The Slovenian Alphabet

The Slovenian alphabet (abeceda) has 25 letters. It differs from the English alphabet in that it has no letters x, y, w, and q, (you will find them in spellings of foreign names, places, etc.) but the following three letters (known as šumniki) are added:

c ch as in chocolate, chicken
š sh as in shop, ship
ž ge as in courgette, or as the s in measure

Here are the 25 Slovenian letters. Each of them is pronounced in the same way as the italicized letters in the English words next to them. The translation of these words into Slovenian is also given:

a	alphabet	abeceda	m	mother	mama
b	bank	banka	n	nature	narava
c	pizza	pica	o	opera	opera
c	chocolate	cokolada	p	pepper	poper
d	director	direktor	r	revolution	revolucija
e	electricity	elektrika	s	salt	sol
f	fantasy	fantazija	š	champagne	šampanjec
g	gorilla	gorila	t	television	televizija
h	house	hiša	u	moon	luna
i	information	informacija	v	villa	vila
j	yes	ja	z	zebra	zebra
k	coffee	kava	ž	garage	garaža
l	legend	legenda

A simple guide to pronunciation

This is just a basic simple guide which should give you an idea of how the language is pronounced:

The Slovenian language is mostly phonetic, which means that it is pronounced as it is written. Each letter has only one specific sound which makes reading and writing easy. It is very important to remember the correct sounds of the letters and once you have done so you will be able to read and write with hardly any mistakes. The grammar, on the other hand, is a special chapter and requires a lot of time even for native Slovenian speakers to learn it properly.

• Click here to view Slovenian language basics