Letters and sounds

The Slovene literary language has 25 letters. The alphabet looks like this:

A a B b C c Čč D d E e F f G g H h I I K k L l M m N n O o P p R r S s Š š T t U u V v Z z Žž

Sounds

These 25 leters signify 29 sounds (and their variants), by means of which the meaning of words can be distinguished. Of these, 8 are vowels and 21 are consonants.

The vowels are usually written as a e i o u , without regard to whether they are long or short, stressed or unstressed, or broad or narrow (this last applies only to e and o). In the vocabulary lists, the long stressed syllables are marked with the sign ` (but over e and o also with ^), short stressed vowels are marked with >.

The sign ' over e and o indicates a narrow pronounciation and a ^ a broad pronounciation.

Slovene vowels are pronounced only approximately as they are in English. Cf. The following:

In Slovenian, the letters for the consonants are pronounced as in English, but peculiarities are introduced in the following table:

Remember also the following about the pronounciation of consonants:

At the end of a word, b d g z ž and dž are pronounced as p t k s f tf, respectively; They are pronounced as written only if the following word starts with b d g z ž or dž.

If a preposition or prefix ends with b d or z, the last consonant is pronounced as p t or s only before a pause and before ptk s š č f c h .

B d g z ž and dž before p t k s š č f c h are pronounced in all positions as p t ks f and tf and vice versa: ptk etc. before b d g etc. are pronounced b d g etc.

Two identical consonants are pronounced as one long consonant: oddati, sam misli, izzvati.