The Past Tense in Slovene

Slovene might be a difficult language to learn, but thankfully, the pattern of Slovene verbs is much easier to understand. We’ve learnt about the Present Tense – Sedanjik, now we will learn about the Past Tense – Preteklik.

Preteklik, the Past Tense

The Slovene Past Tense is very simple. You just need to remember one formula and a bunch of exceptions:

Past Tense = To Be (Present Tense)¹ + Root of Verb² + L_³

¹ To Be (Present Tense)
Here’s a reminder table of To Be – Biti, in Present Tense.

Jaz	sem	nisem
Ti	si	nisi
On, Ona, Omo	je	ni
Midva, Midve / Medve	sva	nisva
Vidva, Vidve / Vedve	sta	nista
Onadva, Onidve	sta	nista
Mi, Me	smo	nismo
Vi, Ve	ste	niste
Oni, One	so	niso

² Root of Verb
The Root, like in English, is the part of the verb that remains “unchanged”.
For example: to cook – I cook – I cooked.

To find the root in Slovene is very simple.

• IF the verb ending is -ti, you take it out then you have the root + L_³
  For example: kuhati (to cook) – sem kuhal (I cooked).
• IF the verb ending is -či, it becomes a bit more complicated because it becomes –ke + L_. For example: teči (to run) – sem tekel (I ran).
• And… some verbs are exceptions, and you need to learn them by ♥.

³ L_
As we know, Slovene is a very precise language – it makes a difference between singular, dual and plural as well as  male, female and neutral (which less used) – so the L_ indicated that precision.

	Male (STOL -chair)	Female (ŠOLA -school)	Neutral (LETALO -airplane)
Singular	STOL	ŠOLA	LETALO
Dual	STOLA	ŠOLI	LETALI
Plural	STOLI	ŠOLE	LETALA

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My trick is to remember the singular masculine form and just change the ending according to the subject.

Here’s an example using a verb that ends with -ti like govoriti, to talk.

	Male	Female
Singular	Jaz sem govoril	Jaz sem govorila
Dual	Onadva sta govorila	Onidve sta govorili
Plural	Oni so govorili	One so govorile

*For the curious, biti, to be is regular ∴  jaz sem bil. (Other verbs: pisati, to write; vedeti, to know; gledati, to watch; študirati, to study…)

With verbs ending with -či, like reči, to say: the -či becomes -ke+l_.

	Male	Female
Singular	Jaz sem rekel	Jaz sem rekla
Dual	Onadva sta rekla	Onidve sta rekli
Plural	Oni so rekli	One so rekle

*Please notice how the e is underlined, it means that it will disappeared when conjugated. (Other verbs: vleči, to pull; peči, to bake, teči, to run; obleči, to get dressed…)

As I’ve mentioned before, some verbs fall into the “exceptions” box and you will just need to know them.

Some verbs fall into the “exception box”, like iti, to go and jesti, to eat – and you just have to know it by ♥.

	Male	Female
Singular	Jaz sem šel / jedel	Jaz sem šla / jedla
Dual	Onadva sta šla / jedla	Onidve sta šli / jedli
Plural	Oni so šli / jedli	One so šle / jedle

Other exceptions are: priti, to come (prišel); oditi, to leave (odšel); najti, to find (našel)…

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Just remember the formula: Past Tense = To Be (Present Tense) + Root of Verb + L_ and that the L_ ‘s conjugation goes with the Subject. (For example, Marko je gledal televizijo in Anna je študirala slovenščino.)

For learning verbs, a learning tool that I absolutely recommend is Slovenski Glagol by Rada Lečič. I hope that didn’t confused you too much. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me via the comment box below.

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Discover more Slovene “lessons” that might interest you: Slovene Numbers & Numerals, Slovene Nouns & Pronouns, Slovene Verbs, Slovene Adjectives, Slovene Syntax, Slovenian Idioms, Slovene Adverbs.

Let’s learn,
Anna.