False friends: 'leto' means year
Some Slovenian words look like English ones, and that is where the trouble starts. The word you feel sure about usually means something else, and checking never crosses your mind. For example: “leto” — YEAR (summer is 'poletje'). A rule from the Slovenian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Some Slovenian words look like English ones, and that is where the trouble starts. The word you feel sure about usually means something else, and checking never crosses your mind.
Learn the rows below before any other vocabulary. Leto is a year, not summer — summer is poletje. Mesto is a town, not a place. Stol is a chair, and the table beside it is miza.
Almost every row here is somebody's story about waiting a whole year for a summer that never came.
Table
| Slovenian | means | not |
|---|---|---|
| leto | year | summer |
| brati | to read | to take |
| mesto | town | place |
| hiša | house | hut |
| stol | chair | table |
| miza | table | — |
| obraz | face | image |
| hrana | food | protection |
| sadje | fruit | orchard |
| ponos | pride | — |
| vreden | valuable | harmful |
| pozor | warning | disgrace |
By example
- letoYEAR (summer is 'poletje')
- bratito read (to take is 'vzeti')
- mestotown (place is 'kraj')
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Slovenian false friends?
Some Slovenian words look like English ones, and that is where the trouble starts. The word you feel sure about usually means something else, and checking never crosses your mind.
What leto means in Slovenian?
Learn the rows below before any other vocabulary. Leto is a year, not summer — summer is poletje. Mesto is a town, not a place. Stol is a chair, and the table beside it is miza.
Why stol is a chair and miza is a table?
Almost every row here is somebody's story about waiting a whole year for a summer that never came.
What does it look like in an example sentence Slovenian?
“leto” — YEAR (summer is 'poletje'). A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.