nisem pričakoval
“nisem pričakoval” — I did not expect in Slovenian. Phrase, level B1. Č is "ch" as in "church": NEE-sehm-pree-chah-KOH-vahl. In a live sentence: “Tega res nisem pričakoval” — This I truly did not expect. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Slovenian course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Slovenian | nisem pričakoval |
| Translation | I did not expect |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
- nisem pričakovalI did not expect
How to pronounce it
Č is "ch" as in "church": NEE-sehm-pree-chah-KOH-vahl
Why it looks that way
the negation has fused with the verb: nisem instead of ne sem; a woman says nisem pričakovala, two people nisva pričakovala
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Tega res nisem pričakovalThis I truly did not expect
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “I did not expect” in Slovenian?
«nisem pričakoval». Č is "ch" as in "church": NEE-sehm-pree-chah-KOH-vahl. In a live sentence: “Tega res nisem pričakoval” — This I truly did not expect. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level B1.
Why does this word look the way it does?
the negation has fused with the verb: nisem instead of ne sem; a woman says nisem pričakovala, two people nisva pričakovala. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.