Nouns – First Feminine Declension

As we know, feminine Slovene nouns are usually identified by their -a ending, that group follows the six grammatical cases known as skloni. But some feminine nouns are known as exceptions: they have different endings and follow different declensions.

If you aren’t sure how to identify nouns gender, read: How to Determine the Gender of a Noun in Slovene.

First Female Declension, endings with –ev

Nouns that end with -ev, such as breskev (peach), cerkev (church), lestev (ladder) are feminine. They belong in the first feminine declension group known as prva ženska sklanjatev. Notice how the “e” is underlined, it means that when declined, the “e” is removed.

If you know you know the female declension of nouns ending with -a, learning the first feminine declension ending with -ev should be easy. Pay attention to the text in blue.

Here’s the table of Skloni with feminine noun ending with –a:

“normal”	Ednina/Singular	Dvojina/Dual	Množina/Plural
SKLON 1	stara miza	stari mizi	stare mize
SKLON 2	stare mize	starih miz_	starih miz_
SKLON 3	stari mizi	starima mizama	starim mizam
SKLON 4	staro mizo	stari mizi	stare mize
SKLON 5	stari mizi	starih mizah	starih mizah
SKLON 6	staro mizo	starima mizama	starimi mizami

Here’s the table of Skloni with feminine noun ending with –ev :

1 ž. skl.	Ednina/Singular	Dvojina/Dual	Množina/Plural
SKLON 1	stara breskev	stari breskvi	stare breskve
SKLON 2	stare breskve	starih breskev	starih lestev
SKLON 3	stari breskvi	starima breskvama	starim breskvam
SKLON 4	staro breskev	stari breskvi	stare breskve
SKLON 5	stari breskvi	starih breskvah	starih breskvah
SKLON 6	staro breskvijo	starima breskvama	starimi breskvami

As you can see, most of the endings in the first female declension are almost the same as the “normal” feminine declension – only four endings are different.

❤ A simplified version of the ending:

“normal”	Ednina/Singular	Dvojina/Dual	Množina/Plural
SKLON 1	-A -A	-I -I	-E -E
SKLON 2	-E -E	-IH –_	-IH –_
SKLON 3	-I -I	-IMA -AMA	-IM -AM
SKLON 4	-O –O	-I -I	-E -E
SKLON 5	-I – I	-IH -AH	-IH -AH
SKLON 6	-O –O	-IMA – AMA	-IMI – AMI

and

1 ž. skl.	Ednina/Singular	Dvojina/Dual	Množina/Plural
SKLON 1	-A -EV	-I -I	-E -E
SKLON 2	-E -E	-IH –EV	-IH –EV
SKLON 3	-I -I	-IMA -AMA	-IM -AM
SKLON 4	-O –EV	-I -I	-E -E
SKLON 5	-I – I	-IH -AH	-IH -AH
SKLON 6	-O –IJO	-IMA – AMA	-IMI – AMI

If we compare the two tables:

• the singular form in fourth case remains the same as its original form,
• the singular form in sixth case, instead of being just –O, it becomes –IJO and
• the dual and plural form in second case remains the same as its original form.

The declension of adjectives remain the same as in “normal” declension.

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Also, an interesting fact: some feminine nouns ending with -ev derive from a verb. Such as:

• rešitev (solution), which comes from rešiti (to solve),
• ločitev (separation) ← ločiti (to separate),
• prireditev (arrangement, event) ← prirediti (to arrange).

But please note that not all verbs have an –ev version!

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Oh… since this is the first feminine declension, there is a second, third and fourth female declension – but those will be covered for another post! 🙂 If you have any comments, questions, just drop a comment or send me a message! I will try to reply as soon as I can!

On a side note, this was not even a super long or detailed post to write and it took me what seems like FOREVER! I guess with a baby that feeds on my attention, I can’t really be helped – especially now that she loves to practice her new skill: rolling!

Update – here is my Cheat sheet “Table of First and Second Feminine Declension“. 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.