To be: sem, si, je — and always in second place
The verb 'to be' is never dropped in Slovenian. Where English contracts ('you're right' → 'you right' would break anyway), Slovenian spells the little verb out in full: Sem Ana, Kako si?, Ime mi je Ana. For example: “Sem Rus” — I am Russian. A rule from the Slovenian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
The verb 'to be' is never dropped in Slovenian. Where English contracts ('you're right' → 'you right' would break anyway), Slovenian spells the little verb out in full: Sem Ana, Kako si?, Ime mi je Ana.
The short unstressed words — sem, si, je, mi, se, te — have a rigid seat in the sentence: second place. Not at the end, not wherever convenient, but immediately after the first stressed word. Izgubil sem se, Me veseli.
Negation fuses with 'to be' into a single word: not 'ne sem' but nisem.
Table
| am | am not | |
|---|---|---|
| jaz (I) | sem | nisem |
| ti (you) | si | nisi |
| on / ona (he / she) | je | ni |
| midva (we two) | sva | nisva |
| mi (we) | smo | nismo |
| vi (you) | ste | niste |
| oni (they) | so | niso |
By example
- Sem RusI am Russian
- Nisem iz LjubljaneI'm not from Ljubljana
- Izgubil sem seI got lost
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
To be: how does it work in Slovenian?
The verb 'to be' is never dropped in Slovenian. Where English contracts ('you're right' → 'you right' would break anyway), Slovenian spells the little verb out in full: Sem Ana, Kako si?, Ime mi je Ana.
What does it look like in an example sentence Slovenian?
“Sem Rus” — I am Russian. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.