Pronunciation

Consonants

There are twenty consonants in Slovene. They can be voiced or unvoiced. They are pronounced as they are spelled (refer to the alphabet).

b
the 'b' in "best"

c
the 'ts' in "bets"

č
the 'ch' in "chocolate"

d
the 'd' in "day"

f
the 'f' in "far"

g
the 'g' in "go"

h
the 'h' in "heat"

j
the 'y' in "Yankee"

k
the 'k' in "kick"

l
the 'l' in "left", but 'w' after another consonant or at the end of a word

m
the 'm' in "mom"

n
the 'n' in "nothing"

p
the 'p' in "path"

r
the 'r' in trilled like spanish 'r' in "rico", or 'er' when used as a vowel

s
the 's' in "seven"

š
the 'sh' in "shock"

šč
akin to 'shch' in "fresh cheese", but melded together

t
the 't' in "taxi"

v
the 'v' in "vase", but sometimes 'w' (see below)

z
the 'z' in "zero"

ž
the 'su' in "pleasure" or 'ge' in "garage"

The voiced consonants are: b, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v, z, ž. The unvoiced consonants are: c, č, f, h, k, p, s, š, t.

Look carefully at the letters č, š, and ž. They are typical for Slovene and some other Central and South European languages. Also note how you pronounce j and h in Slovene.

Certain letters will at times be grouped with certain other letters and have a slightly different pronunciation. The same happens when they occupy a certain position in the word. For example:

When l is at the end of a word or placed after any other consonant than j it is pronounced as w as in bel (BEW, "white"), popoldan (POPOWDAN, "afternoon").

"V" is pronounced as v before vowels (vaja "exercise", voda "water"), before the consonants r (vrt "garden", vreme "weather") and before vowels within a word (živeti "to live", zvezek "notebook"). When v is at the end of the word, after a vowel or before a consonant (except for r and l) it is pronounced as w, as in prav ("OK"), kovček ("suitcase"). When v is at the beginning of the word or when it appears between consonants or before two or more consonants it is pronounced as u as in vprašati ("to ask"), vhod ("entrance"). The Slovene r is pronounced strongly, slightly rolled. It is pronounced as er when it stands before another consonant or when it stands between two consonants.

In a few words where they appear, two identical vowels or consonants are pronounced as one long one, as in priimek ("surname"), oddelek ("department").