Small words

Formation

A means “and”, ale “but” and alebo “or”. A comma is written before ale, but not before a or alebo when they join two plain words or clauses: Mám čaj, ale nemám kávu. Chceš čaj alebo kávu?

Use

A is also used to set two things side by side where English has “while” or “and”: Ja pracujem a ty spíš. At the start of a short question, a is used to return the same question: Mám sa dobre. A ty? A contrast is expressed with ale: Je starý, ale rýchly.

Formation

Už (“already”) and ešte (“still”) usually come before the verb: Hana už spí, Hana ešte spí. With a negative verb the meaning turns round: už + negative verb is “no longer”, ešte + negative verb is “not yet”.

Use

The short answers are Ešte nie (“Not yet”) and Už nie (“Not any more”). Ešte also means “more” or “another”: ešte jedno pivo. In the past, už and ešte are used with the ordinary past where English has the present perfect: Už som jedol (“I’ve already eaten”), Ešte som nejedol (“I haven’t eaten yet”).

Formation

Many adverbs are formed from adjectives with -e or -o: dobrý, dobre; zlý, zle; rýchly, rýchlo; častý, často. A language is named with po and an adverb in -y, formed from the adjective: slovenský, po slovensky; anglický, po anglicky; nemecký, po nemecky.

Use

An adjective agrees with its noun, but an adverb never changes: Hana je dobrá študentka (adjective), Hana hovorí dobre (adverb). Veľmi (“very”) and trochu (“a little”) come before an adjective or an adverb: veľmi unavený, trochu pomaly; veľa is “a lot”, “much”: Veľa pracujem. Často (“often”), niekedy (“sometimes”), vždy (“always”) and zriedka (“rarely”) usually come before the verb: Často varím. Spolu (“together”) usually comes after the verb: Bývame spolu.

Formation

Where English puts a noun before a noun (chocolate ice cream, fruit tea), Slovak has an adjective made from the first noun with -ový, -ný, -ský or -cký. The suffix replaces the last vowel of the noun or follows its last consonant: čokoláda, čokoládový; syr, syrový; futbal, futbalový; pomaranč, pomarančový; ovocie, ovocný; škola, školský; mesto, mestský. The adjectives of countries and languages are formed in the same way: Slovensko, slovenský; Anglicko, anglický; Nemecko, nemecký.

Use

An adjective made from a noun agrees with its noun like any adjective: čokoládový džús, čokoládová torta, čokoládové mlieko, and in the accusative Dám si čokoládovú tortu.

Formation

Slovak has two letters for the same vowel: i (í) and y (ý). The consonant before the vowel shows which letter is written:

After b, f, m, p, r, s, v and z both letters are found, and the spelling is learnt with each word. In the plural of men an adjective ends in -í after k, h, g and ch too: veľkí, anglickí.

Use

The two letters are pronounced alike; the rule accounts for the endings met at A1. A masculine thing and a feminine noun in -a take -y in the plural (obchody, knihy); men take -i, where d, t, n, l are read soft (študenti, kamaráti); an adjective has -ý in the singular and -í with men in the plural (mladý, mladí; anglický, anglickí).