Slovene numerals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Cardinal numerals
2 Ordinal numerals
3 Collective numerals
4 Multiplicative numerals
5 Indefinite numerals
6 Adverbial numeral
7 External links

[edit] Cardinal numerals

Numbers such as ena, dve, tri, štiri, pet (one, two, three, four, five) are used to express amount. For example, "po pošti smo vam poslali tri pakete" ("We posted three packages to you"), "ko dopolniš sedemindvajseto leto, dobiš denar ("when you reach your twenty-seventh year, you will get the money"), and "ekvator je dolg okrog štirideset tisoč sedemdeset kilometrov" ("the equator is about forty thousand and seventy kilometres long").

The numbers up to ten are as follows: nič (0), ena, dve (or dva), tri, štiri, pet, šest, sedem, osem, devet, deset.

From 10 to 20, numbers are suffixed by -najst (-teen, from old Slovenian -nadeset): enajst, dvanajst, trinajst, štirinajst, petnajst, šestnajst, sedemnajst, osemnajst, devetnajst, dvajset.

From 20 to 100, the unit comes first, then the ten, joined together by in (and), much like in German. For tens, they are unit numbers appended by deset (ten), except for 20, which is dvajset.

dvajset (20), enaindvajset (21), dvaindvajset (22), triindvajset (23), štiriindvajset (24) ... trideset (30), enaintrideset (31) ... petdeset (50) ... devetindevetdeset (99).

Hundreds are formed with the word sto, similar to tens.

sto (100), sto ena (101), sto dve (102) ... sto deset (110) ... sto devetindevetdeset (199), dvesto (200) ... tristo (300) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset (999)

Thousands follow the same style, but are separated by spaces.

tisoč (1000), tisoč ena (1001) ... tisoč sto (1100) ... dva tisoč (2000) ... pet tisoč petsto petinpetdeset (5555) ... deset tisoč (10,000) ... sto tisoč (100,000) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset tisoč devetsto devetindevetdeset (999,999).

Millions and further on (milliards, billions, billiards, trillions, trilliards ...) are declined.

milijon (1,000,000) ... dva milijona (2 million), dva milijona ena (2,000,001) ... sedem milijonov petnajst tisoč sedemindvajset (7,015,027) ... devetsto devetindevetdeset milijonov devetsto devetindevetdeset tisoč devetsto devetindevetdeset (999,999,999), milijarda (1,000,000,000) ... dve milijardi (2,000,000,000) ... bilijon (1,000,000,000,000) ...

[edit] Ordinal numerals

Prvi, drugi, tretji, četrti, peti (first, second, third, fourth, fifth) are; used to express the position in a numbered order (when written with a number, the number is followed by a full-stop (1. (1^st)). For example, "zasedli so prvo mesto" ("they took first place"), "stoprvi gost je prispel" ("the hundred and first guest has arrived"), "stodruga noga jo boli" ("the hundred and second leg hurts her"), "sedemnajsttisočtristoenainosemdeseti kovanec je bil rahlo umazan. ("the seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty-first coin was slightly dirty"), and "ob osmi uri zjutraj" ("at 8 o'clock in the morning"), however this sentence is normally written as "Ob 8. uri zjutraj" or "Ob 8^h zjutraj" (Ob osmih zjutraj) or "Ob 8.00 zjutraj" (when minutes are defined, there is no "uri").

[edit] Collective numerals

dvoje, troje, četvero, petero – used for plural mass nouns, as well as to emphasise diversity of what is counted (dvoje oči, dvoje vrat, troje ljudi (two eyes, two doors, three people))

[edit] Multiplicative numerals

enojno, dvojno, trojno, četvorno, petorno (single, double, triple, quadraple, fivefold/quintuple) – used to name the amount of parts (dvojni ulomek (double fraction))
enkraten, dvakraten, trikraten, štirikraten, petkraten (essentially the same meaning, but less often used)

[edit] Indefinite numerals

Indefinite numerals do not exactly define the number of the noun in question. These words are not inflected.

dosti (quite a lot)
mnogo (much)
več (more)
veliko (a lot)
malo (little, a little)
nekaj (a little)
koliko (how much)
toliko (this much)

Dosti dela je šlo v nič, saj smo prepozno spoznali, da pisalni stroj ni imel papirja. (Quite a bit of work was futile, for we realised too late that the typewriter had not had paper.)

[edit] Adverbial numeral

These numerals include enkrat, dvakrat (once, twice) and so forth, and prvič (or prvikrat), drugič (or drugikrat) (the first time, the second time) and so forth.

Osel gre samo enkrat na led. (A donkey goes onto ice only once.) (a Slovenian proverb)
Ko drugič poskusiš, uvidiš, da že kar znaš. (When you try it the second time round, you realise that you already know it quite well.)