osem
“osem” — eight in Slovenian. Numeral, level A1, topic — numbers and counting. Keep it apart from osemdeset (eighty) and osemsto (eight hundred). In the ordinal the e drops out: osmi. In a live sentence: “Delam osem ur na dan” — I work eight hours a day. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Slovenian course.
In short
| Written in Slovenian | osem |
| Translation | eight |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A1 |
- osemeight
Why it looks that way
Keep it apart from osemdeset (eighty) and osemsto (eight hundred). In the ordinal the e drops out: osmi.
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.
- Delam osem ur na danI work eight hours a day
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- enaoneIt agrees in gender: en kruh, "one loaf", but ena kava, "one coffee".
- dvatwoAfter dva the dual switches on: dva kruha, dve kavi.
- trithreeAfter tri the noun goes to plain plural: tri kave. The dual belonged to dva alone.
- štirifourš is "sh": shtee-ree
- petfiveWith pet the genitive begins: pet kruhov, not pet kruhi.
- šestsixš is "sh": shehst
- sedemsevenThink "seventh" rather than "seven" — that makes it harder to confuse with osem, "eight".
- devetnineThe ordinal is deveti, the ten is devetdeset, the hundred is devetsto — a perfectly regular family.
- desettenThe base of all the tens: dvajset, trideset, petdeset. The ordinal is deseti.
- enajstelevenGrew out of ena na deset, "one onto ten". The noun after it takes the genitive plural: enajst evrov.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “eight” in Slovenian?
Keep it apart from osemdeset (eighty) and osemsto (eight hundred). In the ordinal the e drops out: osmi.
- How do you say “seven” in Slovenian?
Think "seventh" rather than "seven" — that makes it harder to confuse with osem, "eight".
- How do you say “three” in Slovenian?
After tri the noun goes to plain plural: tri kave. The dual belonged to dva alone.
- How do you say “eleven” in Slovenian?
Grew out of ena na deset, "one onto ten". The noun after it takes the genitive plural: enajst evrov.
- How do you say “six” in Slovenian?
From it come the ordinal šesti and the hundred šeststo, with three s-sounds in a row — not a typo.
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 “eight” in Slovenian?
«osem». In a live sentence: “Delam osem ur na dan” — I work eight hours a day. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Numeral, level A1, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Keep it apart from osemdeset (eighty) and osemsto (eight hundred). In the ordinal the e drops out: osmi. 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.