Me, te, ga, ji: short words that sit second
Personal pronouns come in two shapes. The long one is stressed, for emphasis: mene, tebe, njega. The short one is unstressed, and it is what ordinary speech sounds like: me, te, ga, jo, mu, ji, nam. For example: “Zakaj si jezen name?” — Why are you angry with me?. A rule from the Slovenian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Personal pronouns come in two shapes. The long one is stressed, for emphasis: mene, tebe, njega. The short one is unstressed, and it is what ordinary speech sounds like: me, te, ga, jo, mu, ji, nam.
Vidim tebe is possible, but it means 'I see YOU'. The neutral sentence is Vidim te. A short unstressed word never opens a sentence; it squeezes in right after the first stressed word. Boli me glava, but Glava me boli.
When several of them gather, they queue in a fixed order: the helper (sem, bom), then se, then 'to whom', then 'whom'. Hence Jutri ti ga bom pokazal — tomorrow I'll show it to you. 'To whom' goes before 'whom', the reverse of English.
Two people have their own short words: naju, vaju, jima. Pokliči naju — call the two of us.
Table
| who | whom (acc.) | to whom (dat.) | stressed form |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | me | mi | mene / meni |
| you | te | ti | tebe / tebi |
| he | ga | mu | njega / njemu |
| she | jo | ji | njo / njej |
| we two | naju | nama | naju / nama |
| we | nas | nam | nas / nam |
| they | jih | jim | njih / njim |
By example
- Zakaj si jezen name?Why are you angry with me?
- Jutri ti ga bom pokazalTomorrow I'll show it to you
- Prosim, počakaj naju pred hotelomPlease wait for the two of us in front of the hotel
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
Why me, te and ga stand second in Slovenian?
Personal pronouns come in two shapes. The long one is stressed, for emphasis: mene, tebe, njega. The short one is unstressed, and it is what ordinary speech sounds like: me, te, ga, jo, mu, ji, nam.
The order of the short unstressed words in a Slovenian sentence?
Vidim tebe is possible, but it means 'I see YOU'. The neutral sentence is Vidim te. A short unstressed word never opens a sentence; it squeezes in right after the first stressed word. Boli me glava, but Glava me boli.
Boli me glava vs glava me boli?
When several of them gather, they queue in a fixed order: the helper (sem, bom), then se, then 'to whom', then 'whom'. Hence Jutri ti ga bom pokazal — tomorrow I'll show it to you. 'To whom' goes before 'whom', the reverse of English.
Ti ga bom: why 'to whom' comes first?
Two people have their own short words: naju, vaju, jima. Pokliči naju — call the two of us.
What does it look like in an example sentence Slovenian?
“Zakaj si jezen name?” — Why are you angry with me?. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.