The Present Tense in Slovene

After learning the Pronouns, we’re ready to attack on the tenses, which luckily are quite simple. In Slovene, verbs are mainly used in 3 tenses: Sedanjik (present tense), Preteklik (past tense) and Prihodnjik (future tense) – and it’s all about endings. Let’s start with the Present Tense.

Sedanjik – Present Tense

In the present tense, focus on the ending marked in red, because that’s the only thing that changes according to the subject.

Below are the verbs govoriti (to talk), reči (to say) and jesti (to eat).

	GOVORITI	REČI	JESTI
Jaz	govorim	rečem	jem
Ti	govoriš	rečeš	ješ
On, Ona, Ono	govori_	reče_	je_
Midva, Midve / Medve	govoriva	rečeva	jeva
Vidva, Vidve / Vedve	govorita	rečeta	jesta
Onadva, Onidve	govorita	rečeta	jesta
Mi, Me	govorimo	rečemo	jemo
Vi, Ve	govorite	rečete	jeste
Oni, One	govorijo	rečejo	jejo / jedo

As you can see,

• Jaz → –M
• Ti → –Š
• On → –Ø (nothing)
• Midva → –VA
• Vidva → –TA
• Onadva → –TA
• Mi → –MO
• Vi → –TE
• Oni → – JO

They have the same same endings, but they are from 3 different categories of verbs.

The easiest way to nail it is to remember the “Jaz” form and simply change the ending.

1. Govoriti is a regular verb, which follow the normal conjugation. The endings are in red. My trick is to take out the -TI from the infinitive form and simply add the ending to it.
   For example: KUHATI: KUHATI → KUHAM (jaz kuham – I cook)
2. Reči ends in -ČI, therefore it doesn’t have the typical ending. We simply change the -I to -E and add the same ending.
   For example: TEČI: TEČE → TEČEM (jaz tečem – I run)
3. Jesti is an irregular verb and falls into a category along with 3 others verbs. The ending is normal, except for 3 pronouns: Vidva, Onadva and Vi, that we add a -S before the ending. Also with those verbs, the “Oni” form has two forms.
   For example: ITI (to go) – Jaz grem – Vi greste – Oni grejo/gredo. VEDETI (to know) – Jaz vem – Vi veste – Oni vejo/vedo. DATI (to give) – Jaz dam – Vi daste – Oni dajo/dado.

The Negative form is simple, you just add “ne” infront of the verb.
For example: ne govorim, ne rečem, ne jem…

To Be and To Have

Two important and basic verbs in every language is biti, to be and imeti, to have… and they are irregular, so you will have to memorize them. They also have their own negative form, not very difficult, but still – you have to remember than they are in one word and not two, as the others verbs

	BITI	Negative	IMETI	Negative
Jaz	sem	nisem	imam	nimam
Ti	si	nisi	imaš	nimaš
On, Ona, Ono	je	ni	ima_	nima_
Midva, Midve / Medve	sva	nisva	imava	nimava
Vidva, Vidve / Vedve	sta	nista	imata	nimata
Onadva, Onidve	sta	nista	imata	nimata
Mi, Me	smo	nismo	imamo	nimamo
Vi, Ve	ste	niste	imate	nimate
Oni, One	so	niso	imajo	nimajo

What to be careful with biti, is in the singular third person (On, Ona, Ono) the negative form is ni and not ni je, which is not Slovene.

With imeti, the ending is normal, but the e in the infinitive changes into a. Imeti → jaz imam, ti imaš…

The audio files (biti and imeti) are a courtesy of my friend Jure from Slovenian Word Of The Day.  You can listen to his explanation of vocabulary words, such as vas, on his website.

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Learning any new language is not easy and you will need some solid tools that you can refer to. One tool I really like to use, which was introduced to be during my Slovene Course, is the Slovenski Glagol by Rada Lečič, which is available in many languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish and Polish.

If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate and leave them in 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.