio') usually follow the soft inflection pattern radio instrumental singular radiem.
• Names ending in a vowel and consonant that is not pronounced are j-stem nouns, and can be written following hard or soft declension, but always pronounced as in soft declension. The added -j- is not written, only pronounced (Marat [maˈɾáː] instrumental singular Maratem/Maratom [maˈɾáːjɛm] 'Marat'). Same happens to those ending in r and a silent consonant (Macquart [makˈáːɾ] instrumental singular Macquartem/Macquartom [makˈáːɾjɛm] 'Macquart').
• Some nouns have the stem lengthened with -ov- in dual and plural, except in genitive case (for example wikt-grȃd nominative dual gradȏva 'castle', grȍb nominative dual grobȏva "grave"). These are usually monosyllabic nouns.
• Some nouns have the ending -je 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: študȅnt 'student', nominative plural študéntje, gospọ̑d 'sir, lord', nominative plural gospọ̑dje, kmȅt 'farmer', nominative plural kmẹ́tje, etc. Usually, the regular form is also allowed, but rarely preferred.
• Some nouns (mostly those that have an ending -u in genitive singular) have a null ending in genitive dual/plural (lȃs, genitive plural lás 'hair', zọ̑b genitive plural zọ́b 'tooth'). Some can be declined either way (vọ̑z, genitive plural vozóv/vọ̑z).
• About special stressed endings in plural, see mixed accent nouns.
• Few nouns show the effects of the Slavic second palatalisation in some of the plural forms:
  • otrȍk: nominative plural otróci, locative dual/plural otrọ̄cih 'child'.
  • vȏlk: nominative plural volcjẹ̑ 'wolf'. But this form is rare, the usual nominative plural is volkȏvi.
• Many forms of the noun dȃn 'day' have two stems, a shorter one with only the consonants dn-, and a longer one dnẹ̑v-. The longer stem declines as a regular o-stem, while the shorter one has a unique set of endings not shared with any other noun. The formal, most appropriate declension, is a mix of both (the forms in brackets are colloquial):

• The masculine noun člóvek 'human, person' is suppletive. In the plural, the stem ljud- is used, which follows the mobile-accent o-stem declension:

Fixed accent nouns

Circumflex nouns have circumflex accent in all cases, however, the acute accent changes considerably.

• Nouns that have circumflex accent in nominative and genitive singular have long circumflex accent in all cases, except the nouns where the stressed vowel changes (e. g. okȍv, dȏm); these follow mixed accent changes. Nouns that can also have mixed accent also follow the same rules, except if they have a null ending in genitive dual/plural; then they have all plural forms except vocative acute, but change to circumflex if used as an adverb and preceded by a preposition: lȃs 'hair', nominative plural lási, genitive plural lás, locative plural lásih.

• Nouns that have long acute accent in nominative and genitive singular have circumflex accent in vocative and allow both in genitive, locative and instrumental plural, and locative dual. In collocations which are used as an adverb, and where the word lost the original meaning, the noun is only allowed to have circumflex accent in accusative and locative plural (e. g. v hrȋbe / v hrȋbih 'on a mountain (lit. in mountains)'):

• Nouns that have short acute accent in nominative and genitive singular follow the same rules as long acute accented words, but all accents are short:

• Nouns that have circumflex accent in nominative singular and acute in genitive singular allow both forms in locative and dative singular when preceded by a preposition. The only exception are words in which open-mid vowel changes into a close-mid vowel. In these cases, it further depends which ending does it have in genitive plural. In collocations which are used as an adverb, and where the word lost the original meaning, the noun is only allowed to have circumflex accent in accusative and locative plural. (Note that due to simplicity, only the forms that are affected by this rule are shown; for example, kȍnj can also be declined without the change into close-mid vowel.)

Mobile accent nouns

Mobile accent nouns transfer the stress to the following syllable in all cases but nominative, vocative, and accusative (if the same as nominative) singular.

• Nouns that have circumflex accent in genitive singular, although rare, have circumflex accent in all forms:

• Nouns that have acute accent in genitive singular change the accent the same way as fixed accent nouns with circumflex in nominative singular and acute in genitive singular when the stress is on the latter syllable and have acute accent when the stress in on the original syllable:

Ending accent nouns

Short ending vowels are always circumflex while long ending ones follow the same pattern as mixed accent nouns that have circumflex accent in nominative singular and when the accent is on the stem, the accent is long and acute. There is a slight difference between soft and hard stems in genitive dual/plural, because soft declension only allows short circumflex accent whereas hard declension allows long acute and short circumflex.

Mixed accent nouns

For the mixed accent nouns with long accent, many different factors determine the accent. The accent is usually circumflex, except in these cases:

• Genitive dual/plural, locative dual/plural and instrumental is acute if the accent is on the last syllable: člóvek 'human', genitive plural ljudí, dȃr 'gift', genitive plural daróv, lȃs 'hair', genitive plural lás (but grȃd 'castle', locative plural gradȏvih). This happens in genitive case in all words, no matter the ending, and in words that do not have -ov lengthening in locative and instrumental. Those without the infix do not have an ending in genitive plural, dative plural ending is -ẹ̑m instead of -om / -em, accusative plural is still -ẹ̑, locative dual/plural ending -ẹ́h istead of -ih, instrumental plural -mí instead of -i, and dative and instrumental dual ending is -ẹ̑ma instead of -oma / -ema. This rule does not necessarily apply to irregular nouns.
• Stressed vowel in nominative plural ending -je is close-mid (-jẹ̑): lȃs 'hair', nominative plural lasjẹ̑, mȏž 'man', nominative plural možjẹ̑.
• Dative and locative singular is acute if the stressed vowel is open-mid (e or o): gnȏj 'manure' gnóju.
• When used as an adverb, uncountable nouns or nouns that have ending -ẹ́h in locative dual/plural (those that do not lengthen the stem) allow both accents in locative singular. Words that can also have a form with open-mid vowel in locative singular.
• Nouns that allow both the stem or the ending to be accented usually have the stem accented when preceded by a preposition and have the ending accented when they are not.
• Dative and instrumental dual can have the accent either on the ending or the stem. If the accent is on the stem, it is long.
• Nouns that switch accent only in plural on in only one case follow fixed accent changes when the accent does not shift.
• Nouns can also colloquially have fixed accent. See fixed accent for that.

Here are declensions for some mixed accent nouns, but keep in mind that they have several different changes and only relevant forms are written:

Mixed accent nouns with short accent follow the same pattern as ending accent nouns (including the difference bətween soft and hard stems), except in nominative and vocative (and accusative if the same as nominative) singular, and dative and instrumental dual, where the accent is on the stem and acute if long:

Second masculine declension (masculine a-stem declension)

Second masculine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -e (slúga slúge), except the noun dan (dȃn dnẹ̑).

Second masculine declension has the same endings as first feminine declension, however, not all alterations apply here. Animate and inanimate nouns are not declined differently, but the words that modify the noun still have those distinctions.

All nouns following the second masculine declension can also follow first masculine declension, but keeping the ending in nominative singular. They can also be feminized in dual and plural, following first feminine declension (essentially, the endings do not change).

Alternations and other exceptions of the second masculine declension

• In nominative singular, some words, such as kamikȃze 'kamikaze', have an -e ending.
• In genitive dual and genitive plural, nouns ending in consonant + j, have an i inserted between, such as delovọ̑dja genitive plural delovọ̑dij.

Accent

Second masculine declension follow only fixed accent nouns. These can be circumflex or acute.

• Circumflex nouns are always circumflex:

• Acute accent changes into circumflex in genitive dual/plural and vocative case and is either acute or circumflex in istrumental singular:

Third masculine declension (masculine declension without endings)

Third masculine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular (or in any other case) ending is a null ending (-). This includes all letters, as well as some other words, such as nebọ́digatrẹ́ba 'menace', jȍj/jọ̑j 'oh', and čačačȃ 'Cha-cha-cha'. There are, however, only a handful of words that feel natural to be declined this way; for many of them, it is preferred to be declined following the first masculine declension. Alternations of the first declension must then be applied, and since all consonant letters are usually pronounced as consonant + ə̏, all letters, except for X [ˈíːks] and Y [ˈíːpsilɔn] must follow the j-stem version of the first declension (K K-ja). Exceptions are F, L, M, N, R, S, and Š, which can also be pronounced [ˈɛ́f], [ˈɛ́l], [ˈɛ́m], [ˈɛ́n], [ˈɛ́ɾ], [ˈɛ́s], and [ˈɛ́ʃ], respectively and can therefore follow the o-stem version (F F-ja/F-a), and the pronunciacion changes accordingly. Although there is a hyphen between the letter and j, keep in mind that j ist still part of the stem, not the ending.

Alternations and other exceptions of the third masculine declension

• Most of the time, nouns nebọ́digatrẹ́ba 'menace' and nebọ́dijihtrẹ́ba 'menaces' are considered one irregular noun istead of two nouns that only have a singular and a plural form, respectively. In that case, the infix -ga- is changed to -jih- in dual and plural. The infix is actually a personal pronoun ȍn 'he' in genitive case, but the dual form is still nebọ́dijihtrẹ́ba, and not with an infix -ju- as would be expected:

Accent

Words declined this way always have fixed accent, which is the same throughout, no matter if it is circumflex or acute, long or short. The only exception is vocative, where the accent is circumflex.

Fourth masculine declension (masculine i-/e-stem declension)

Fourth masculine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -ega. The nouns following this declension were derived from an adjective, and are therefore nominalized adjectives. They are derived from the definite forms of the adjective, hence the ending -i in nominative singular. This declension also differentiates between animate and inanimate nouns in the same way as the first one. The declension is the same as declension for masculine adjectives.

Some masculine nominalized adjectives, mostly proper nouns, are declined using first male declension. In addition, most of them have a null ending - in nominative singular, only rarely do they have an ending -i. Examples include Mẹ̑den Mẹ̑dena 'Meden', Raztrẹ̑sen Raztrẹ̑senega 'Raztresen', tráven trávna 'April, May' etc.

Names in other languages ending in [-ski] (or similarly look like definite adjectives) that are from non-Slavic languages are declined using the first declension (Tedẹ̑schi Tedẹ̑schija 'Tedeschi, McClọ̑sky McClọ̑skyja 'McClosky', Kreisky Kreiskyja/Kreiskega 'Kreisky') and those from Slavic languages are declined using the fourth declension (Vranȋtzky Vranȋtzkega 'Vranitzky', Hradẹ̑tzky Hradẹ̑tzkega 'Hradetzky' etc.

Alternations and other exceptions of the fourth masculine declension

• The -i sound in nominative singular and plural is in some loanwords written with y, but not in other cases (Chomsky, nominative plural Chomsky, instrumental singular Chomskim).
• Vast majority nouns are declined as animate (Nedeljski, accusative singular Nedeljskega 'a Sunday issue of the newspaper Dnevnik').
• Other irregularities that adjectives and adjectival pronouns possess also apply here.
• For the different endings in nominative singular, see first adjective declension.

Accent

These nouns decline the same way as definite masculine forms of adjectives following the first adjectival declension do. Therefore, only fixed and ending accentual types exist. For accent changes when nominalizing, see § Accent of nomnalized adjectives.

First feminine declension

First feminine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -e (lípa lípe), except if genitive plural has an ending -ih (dežȗrna genitive plural dežȗrnih), those follow the fourth feminine declension. Those ending in [-əu̯] and nouns máti 'mother' and hčȋ 'daughter' also follow this declension. In plural, genitive case has a null ending (víle vȋl 'pitchfork').

The first feminine declension is the most common pattern for feminine nouns. There is no distinction between hard and soft stems (the declension used in modern Slovene was historically the soft one and the merge happened in Alpine Slavic).

Feminine a-stem declension

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine a-stem nouns.

The standard declension of first feminine declension is the a-stem declension.

Feminine r-stem declension

This declension subtype follow only the nouns máti 'mother' and hči 'daughter'. They have a different stem in nominative singular than in other cases and numbers. (mati matere, hči hčere). There are also minor changes to the endings in singular.

Feminine v-stem declension

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine v-stem nouns.

A small number of feminine nouns belongs to the feminine v-stem declension, with the ending -əv (in which the -ə- is a fill vowel). These inflect as r-stems, but with the i-stem instrumental singular ending -ijo and have a null ending in nominative singular. Many nouns in this group can colloquially also inflect as regular a-stems, with the nominative singular ending in -va and accusative and instrumental singular in -vo.

Feminine n-stem declension

Only few nouns have their stems lengthend with -n, except in nominative singular. The most common example is Jȗno (Jȗno Junọ̑ne), which can also be declined following the third feminine declension (Juno Juno 'Juno') or as an a-stem noun (Junọ̑na Junọ̑ne). The endings are the same as for a-stem nouns. N-stem declension did not exist in Proto-Slavic (at least not for feminine nouns) and it evolved later.

Alternations and other exceptions of the first feminine declension

• Some nouns have ending -e (Melpomene Melpomene 'Melpomene'), silent -e (Marguerite [maɾgaˈɾíːt] Marguerite [maɾgaˈɾíːte] 'Marguerite'), -o (Klȋo Klȋe 'Clio'), or a null ending (Artẹ̑mis Artẹ̑mide 'Artemis'), but most of them also have regularvernacular versions (Melpomena, Margerita, Artemida). The non-vernacular versions can also be declined following the third feminine declension.
• Latin and Greek names can change the stem from -s to -d (Artẹ̑mis Artẹ̑mide) 'Artemis', -n (Salamȋs Salamȋne 'Salamis'), or -r (Cȇres Cȇrere 'Ceres'). These also have vernacular versions for nominative singular (Artẹ̑mida, Salamȋna, Cȇrera).
• Mixed accent nouns have in nominative dual (along with the usual ending -i) ending -e that is accented (vóda vóde/vodẹ̄, nominative dual vódi/vodẹ̑).
• Some mixed accent nouns can in gentitive dual/plural also have ending -a (vóda genitive dual/plural vód/vodā 'stream, lake', cẹ́rkəv genitive dual/plural cẹ̑rkəv/cerkvā 'church') or -i (besẹ̑da genitive dual/plural besedī 'word')
• Nouns ending in a sonorant have an added fill vowel in genitive dual/plural. The fill vowel is usually /ə/, except before -j-, where the fill vowel is /i/. In some words, the fill vowel is not written, only pronounced (note that lj and nj represent only one sound when not followed by a vowel): dẹ́kla genitive dual/plural dẹ̑kəl 'maidservant', lādja genitive dual/plural lȃdij 'ship', zémlja genitive dual/plural zēməlj 'soil'.
• Nouns of which the stem ends in a vowel also have an added -j in genitive dual/plural if without an ending: ọ̑boa genitive dual/plural ọ̑boj etc.
• The noun gospá 'lady, madam' is irregular and has acute accent on all the endings except in vocative.

Fixed accent nouns

• Circumflex nouns are always circumflex:

• Acute nouns have circumflex accent in vocative, genitive dual/plural and instrumental singular. When used as an adverb, accusative and instrumental singular can only be circumflex, and nouns that can also have mixed accent also have accusative plural circumflex:

• Acute nouns allow both tones in instrumental singular if the stressed vowel is open-mid:

• r-stem and v-stem nouns change the accent a bit differently; circumflex nouns are still circumflex in all cases, but acute ones change to circumflex in vocative, instrumental singular and genitive dual/plural. If the nouns also allow mixed accent, then the mixed accent declension follows the same rules:

Mobile accent nouns

Mobile accent nouns are very rare and are always circumflex:

Ending accent nouns

These nouns are short and circumflex, except if the accent is long; then they follow the same pattern as mixed accent nouns, but genitive dual/plural is circumflex if there is a null ending. The pattern is the same for words of which stems do not have a vowel and words which have the optional stress before the meglȁ → mègla shift.

Mixed accent nouns

These nouns can only be acute in nominative singular, but the stressed endings are acute, except genitive case, where both forms are allowed and in instrumental singular, where it is acute. In genitive dual/plural, they usually have an ending -a or -i, but if they do not, the vowel is acute, or acute or circumflex if it is a fill vowel /a/. All words can also have fixed accent, but nouns that in genitive dual/plural have a null ending have the same form as in the mixed accent.

Second feminine declension (feminine i-stem declension)

Wiktionary has a category on Slovene feminine i-stem nouns.

The second feminine 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. The endings, however are different if the noun follows the mixed or ending accentual type that if the accent is always on the stem.

Alternations and other exceptions of the second feminine declension

• Nouns with stems that end in a non-sonorant consonant and a sonorant have a fill vowel inserted between them in nominative and accusative singular and add i at the end of their stem in cases when the ending does not begin with a vowel (instrumental in all numbers and dative dual), such as mȋsəł mȋsli, instrumental singular mȋslijo, dative/instrumental dual mȋslima, instrumental plural mȋslimi 'thought' and svȋsli dative plural svȋslima 'hayloft'.
• Nouns with stems ending in -j have an ending -o in instrumental singular (pọ́stelj instrumental singular pọ̄steljo 'bed' (archaically)).
• When used as an adverb, some also change the accent e. g. na pọ̑mlad 'in the spring', s pọ̑ti/s potȋ '[to move something] off the way'
• The feminine noun krȋ 'blood' follows the mixed accent type, but replaces the final -v with -i in the nominative and accusative singular.

Fixed accent nouns

• Nouns that are circumflex in nomnative and genitive singular have circumflex accent in all cases, and the short accent becomes long:

• Nouns that are acute in nominative and genitive singular follow two patterns, depending if the stress in (in that case) on the second to last syllable or is already before, which in regular nouns translates into whether the stress in on the penultimate on the last syllable in nominative singular:

• Noun that are circumflex in nominative singular and acute in genitive singular change the accent very similarly to acute nouns. Vocative and Instrumental singular is circumflex, genitive dual/plural allows both accents, and locative dual/plural, instrumental dual and plural, and dative dual also allow both accents if the penultimate syllable is stressed.

Mobile accent nouns

These nouns can be either circumflex or acute in nominative singular, but all of them are circumflex in all other forms:

Ending accent nouns

There are two subtypes. The first one is not purely ending accent as it has accent on the stem in dative and locative singular and appears if a long fill vowel is stressed in nominative singular. In that case the e and o accented on the stem are open-mid. The other form is present if short fill vowel is stressed in nominative singular.

Mixed accent nouns

These nouns can only be circumflex and follow the same pattern as ending accent nouns with long as a fill vowel. If the accent is on e or o in dative singular, the vowels are open-mid.

Third feminine declension (feminine declension without endings)

Third feminine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular (or in any other case) ending is a null ending (-). This declension follow surnames of women (but those ending in -a can also follow first feminine declension), female names, which do not have an ending -a or -e in nominative singular (except most of the Latin and Greek names), such as Kȃrin, Ȋnes, and KȊti, acronyms that keep the feminine gender of the word(s) they represent and do not end in an unstressed a (SAZȖ SAZU 'Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts' and ZDA ZDȂ) 'USA', diminutives of female names and common nouns ending in -i (Ȃni Ȃni (a female name), Mȃlči Mȃlči (a female name), mȃmi mȃmi 'mommy', bȃbi bȃbi 'granny'), and some other words, such as spẹ̄cies spẹ̄cies.

Alternations and other exceptions of the third feminine declension

• Some names can also follow first feminine declension (Rȗth Rȗthe/Rȗth 'Ruth')
• Sometimes, nouns nebọ́dijetrẹ́ba 'menace', nebọ́dijutrẹ́ba 'two menaces', and nebọ́dijihtrẹ́ba 'menaces' are considered one irregular noun istead of three nouns that only have a singular, dual, and a plural form, respectively. In that case, the infix -je- is changed to -ju- in dual and to -jih- in plural. The infix is actually a personal pronoun óna 'she' in genitive case:

Accent

Words declined this way always have fixed accent, which is the same throughout, no matter if it is circumflex or acute, long or short. The only exception is vocative, where the accent is circumflex.

Fourth feminine declension (feminine i-/e-stem declension)

Fourth feminine declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -e and genitive dual/plural is -ih. The nouns following this declension were derived from an adjective, and are therefore nominalized adjectives. The declension is the same as declension for definite feminine adjectives.

This declension does not seem to have any alterations.

Accent

These nouns decline the same way as definite masculine forms of adjectives following the first adjectival declension do. Therefore, only fixed and ending accentual types exist. For accent changes when nominalizing, see § Accent of nomnalized adjectives.

First neuter declension

The vast majority of neuter nouns follow the first neuter declension. This declension follow nouns whose genitive singular ending is -a. These can have in nominative singular ending -o (following hard o-stem declension), -e (following soft o-stem declension), or a null ending (following one of the other declension subtypes), but in these cases, the stem ends in -e or -o.

Neuter o-/e-stem declension

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 nominative and accusative always have the same form, however, with endings that differ from the masculine nouns. The genitive dual/plural has no ending like in the feminine a-stems. The neuter o-stems are divided between "hard" and "soft" stems, like the masculines.

Neuter n-, s- and t-stem declensions

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 follow the neuter n-stem, neuter s-stem or neuter t-stem declensions. These use the same endings as the o-stems (except in nominative and accusative singular), but there is an additional consonant infix (-n-, -s-, -t-) that is present in all forms except the nominative/accusative singular. The n-stem and t-stem are soft in nominative/accusative singular, while in most s-stem nouns, the stem -e before the infix changes into -o. Since these nouns in nominative/accusative singular already end in -e/-o, there is a null ending.

Alternations and other exceptions of the first neuter declension

• In mixed accentual types, unstressed e and o can either become /e/ or /o/, /ɛ/ or /ɔ/, or both (srebrọ̑ dative singular srẹ̄bru/srēbru 'silver', mesọ̑ dative singular mẹ̄su/mēsu 'meat').
• In the 19th century the ending -i was often used in the dative/locative singular instead of -u. For example, nominative mọ̑rje 'sea', dative/locative mọ̑rji. Nowadays this ending is considered archaic or dialectal.
• Some nouns with a stressed /ɛ/ or /ɔ/ can also have dual and plural forms with /e/ or /o/, such as ókno 'window', nominative plural ókna/ȏkna/ọ́kna and rébro 'rib', nominative plural rébra/rȇbra/rẹ́bra/rẹ̑bra.
• Nouns ending in a non-sonorant consonant and a sonorant or a sonorant followed by -r, -lj, or -nj, have a fill vowel /ə/ or /i/, if the stem ends in -j, when there is a null ending (ókno genitive plural óken 'window', poslọ̑pje genitive plural poslọ̑pij 'building')
• A few neuter s-stem nouns show the effects of the Slavic first palatalisation in the forms with the infix -es-:
  • The noun okọ̑ 'eye' has the stem očẹ̑s-. It also has a shorter plural stem oč- when referring to human eyes. This stem is feminine rather than neuter, and follows the mixed i-stem declension.
  • The noun uhọ̑ 'ear' has the stem ušẹ́s-, with a change in accent type. The genitive plural allows both accents.
  • The noun igọ̑ 'yoke' has the stem ižẹ̑s-.
• Nouns without a vowel in the stem add a fill vowel /ə/ in genitive dual/plural. Noun dnȍ 'bottom' has an ending -ov or, as tlȁ, has a fill vowel -a- (tlȁ tál/táł, dnȍ dnȍv/dán), but the -ovversion is preferred. Noun dnȍ is also irregular in locative where it is either dnȉh or dnẹ́h (dnȉh is preferred) and noun tlȁ is also irregular in locative and instrumental (nominative plural tlȁ locative plural tlẹ́h instrumental plural tlẹ́mi/tlí).
• Noun dŕva 'firewood' is also irregular, having two forms for locative and instrumental: nominative plural dŕva locative plural drvẹ́h/dr̄vih, instrumental plural drvmí/dŕvi. The irregular forms are preferred.
• Some nouns, such as črevọ̑ 'intestine' (stem črevẹ̑s-) lose the infix in the plural: črẹ́va.

Fixed accent nouns

Note that all these nouns have the same accent on dative and locative forms with ending in -i.

• Circumflex nouns are always circumflex, except in plural, where the ones that lose the infix are acute in nominative/accusative plural and follow acute accentuation in other cases: