# Slovenian: smo/sva



## iwwi

_na plinu *smo*
Re: Gretje ponoči v bloku

Mi imamo v bloku etažno ogrevanje na plin. Midva imava čez dan kadar *sva* doma med 21 in 22 stopinj, ponoči pa ne ogrevava in pade nekje na 20 (proti jutru)._


This author first used the regular plural (smo) and then the dual (sva).  Are they perhaps interchangeable?

Thank you in advance.


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## Lanmi

Since I'm no native, don't take my word for it, but in Slovenian, in some situations, you can use the plural where you can also use the dual, but not in reverse. You'll notice "*midva*" and "*imava*" as well.
There might also be something else, as in the plural referring to the whole block/building(?) and the dual to only two specific individuals? I don't know


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## Duya

Lanmi said:


> as in the plural referring to the whole block/building(?) and the dual to only two specific individuals?



I'm not native either, but that's how I interpret it: _mi_ = our neighborhood, _midva_ = my family, I and my spouse.


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## iwwi

Do you guys understand each other freely among the ex-republics?


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## Duya

Well, no. Mutual intelligibility between BCS and Slovene is about the same as between BCS and Bulgarian: broadly possible, but with a lot of difficulties. Still, we regulars of this forum are linguistic enthusiasts, so we tend to perhaps apply a broader understanding. 

(Besides, e.g. my answers to your previous questions were based on some BCS influences on Slovene, or common German influences on both.)


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## iwwi

The Slovene-Bulgarian percentile is somewhere in the single digits in my experience.   What about Montenegro?


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## Duya

Montenegro is a nice country with high mountains and blue sea .

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/Montenegrin is a single organic language, and we have no problems understanding each other even in most advanced topics. Macedonian has different grammar (much closer to Bulgarian), but the lexis is close enough that we generally understand some 80% even when spoken. Slovene is a tougher case, and depending on listener/reader we understand some 40-90% (as you know, often a single unknown word can spoil understanding of the whole sentence), and we'll miss a lot of subtleties (Kajkavian/Zagreb area speakers, like Itreius, will understand much more).

Personally, I find Slovene somewhat more understandable than Bulgarian, but then I've had more cultural contact with it, and we share a lot of e.g. Germanic loans. With Bulgarian, we share many Turkish loans, but much less Russian ones. Plus, phonology of standard eastern Bulgarian (e.g. Ya-reflex of yat) makes it harder for us to follow... Etc. It depends on many factors, it is hard to generalize.


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## iwwi

Thanks for the info.  It sounds like you know what you are talking about.


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## TriglavNationalPark

iwwi said:


> _na plinu *smo*
> Re: Gretje ponoči v bloku
> 
> Mi imamo v bloku etažno ogrevanje na plin. Midva imava čez dan kadar *sva* doma med 21 in 22 stopinj, ponoči pa ne ogrevava in pade nekje na 20 (proti jutru)._
> 
> 
> This author first used the regular plural (smo) and then the dual (sva).  Are they perhaps interchangeable?
> 
> Thank you in advance.



As Duya pointed out, the subject of the first sentence is plural. The author is referring to all residents in the apartment building. In the second sentence, the author is referring to just himself/herself and another person (perhaps a a spouse or a roommate), so the dual grammatical number must be used.

In standard Slovenian (as opposed to casual speech), the dual and the plural are quite distinct and *not* interchangeable, with the exception of some natural pairs (*oči* [= eyes], *ušesa* [= ears], *starši *[= parents], etc.), where the plural commonly replaces the dual.


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