LingoflyMi gre, uspelo mi je, jasno mi je: 'to me' instead of 'I'
Where English says 'I', Slovenian often says 'to me': uspelo mi je, gre mi dobro, jasno mi je. Such a sentence has no doer at all, and the person stands in the 'to whom' word. For example: “Po tretjem poskusu mi je končno uspelo” — On the third try it finally worked out for me. A rule from the Slovenian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Where English says 'I', Slovenian often says 'to me': uspelo mi je, gre mi dobro, jasno mi je. Such a sentence has no doer at all, and the person stands in the 'to whom' word.
The first group is success and failure: uspelo mi je, ni mi uspelo, posrečilo se mi je. The verb does not change for person; only the pronoun does: mi, ti, mu, ji, nam, vam.
The second is how things are going: gre mi dobro, težko mi gre, slabo mu gre. The verb iti has nothing to do with movement here. From the same shelf: kako ti gre? — how are you doing.
The trap is word order. The short mi takes second place: Danes mi gre dobro, not Danes gre mi dobro. If the sentence opens with the pronoun itself, use the long form: Meni pa ni jasno.
Table
| phrase | literally | the English | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| uspelo mi je | succeeded to-me | it worked out for me | uspelo mi je |
| ni mi uspelo | not succeeded to-me | it did not work out | ni mi uspelo |
| gre mi dobro | goes me well | things are going well | gre mi dobro |
| težko mi gre | goes me hard | I am struggling | težko mi gre |
| jasno mi je | clear to-me is | it is clear to me | zdaj mi je jasno |
| všeč mi je | pleasing to-me is | I like it | všeč mi je |
| žal mi je | sorry to-me is | I am sorry | žal mi je |
| nerodno mi je | awkward to-me is | I feel awkward | nerodno mi je prositi |
By example
- Grammar comes hard to me, pronunciation easily
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
Mi gre, uspelo mi je, jasno mi je: how does it work in Slovenian?
Where English says 'I', Slovenian often says 'to me': uspelo mi je, gre mi dobro, jasno mi je. Such a sentence has no doer at all, and the person stands in the 'to whom' word.
What does it look like in a Slovenian example sentence?
“Po tretjem poskusu mi je končno uspelo” — On the third try it finally worked out for me. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.