Fourth Sklon – Accusative

Slovene is a very specific language, its grammar is categorized into 6 grammatical cases – skloni. Knowing when and how to use the skloni is very important when learning Slovene.

Before learning the fourth sklon, you should be very familiar with the First Sklon – Nominative.

As you already known from my previous post, Slovene word is masculine, feminine or neutral and it has a singular, dual and plural form – each form can be used with 6 grammatical cases, giving a total of 18 versions of one simple word 🙂 but don’t panic, one step at the time.

The fourth sklon is also known as tožilnik or akuzativ in Slovene and it is the “Accusative” case. The tožilnik sklon is one of the most commonly used form of the nouns.

If you known the table for the Sklon 1, learning the Sklon 4 will be very easy. Pay attention to the text in blue.

Here’s the table for the Sklon 1, Nominative (this is/ these are…)

SKLON 1	(m) STAR_ TELEFON_	(ž) NOVA TORBA	(s) VELIKO LETALO
(E) To je	star_ telefon_ star_ pes	nova torba	veliko letalo vroče morje
(D) To sta	stara telefona	novi torbi	veliki letali
(M) To so	stari telefoni	nove torbe	velika letala

And here’s the table for Sklon 4, Accusative (I have…)

SKLON 4	(m) STAR_ TELEFON_	(ž) NOVA TORBA	(s) VELIKO LETALO
(E) Imam	star_ telefon_ starega psa	novo torbo	veliko letalo vroče morje
(D) Imam	stara telefona	novi torbi	veliki letali
(M) Imam	stare telefone	nove torbe	velika letala

Reminder:  (E) ednina/singular, (D) dvojina/dual, (M) množina/plural and (m) moški/masculine, (ž) ženski/feminine, (s) srednji/neutral.

As you can see, most of the endings in the Accusative case are the same as the Nominative case – only three endings are different.

❤ A simplified version of the ending:

SKLON 1	(m)	(ž)	(s)
(E)	-Ø -Ø –Ø –Ø ♥	–A –A	-O/E* -O/E
(D)	-A -A	-I -I	-I -I
(M)	–I –I	-E -E	-A -A

and

SKLON 4	(m)	(ž)	(s)
(E)	-Ø -Ø –EGA –A ♥	–O –O	-O/E* -O/E
(D)	-A -A	-I -I	-I -I
(M)	–E –E	-E -E	-A -A

Reminder: * is the famous bracket (c, č, š, ž j) where the o changes into e.

If we compare the endings in the two cases:

• the singular masculine form for thing such as telefon (a telephone) remains the same BUT when we refer to a singular masculine form that is alive (with a heart ❤ ) such as pes (a dog), the ending is –ega and –a,
  

  ∴ singular masculine that has a beating ❤ :  –Ø –Ø → –EGA –A

• the plural masculine form: –I –I → –E –E and
• the singular feminine form: –A –A → –O –O.

∴ To je kava¹(this is coffee) → Pijem kavo⁴(I drink coffee).

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When to use the fourth sklon

1. the noun is directly affected by the verb
   For example, I have (what? who?) a telephone/ dog → Imam (kaj? koga?) telefon⁴ / psa⁴.

   ∴ nouns in fourth sklon is used with most of verbs such as jesti (to eat), imeti (to have), kupiti (to buy), kuhati (to cook), brati (to read)…

2. the double verbs phrase imeti + rad_ […]⁴ → I would like to have […]
   For example, I would like to have a coffee → Rad_ imam kavo⁴.
3. there is movement or direction with the preposition: v  and na.
   For example, I go (where?) to school → Grem (kam?) v šolo⁴. I go (where?) on a trip → Grem (kam?) na izlet⁴.
   

   For more information: The prepositions v and na – Fourth Sklon.

   ∴ verbs that have a direction to a place such as hoditi (to walk), voziti (to drive), iti (to go), priti (to come), teči (to run)…

4. following specific preposition
   • za (for) | i.e. I have a (what?) gift for (who?) Anna → Imam (kaj?) darilo⁴ za (koga?) Anno⁴. (Yes, skloni apply to names as well!),
   • skozi(through), čez (across) and
   • the “cubic directions” for direction: pred (in front), za (behind), nad (above), pod (below) and med (in between).

There are more, but if you know how and when to use the Nominative and Accusative cases, even in a basic way, you are off for a great start!

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During my Slovene classes, one of my favorite and personal trick was to put the number of the corresponding sklon in  ^superscript  next to every noun – doing so helped me identify and pinpoint which sklon was used and why. After awhile, it became an “automate” respond from my brain, which made learning Slovene much easier! If you decide to use my trick, I hope it helps you as much as it helped me!

The Accusative case can be very difficult at first, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate and contact me – I’m here to help you.

Update – here is my Cheat sheet “Table of Skloni “. More can be found under Learning Materials.

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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.