J j — je
«je» is a consonant of Slovenian, the “Gajica” script, read as “y as in yes”. Like the y of “yes”, never like the j of “jam”. For example, in the word “jutri” — tomorrow. The Slovenian alphabet has 25 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. There are no letters for “ya” or “yu” sounds — they are assembled from j plus a vowel: ja is yes, jutri is tomorrow. It appears, for example, in the word “živjo” — hi.
In short
| Character | J j |
| Name | je |
| Sound | y as in yes |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 11th of 25, its neighbours in the course are i and k, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
Like the y of “yes”, never like the j of “jam”
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- jutritomorrow
The character in the “familiar to the eye, foreign to the ear” group
Seven letters where your English reading habit will betray you.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «je» it is “y as in yes”, as in the word “jutri”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 25 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Slovenian character j read?
As “y as in yes” — it is a consonant of the “Gajica” script. Like the y of “yes”, never like the j of “jam”. For example, in the word “jutri” — tomorrow.
What is the letter j called?
Je. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Slovenian script: it is called “je” and reads as “y as in yes”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can j be confused with?
There are no letters for “ya” or “yu” sounds — they are assembled from j plus a vowel: ja is yes, jutri is tomorrow. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.