# All Slavic Languages: To fall in and out of love



## mateo19

Hello friends,

I would like to know how to say, "to fall in love" and "to fall out of love" in the Slavic languages.  I have a big disclaimer, though.  "To fall in love" is a perfectly common and normal expression, the best if not only way to say this in English.  However, "to fall _out_ of love" is not an expression that is accepted by all native speakers.  This past weekend, I had a discussion with a friend of mine who told me that we can't say, "to fall out of love" in English.  Well, wether it is common or not is one thing (I don't think it is common), but it is perfectly understandable.  The famous American rock legend Bon Jovi even sings a song called, "In and out of love".  If you have any doubts, I'll give you some sentences with some context in English.

Now, the idea of this post came about because I first learned in Slovak how to say "to fall in love" = zamilovať sa do niekoho.  Then the other day I heard a new song in Ukrainian, Річка by Юлія Рай,which says, "Наша пям’ять збереже любов що у нас була, вибач, зрозумій, я розлюбила".  This verb, "розлюбити" is defined as, "переставати любити кого".  I think that means, "to stop loving someone".  So, in Ukrainian this could be the equivalent of "to fall out of love".

_I am very interested in reading your comments and contributions to this thread.  Thank you very much in advance!   I also will happily accept all of your corrections, as I am but a humble language student.
_
Ukrainian:
to fall in love with someone - полюбити когось
to fall out of love with someone - розлюбити когось

Slovak:
to fall in love with someone - zamilovať sa do niekoho
to fall out of love with someone - (does "rozmilovať" exist?)


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## phosphore

Serbian:

_заљубити се у (некога) -_ to fall in love with (someone)
_одљубити се -_ to fall out of love


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## .Jordi.

Polish:

_zakochać się w kimś_ - in
_odkochać się w kimś_ - out

Mateo19: I think that in Slovak it would be _odmilovať _(with the same prefix as in Polish, Serbian... and maybe some other Slavic languages).


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## Azori

mateo19 said:


> Slovak:
> to fall in love with someone - zamilovať sa do niekoho


Also "zaľúbiť sa".


mateo19 said:


> to fall out of love with someone - (does "rozmilovať" exist?)


"Rozmilovať" does not exist. "Odľúbiť sa" could work but sounds a little made-up.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Slovenian:

*zaljubiti se* = to fall in love

I don't think Slovenian has a word meaning "to fall out of love." Instead, you would use something like:

*[Nisem/ni/nista/niso] ve**č [zaljubljen/zaljubljena/zaljubljeni/zaljubljene] v nekoga.

*EDIT:*

nehati ljubiti nekoga *= to stop loving someone


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## DarkChild

Bulgarian:

to fall in love - *влюбвам се/ vlyubvam se*

to fall out of love - *разлюбвам/ razlyubvam.*


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## tommy_tw

lior neith said:


> "Rozmilovať" does not exist. "Odľúbiť sa" could work but sounds a little made-up.



More naturally sounds "prestať ľúbiť" or "prestať milovať".


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## Duya

lior neith said:


> "Rozmilovať" does not exist. "Odľúbiť sa" could work but sounds a little made-up.



So does Serbian "odljubiti se". I mean, it is occasionally used, and it's unambiguous, but it does sound artificial; more like a pun than like an everyday word. I suppose that "fall out of love" belongs to the same basket.


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## Vasya_Polak

Russian:
to fall in love with somebody - полюбить кого-нибудь.
to fall out of love with somebody - разлюбить кого-нибудь.


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## Коста

mateo19 said:


> Ukrainian:
> to fall in love with someone - полюбити когось


 
Interesting, in Serbian _пољубити_ means to _kiss._


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## texpert

*odmilovat se* (as opposed to *zamilovat*) - one can hear it occasionally though I find it humorous to a large extent


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## mateo19

Hello Jordi!

I found something interesting.  Odmilovať is not in the official Slovak dictionary, but both odľúbiť and rozľúbiť are!  Here are the definitions:

odľúbiť sa, -i, -ia dok. hovor. prestať ľúbiť niekoho (op. zaľúbiť sa)
rozľúbiť sa, -i, -ia dok. (o milencoch) prestať sa ľúbiť, prestať byť zaľúbený, rozísť sa:

It's not exactly the same though, is it?  "Odľúbiť sa" is to stop loving someone and "rozdľúbiť sa" is to stop being in love (or stop being loved, I'm not sure)?  I hope you can reply to this point, lior neith. 



Duya said:


> So does Serbian "odljubiti se". I mean, it is occasionally used, and it's unambiguous, but it does sound artificial; more like a pun than like an everyday word. I suppose that "fall out of love" belongs to the same basket.



I agree, Duya, that they belong in the same basket.  I was just thinking of contexts to use "to fall out of love"...  Here's one: 
-What happened to the wedding?  I heard you two are no longer going to tie the knot...  
-Well, it's not easy to explain...  We simply "fell out of love".
It is easier to say that than to say, "We stopped loving each other" or "We're not in love with each other anymore".  It's as if it was simply something that happened naturally and no one is to blame.  Imagine someone saying matter-of-factly, "Oh, I see.  They fell out of love".  Then there's nothing else left to explain.  What a can of worms to open, but I wonder if any other native speakers of English agree with me and if there is the same sort of nuance in any of these Slavic languages...


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## Azori

mateo19 said:


> I found something interesting.  Odmilovať is not in the official Slovak dictionary, but both odľúbiť and rozľúbiť are!  Here are the definitions:
> 
> odľúbiť sa, -i, -ia dok. hovor. prestať ľúbiť niekoho (op. zaľúbiť sa)
> rozľúbiť sa, -i, -ia dok. (o milencoch) prestať sa ľúbiť, prestať byť zaľúbený, rozísť sa:
> 
> It's not exactly the same though, is it?  "Odľúbiť sa" is to stop loving someone and "rozdľúbiť sa" is to stop being in love (or stop being loved, I'm not sure)?


Something you didn't notice:

Slovník slovenského jazyka
Hlavný redaktor dr. Štefan Peciar, CSc. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied 1959 – 1968. -note the years
Pozor, toto nie je súčasná kodifikačná príručka! -and this sentence means that this dictionary shouldn't be used nowadays. It's only for archaisms. 
rozľúbiť sa, -i, -ia dok. (o milencoch) prestať sa ľúbiť, prestať byť zaľúbený, rozísť sa

Google won't give any results for it either. "Odľúbiť sa" is sometimes used, but it does sound like a made-up word and it certainly wouldn't be used in serious contexts.


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## mateo19

Thank you so much for that information, Lior Neith!  I had no idea that that dictionary was so old!  It is definitely outdated, then.  Students of the Slovak language should be careful!

Say, do you know of a more modern Slovak dictionary that would be of use to me?


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## Azori

mateo19 said:


> Say, do you know of a more modern Slovak dictionary that would be of use to me?


Mateo, the page you use contains data from 9 dictionaries and one of them is a historical dictionary with archaisms. There are always names of the dictionaries above the results (Pravidlá slovenského pravopisu, Synonymický slovník slovenčiny etc.) and years in which they were published.


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## Natabka

mateo19 said:


> ...
> Now, the idea of this post came about because I first learned in Slovak how to say "to fall in love" = zamilovať sa do niekoho.  Then the other day I heard a new song in Ukrainian, Річка by Юлія Рай,which says, "Наша пам’ять збереже любов що у нас була, вибач, зрозумій, я розлюбила*".  This verb, "розлюбити" is defined as, "переставати любити кого".  I think that means, "to stop loving someone".  So, in Ukrainian this could be the equivalent of "to fall out of love".
> 
> ...
> 
> Ukrainian:
> to fall in love with someone - полюбити когось
> to fall out of love with someone - розлюбити когось
> ...



Привіт, Матео!

Well, first of all you are absolutely correct with the Ukrainian version of in and out of love phrases. I'd say that *полюбити когось* (Accusative) is too the best if not only way to say it in Ukrainian. Moreover, it is quite universal - you may say so about your girlfriend or favourite movie/book/dish/pet, etc. That is, you may say:

Я полюбив її з першого погляду. - I fell in love with her at first sight.

Після фільму "---" я полюбив цього режисера. - I get to like this director after [I saw] the movie "---".

The same is true for  *розлюбити когось*.

 There is also a synonym to "полюбити" which means exclusively "to fall in love/to feel passion towards sb" ->

*покохати когось* 

(noun *кохання* (n)):

Я покохав її з першого погляду.

The dictionary gives "розкохати" too but I've never heard it in actual speech. Maybe, it is becoming old fashioned now. Actually, phrases like "*перестати любити*" (to cease to love), "*більше не кохати*" (not to love any more) are more frequent than verbs "розлюбити" and, especially, "розкохати".

P.S. Browsing the dictionary when replying to this thread I've come across reflexive verbs "полюбитися" - "розлюбитися" which are used only in prefective aspect and mean "to get to love each other" - "to cease to love each other". Quite a surprise it was because I have NEVER heard them. How many things I learn with you, Mateo 

P.P.S.* I always thought she sings "я ж любила" - "for I loved" or so: particle 'ж' is used for emphasis.


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## mateo19

Привіт, Наталю!

Thank you most kindly, as always, for your thorough and thoughtful post!  And if only you knew how much I learn *from* you as well! 

I really appreciate your confirmation of the information I had presented in Ukrainian.  I'm happy to be sure about how those verbs work in your language.  Now I won't doubt their grammar...

A comment though - it sort of surprised me when you said that you had never heard of "полюбитися" & "розлюбитися" being used reflexively.  Really?  I just wanted to let you know that in English it is very common to use them like this: "We fell in love with _each other_", "we stopped loving _each other_".  In Ukrainian, would you be more likely to use, "одне одного" rather than the verb with "ся"?



Natabka said:


> P.P.S.* I always thought she sings "я ж любила" - "for I loved" or so: particle 'ж' is used for emphasis.



Hmmm, well, when I originally saw the lyrics with my friend Джулєтта (the Ukrainian dancer, she performed to this song), it said "я розлюбила".  Then, when I came home and looked up the lyrics again, it said, "я ж любила".  I decided this was a mistake.  I thought that розлюбила fit the context better and I also thought that was what I heard.  But my ears are defective American ears, not really suited for detecting phonological nuances in Slavic languages, you see!!! ;-)  Perhaps some native Ukrainians could tune their ear in very closely and hear what Юлія Рай is actually singing.  (That song is in my Vkontakte profile.)  I would feel dumb for having opened this post with false information!  Woe is me...


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