The Genitive Case in Slovak (Genitív)
Genitive Case (Genitív: Koho? Čoho?)
Answers Koho? Čoho? (Whose? Of what?), expressing possession, quantification (5+ items), absence, and governed by prepositions like od, do, z, bez, u, blízko, počas.
In Slovak grammar, the *Genitive Case (Genitív) answers the questions Koho? (Whose? / Of whom?) and Čoho? (Of what?)*. It is one of the most versatile cases in the language:
1. Primary Functions: - *Possession and Relation (Privlastňovanie): Indicates the owner or source: auto môjho otca (my father's car), riaditeľ školy (director of the school). - Quantities and Partitives (Množstvo a čiastka): After numerals 5 and above and adverbs of quantity (veľa, málo, dosť, niekoľko): päť študentov (five students), veľa vody (a lot of water), kilo syra (a kilo of cheese). - Absence and Negation with 'niet': Niet času (There is no time), Nemám brata (animate direct object negation in accusative/genitive syncretism). - Prepositional Complements: Governed by a wide family of prepositions: od (from), do (into/to), z/zo (out of/from), bez (without), u (at the place of), blízko (near), počas (during), vedľa (next to), okrem* (except for).
2. Characteristic Endings: - Masculine singular: -a for animate (chlap → chlapa, brat → brata) and hard inanimate (dub → duba or -u: hrad → hradu). - Feminine singular: -y for hard stems (žena → ženy) and -e for soft stems (ulica → ulice). - Neuter singular: -a (mesto → mesta, srdce → srdca). - Plural: Masculine -ov (chlapov, dubov), Feminine/Neuter zero ending with vowel lengthening (žien, miest, škôl).
Learner Mistake: Forgetting that feminine and neuter genitive plurals typically drop the final vowel and lengthen the root syllable with long vowels or diphthongs (škola → škôl, kniha → kníh, cesta → ciest).
Examples
Počas letných prázdnin sme cestovali od severu krajiny až do Bratislavy.
During the summer holidays we traveled from the north of the country all the way to Bratislava.
V centre starého mesta je veľa moderných obchodov a útulných kaviarní.
In the center of the old town there are many modern shops and cozy cafes.
Prišli sme na stretnutie bez nášho hlavného projektového manažéra.
We arrived at the meeting without our main project manager.
Kúpil som päť zaujímavých kníh od známych slovenských spisovateľov.
I bought five interesting books by well-known Slovak writers.
Related terms
Learn sk in context — free dictionary and practice.