The most common Slovak grammar mistakes to avoid

Our beautiful, beloved, mellifluous Slovak and its treacherous grammar. Nobody, of course, was born knowing it all, but I often come across cases that back me into a corner. Let us look at the most common mistakes Slovaks keep making over and over, unable to learn even after taking their hundred and ninety-fifth test. Yes, I know, that numeral looks terrifying — but in this article I will also show you how to learn to write numerals correctly once and for all.

Potencionálne si spravím hambu akonáhle dopíšem o nesprávnych gramatických variantách slov

That sentence probably gave every lover of Slovak reflux. Almost everything in it is written wrongly. The word "potencionálny" does not exist; the correct form is "potenciálny". "Hamba" is certainly not written with an m — it is "hanba" — and the word "akonáhle" is non-standard; use "hneď ako" instead. And yes, it is "variant", not "varianta". If people were fined €5 for every mistake, they would learn it at once. :) And yes, yes, "euro" does decline.

V šesťdesiatych rokoch vo svojích šesťdesiatich rokoch stále nevedel správne napísať číslovky

Ah, numerals. We are all slowly going grey over them. Hand on heart, which of you has never been stumped for a moment over how THAT numeral is written correctly?

Let us learn it together, once and for all.

Cardinal numerals, which answer the question "koľko?" (how many?), decline from five to ninety-nine on the pattern of päť. That means we write them with a soft i. The only exceptions are numerals ending in jeden, which do not decline.

Examples: "Študoval som až na šiestich školách." "Ôsmim z nás sa to nepodarilo." "Snehulienka mala svojich siedmich trpaslíkov."

The second group is ordinal numerals. These answer the question "koľký v poradí?" (which in order?) and decline on the pattern of pekný or cudzí.

Examples: "Naši hokejisti skončili na šampionáte druhí." "Deviaty bod programu sa mi páčil najviac." "Gratulujeme k osemnástym narodeninám."

The standard form also holds when we write figures followed by a full stop, 90. roky for instance. In that case it makes no difference whether the numeral declines or not. Whether it is the celebration of the 10. výročie of your wedding, a meeting possible only after 9. október, or you were born in the 70. roky.

Prvý krát je bežné pomýliť sa, no druhý raz si už dajte pozor

Every expression where you use the indeclinable form with "krát" is always written as one word. No hyphen, no dash, no space. Prvýkrát, päťdesiatykrát, viackrát. When you opt for the variant with "raz", though, use a space. By the time you write it dvadsiaty raz, it will come automatically.

Is it better with a long one or a short one?

Long or short i? It tends to be a dilemma.

"Naša nová kolegyňa pracuje na pozícií PPC specialist." Something in that sentence is not right. You may even have missed it, but the ending of the word "pozícia" in the singular locative should carry no length mark. We would write a long í in words ending in the suffix -cia only in the genitive plural. If you are torn, there is a simple aid: in the singular we write a short i and in the plural a long í.

That aid does not hold for possessive pronouns, though. There it is precisely the other way round.

When declining possessive pronouns (môj, tvoj, náš, váš, svoj) we write a short i, with the exception of the singular instrumental, where we write a long í.

Example:

"Boli sme na večeri s našimi priateľmi."

"Povedal sme o tom iba našim priateľom."

"Večeru sme si užili spoločne s naším priateľom Romanom."

A few words that trip up more than just internet heroes

Genuine gems can be found in comments on social media. But those are no longer grammar mistakes so much as the sheer ignorance of particular people. Let us look instead at the ordinary mistakes that happen even to a trained teacher of Slovak.

It happens that instead of our own Slovak expressions we use Czech ones. In many cases we do not even realise they are Bohemisms. Words such as "prádlo", "pomazánka" and "doporučujeme", for instance, correctly look like this: "bielizeň", "nátierka", "odporúčame".

I often see people write "súčastne" instead of "súčasne", or "presvečenie" instead of the correct "presvedčenie". It is also common that a thought occurs to you — but the only thing that can "napadnúť vás" is some grammar nazi who thinks the way I do :D. "Napadla mi" a thought. And when somebody sends you an email, you find it in the "mail" — "v maile". Not "v maili" and certainly not "v maily". Which reminds me to mention that when a word is in the locative (which answers "o kom, o čom"), we always write a soft i.

The first part of our grammar corner is behind us and I firmly believe you will remember most of this once and for all. Try writing in the comments how many grammar mistakes you found in this article ;)