Lesson 2 Vocabulary: Prosím si
Let’s practice ordering food and describing things! New vocabulary words will teach you basic adjectives useful in describing your meal and your friends. You will also learn few basic phrases, such as prosím si (I would like). These two words will surely come in handy on your next visit to a Slovak restaurant or a pub. For the background info, please see the lesson 2 dialog and the grammar section.
New Adjectives
[audio:lesson02_adjectives.mp3]
hungry: hladný (masc.), hladná (fem.), hladné (neut.)
thirsty: smädný (M), smädná (F), smädné (N)
pretty: pekný, pekná, pekné
ugly: škaredý, škaredá, škaredé
old: starý, stará, staré
new: nový, nová, nové
warm: teplý, teplá, teplé
hot: horúci, horúca, horúce
cold: studený, studená, studené
good: dobrý, dobrá, dobré
excellent: výborný, výborná, výborné
bad: zlý, zlá, zlé
New Nouns
[audio:lesson02_nouns.mp3]
beer: pivo (N)
soda: malinovka (F)
soup: polievka (F)
Kofola: Kofola (F)
breakfast: raňajky (fem plural)
lunch: obed (M)
dinner: večera (F)
sauerkraut soup: kapustnica (F)
potato dumplings: halušky (fem plural)
New Phrases
[audio:lesson02_phrases1.mp3]
Ja som hladný. A vy? (I am hungry. And you?)
Ja som tiež. A čo ty, Lucia? (I am too. And what about you, Lucia?)
Nie, nie som hladná. Ja som smädná. Poďme! (Nope, I am not hungry. I am thirsty. Let’s go!)
[audio:lesson02_phrases2.mp3]
Prosím si bryndzové halušky. (I would like bryndza potato dumplings)
A ja si prosím jedno pivo. (And I would like one beer)
A vám? (And for you?)
Dám si kapustnicu a Kofolu. (I’ll have the sauerkraut soup and Kofola)
[audio:lesson02_phrases3.mp3]
Kapustnica je výborná! (Sauerkraut soup is excellent!)
Malinovka je tiež dobrá. Je studená. (Soda is also good. It’s cold.)
Questions? Comments? Something not clear? Just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to clarify it. Thanks for visiting!
“Something not clear?” Are you kidding? This work is fantastic! Keep it up! It’s great to see someone giving slovak material for free on the Internet.
I’ve been trying to study it through http://www.e-slovak.sk but they have been having issues with their servers for too long, and there are no pictures or soundclips available! It’s a pity… I hope someday they rebuild the site.
Until then, I’ll keep coming here, since you really show your love to Slovakia, its food and its language!
yes. very good effort by you. i am trying to learn slovak through your website.
vyborne! djakuem
Thanks so much for the sound clips! Since I’ve moved from NY, there’s nobody I can hear speak it. The only thing I’ve never really understood is why the endings change. ie: why does kofola and kapustnica change to kofolu and kapustnicu?
This is a feature of many languages. The endings change to indicate which role the noun plays in the sentence. There are 7 cases in Slovak – or 7 “roles” a noun could play. The first case is called the nominative case, and it indicates the primary subject of the sentence. For instance, Kofola is cold (Kofola je chladná). Another commonly used case is the accusative case. This one indicates the noun that is the direct object of the subject, basically something being manipulated by the subject. Example of such a sentence is Peter drinks cold Kofola (Peter pije chladnú Kofolu). So to pick the right endings, you first need to know which case the noun is in. But to make things worse, nouns are categorized by gender (some are masculine, some feminine, some neuter) and each gender has some 4 or so conjugation patterns. Once you figure out the case and the gender, you next need to figure out which pattern form to use. This is definitely not trivial. This is why I really admire anyone who manages to learns to speak a Slavic language. The grammar is definitely way to complicated. Finally, adjectives also change endings based on the noun they are modifying. You will find artifacts of cases in non-slavic languages as well. For instance in German, the “der” definite article changes to “dem”, and nouns may pick up the “-m” ending. This is also why I think in English we say “I see them” instead of “I see they”.
Thanks for the comment on the audio. My friends in Slovakia tell me I have bit of an American accent. I guess that’s what happens after all these years of living in the US. However, I figured that me speaking Slovak with bit of an accent is better than not having any audio at all.
Lubos to je Tvoj hlas na audiu? No urcite je tam trocha toho akcentu ako aj sam pises a tiez hovoris dost rychlo a to rozumiem po slovensky:) Pre cudzincov asi treba hovorit pomalsie, aby to lepsie porozumeli a hlavne dostali ako sa hovori “do ucha” 🙂
Inak velmi dobra stranka a hlavne recepty! Uz som aj zabudla na niektore ,tak si ich ozivujem a budem praktizovat:) Dik
You’re right, Lubos, the object pronouns “them”, “us”, “him” etc are among the few leftovers we have from the time when English was an inflected language. English all but completely dropped its case system circa 1100.
Also, I wouldn’t translate soda as malinovka, since soda (as in club soda) is usually clear sparkling water, while malinovka is sweetened and flavoured.
club soda = mineralka (mineral water)OR soda
soda/pop = malinovka
D’akujem, Lubos. Question: Why is the “v” in malinovka and polievka pronounced more or less like “o,” but when you pronounced slivka on another page, you pronounced the v as a “v.”
Hi Dennis, I don’t have a real answer for you. This is really a question for a linguist to answer. I think that for ease of pronunciation, whenever “v” comes before “k”, the “v” is softened into a “u” sound. So malinovka is pronounced as if written malinouka. In a way, the same could be said about slivka. You’ll hear both pronunciations in Slovakia, both the slivka and the softer sliuka. I think it’s a matter of choice.
PS: If anyone here knows more on this subject, I would love to hear your feedback.
D’akujem, Lubos. Another word that puzzles me is krv (blood). I always pronounced it with a v sound, but a Slovak relative from Prievidza used the ou sound. Which is more common in your opinion? I know that pronunciation varies throughout Slovakia, but I always wonder what follows the more “standard” Martin dialect.
This one is also pronounced more with the “u” sound. By the way, yesterday I got a new laptop. The old one was about 10 years old – it’s funny cause I do computational physics for work but I am so behind technology at home. Anyway, it has a camera so I tried it out with Skype and it’s pretty sweet. I am wondering, do you think there would be interest in organizing some kind of regular Slovak language lessons classes via Skype?
I’m a skype user and would love to see something of Regular Slovak Classes in Skype. It’s possible if someone has the time to do it. Slovak is very difficult for me to learn, especially that I’m American and trying to learn it on my own makes it even harder.
Can’t say that I am a linguist expert, however, here is my observation and experience.
Slovak language for native speakers has incredible flexibility to “twist your tongue” and pronounce a sequence of letters that is impossible to do for speakers with different native language. In Slovak language we indeed try to follow the rule “it’s pronounced the way it’s spelled”.
However, it would be a big mistake to think that Slovak language is a monolithic and uniform in pronunciation. For such a small country we have a large number of dialects and pronunciation may vary to a large degree. Without exaggeration I can say that sometimes folks from the West Slovakia do not quite understand folks from East Slovakia. It’s due to the fact that some dialects are significantly influenced by languages from neighboring countries (Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Moravia, Austria, etc.)
Yuy cant go wrong when you try to pronounce the way it’s spelled. Aka krv with “v” and malinovka with “v”. I think it’s a proper way and it’ll be understand by most people. Yet a small deviation and dialect for the ease of pronunciation is fine as it does not significantly change the sound and meaning. It’s more when a specific dialect is using its own words that are different from a “standard” Slovak language when you may run into trouble.
Welcome back, Miro. Long time no hear from you!
thanks Lubos. Yes, I was busy being a “professional patient”, spending more times at doctors than anything else. Nothing life threatening but stuff the was making my life and activities really difficult. In between I was moving to my g-friend house, etc.
Things are getting better and I hope to stay more in touch with Slovak community.
I have a question. I’m having a very hard time understanding at what point when to use Female forms of words for exsample some hladna (i’m hungry) Do I say som hladna because i’m a girl? or is what if i’m talking to a girl does it change? or does it change when talking to a guy? or does it only change when talking about a guy or talking about a girl? i’m quite confused anyway to clear my head about this? would Appreciate it so much <3 ďakujem <3
It’s both. Basically the adjective needs to agree in gender with the noun. For instance, you as a girl, would say som hladná. Your boyfriend would ask you si hladná?. If you want to say some other girl is hungry, you would say je hladná?. If you wanted to ask your boyfriend if he is hungry, you would say si hladný?.
Hopefully it helps!
Wow thank you so very much, you explain things so well. I really appreciate this site you designed. It’s helping me so much in my Study of the Slovak language. ďakujem <333
Thank you for this. I would so love to understand Slovensky but it would be impossible to be correct for me. I have someone there and communication frustrates me greatly. I’m lucky she is understanding. 😉