# Slovak: I can't learn Slovak without my Slovak friend



## mateo19

Hello!

I'm trying to not forget the little bit of Slovak that I've tried to learn.  Is it correct to say the following?:

Nemôžem sa učiť po slovensky bez mojej Slovenky priaťelky?

Thank you for the affirmation!


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## slavic_one

Nemôžem sa (na)učiť slovenčinu bez svoje/moje slovenské priaťelky!

Not sure if this is correct, better wait for someone native! I don't know if in Slovak it's good to tell "po slovenský"


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## .Jordi.

slavic_one said:


> I don't know if in Slovak it's good to tell "po slovenský"



Sorry for bothering, but I'm very curious about one thing, is it impossible to use such kind of arcaic construction in your language? I'm mean this construction "po + name of the language" in sentences like: I don't speak X, which for example in polish it would be: nie mówię po niemiecku, słowacku, polsku etc.?


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## mateo19

Well, what I can say is that my Slovak text book says that "hovoriť slovenčinu" and "hovoriť po slovensky" are of the same usage.  My Slovak friend uses the "po" construction a lot more than actually saying "slovenčina".

And "bez" takes the genitive case, so why would it not be "mojej"?


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## slavic_one

Ok I just said that I wasn't sure of that, not that it's not correct!
And yes it could be "mojej", sorry!
I told better to wait for some native, maybe even your translation is better than mine !


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## slavic_one

.Jordi. said:


> Sorry for bothering, but I'm very curious about one thing, is it impossible to use such kind of arcaic construction in your language? I'm mean this construction "po + name of the language" in sentences like: I don't speak X, which for example in polish it would be: nie mówię po niemiecku, słowacku, polsku etc.?



No, in Croatian (I hope you didn't think my language is Slovak) it would be pretty wierd to use sth like "Govoriš li po engleski/slovački/ruski...?"!
It's most common in Russian, Polish, probabli Ukrainian...!


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## robin74

I's say "Nemôžem sa učiť po slovensky bez mojej slovenskej priaťelky".

But I'm not a native either 




slavic_one said:


> "po slovenský"


It's "po slovensky". y is short. "slovenský" is an adjective, "slovensky" is an adverb. And yes, it's a valid expression.


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## .Jordi.

slavic_one said:


> No, in Croatian (I hope you didn't think my language is Slovak) it would be pretty wierd to use sth like "Govoriš li po engleski/slovački/ruski...?"!
> It's most common in Russian, Polish, probabli Ukrainian...!



Ok, it might sound weird, but could Croatian people understand the meaning?
I know that this construction came from protoslavic form of dative of adjectives, like: N. dobrъ, but D. - dobru or N. pĕšь, but D. pĕšu. that's why I though that it was something tipical for all slavic languages. I wonder why only in a few languages this construction is common, hmm. Anyway, thanks for answering!


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## trance0

In Slovenian constructions with "po+adjective" are common in spoken and written form! Although the sentence "Nemôžem sa učiť po slovensky bez mojej Slovenky priaťelky?" is perfectly understandable to me(and I don`t speak Slovak), I would use a different sentence structure(closer to Croatian) in Slovene for this example: 

"Ne morem se (na)učiti slovaščine brez moje(I believe reflexive pronoun "svoje" is more correct here, although in colloquial language "moje" is far more common) slovaške prijateljice."


But in Slovenian "po+adverb" constructions are also very common especially in the cases like the following:

Želiš, da govoriva po angleško ali po slovensko? Do you wish that we (two) talk in English or in Slovene?

Kadarkoli imam priložnost se pogovarjam po francosko. Whenever I have the chance I converse in French.

Po hrvaško se to drugače pove. In Croatian one says this differently.


As for Croatian I have never heard of "po+adverb(in accusative form which is the same as nominative for inanimate objects)" combinations where the adverb denotes a language. As far as I know Croatians(and Serbians, Bosnians,...) use "na+adverb(in the locative case, example: "na slovenskom")" which therefore somewhat resembles German constructions "auf+adverb(example: "auf Englisch").


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## slavic_one

.Jordi. said:


> Ok, it might sound weird, but could Croatian people understand the meaning?
> I know that this construction came from protoslavic form of dative of adjectives, like: N. dobrъ, but D. - dobru or N. pĕšь, but D. pĕšu. that's why I though that it was something tipical for all slavic languages. I wonder why only in a few languages this construction is common, hmm. Anyway, thanks for answering!



Of course we would understand, but it's not common at all. We say "Govoriš li slovački/engleski/finski/njemački....?".

Translation of the topic sentence would be: "Ne mogu učiti slovački bez moje/svoje slovačke prijateljice."


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## slavic_one

trance0 said:


> As far as I know Croatians(and Serbians, Bosnians,...) use "na+adjective(in locative case, example: "na slovenskom")"



Yes, but not in this context!
You can't say "ne mogu učiti na slovačkom..." it's completely wrong, and neither you can say "ne mogu učiti na slovački...", it's also wrong!


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## trance0

In Slovene it is also common to say: 

"Znaš tudi (kaj povedati) po angleško?".  "Can you speak/(say something in) English?".


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## trance0

slavic_one said:


> Yes, but not in this context!
> You can't say "ne mogu učiti na slovačkom..." it's completely wrong, and neither you can say "ne mogu učiti na slovački...", it's also wrong!



True, I`ve been meaning to write a comment that in this context it would sound wrong. In this particular case the meaning of the sentence with "po+language adverb" in Slovene would sound unusual and it would have a different meaning from the Slovak one. It would sound similarly strange as Croatian "na+adverb".


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## mateo19

It is amazing how much discussion this thread has generated! 
But it's good that we discuss such things.  The point is, I _know_ that the first part is right. . . It's written plainly and clearly in my text book and that's what I've seen real Slovaks use.  So, the "po slovensky" is not only common but also correct.

My real question was about the genitive forms, the "mojej" and I wasn't sure what ending to add to "Slovenka" and "priateľka".  I have trouble with the case ending with certain consontants like unvoiced stops.  I put the entire sentence up just incase something else was amiss, you know?  I certainly have appreciated all the input, and barring a Slovak or Czech speaker coming along, I'm convinced that Robin74 has the right form.

Ďakujem veľmi pekne za pomoc! 
Have a great night everyone!


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## PeterGriffin

mateo19 said:


> Hello!
> 
> I'm trying to not forget the little bit of Slovak that I've tried to learn.  Is it correct to say the following?:
> 
> Nemôžem sa učiť po slovensky bez mojej Slovenky priaťelky?
> 
> Thank you for the affirmation!



Nemôžem sa učiť (po) slovensky bez svojej slovenskej kamarátky.

priateľka denotes a close female friend or a girlfriend. Kamarátka is a little less close, but close enough.


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## mateo19

Ďakujem pekne, PeterGriffin!

I never knew the difference between kamarát and priateľ.  I'm really glad to find out.

And of course, vítam vas na WordReference!


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