# Slovene: Slovensko se učim en mesec



## Martín M.

Hi, how are you? I need help with this random sentence taken from my workbook, so there's no context.

"Slovensko se učim en mesec".

I just can't understand the meaning. I know "Slovensko" is the language, "se učim" is the conjugation of the verb "učiti se" = learn. And I'm not sure about "en mesec". Does it mean "a month"?

But "I learn Slovene [for] a month" doesn't make much sense for me. "I've been learning Slovene for a month" would be a better option, but the verb is in present tense, so that gets me confused.

By the way, I wonder about the word order too. Can I say "Učim se slovensko en mesec". The word "slovensko" at the beginning bothers me.

Thanks.


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## 123xyz

I'm going to give you a suboptimal reply so that you don't have to wait too long for native speakers of Slovenian to show up, and when they do, they'll add to what I've written.

You have translated the individual words/phrases correctly, and "en mesec" does indeed mean "one month", or rather "for a month" in this context. So, the meaning of the entire sentence is indeed "I've been learning Slovene for a month". I don't know what you're confused about in terms of the present tense - surely you realise that "have been X-ing" is a very characteristic English tense, absent in so many Indo-European languages, including all of the Slavic languages. They use the present tense in such contexts (in Macedonian and Russian, you'll find a completely parallel sentence as a translation of the Slovene sentence in question). After all, if Slovene lacks a present perfect tense and any progressive tenses (for which it does compensate with verbal aspect in the past and future), what else could be used for "I have been learning"? 

In regard to the word order, I don't know if the alternative word order is correct, but keep in mind that the word order in Slovenian is very flexible and that it allows for several permutations which would be impermissible in English. One of them is the initial placement of direct objects, so there's nothing weird with "Slovenian I have been learning for one month." These word order peculiarities are also typical of Slavic languages, and this sentence can freely be translated into Macedonian and Russian with the same OVS order.


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## Martín M.

Thank you so much for your reply. It helped me a lot. Now that you say, it totally makes sense using the present tense as I use in Spanish, my first language. I remember a teacher who once told me that, when you learn a third language it starts "fighting" with your second language, but not with your mother tongue. I don't know if it's 100% true, but it was what happened to me.


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## Panceltic

Hi,

*123xyz* has explained everything perfectly  I will just add that our word order is indeed very flexible so you have many possibilities which basically mean the same, the word order just indicates what part of speech the speaker wanted to "focus" on.

Inside the free word order there are some rules though, as you can observe with the placement of the "se" part of the verb which always gets in the second place ...


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## PeterX

I can affirm, *123xyz* has explained it perfectly. Not much too add.


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## iezik

Martín M. said:


> "Slovensko se učim en mesec".



By the way, I believe that the language name "Slovensko" is more commonly either "Slovenščino" or "Slovenski jezik" (here, with initial uppercase for the start of the sentence; and accusative).


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## Sanduleak

Hi,
just like 123xyz has said, the word order is more flexible than in Spanish. In Spanish, if you place an object on the first place, you must use also the pronoun "lo" - you double the object, in Slovene you don't.
"*El esloveno* lo estoy *aprendiendo *desde hace *un mes*."
While in Spanish you use all of this words, in Slovene you use just the bold ones:
"Slovensko se učim en mesec." (however, "se učim" no significa "aprendiendo", más bien "me aprendo")
I don't speak Slovene, but in my native language (Slovak) it's the same.


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## francisgranada

Sanduleak said:


> ...  (however, "se učim" no significa "aprendiendo", más bien "me aprendo")


O aun más bien "me enseño" (approx. "I teach myself") . 

As to the present tense: regardless of the actual meaning of the various verbal constructions that has been mentioned, strictly speaking (from the grammatical/formal point of view) they all are in present tense: *učim *se, *I have* been learning, *estoy *aprendiendo.


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