I can point to something near me or far away — tento stôl, tamtá stolička — and say where it is: tu, tam, vľavo, hore.
Ten, tento, tamten: this and that
Ten, tento, tamten: this and that
Why: to point at a thing and say where it is.
The word ten (this, that) changes with the noun's gender, which you already know: masc. ten, fem. tá, neut. to, like môj, moja, moje.
This one, here: add -to to ten: tento, táto, toto. That one, over there: put tam- in front: tamten, tamtá, tamto. Example: Táto kniha je tu, tamtá je tam.
To ask where, use kde? The answer: tu (here), tam (there), or a place word from the table. As in English “Where's…?”, the question needs je: Kde je tvoje pero?
On its own, “Toto je … / To je …” means “This is … / That is …”: here toto doesn't change with the gender of what it names: Toto je môj stôl (stôl is masculine), but tento stôl. Wrong: × Tento je môj stôl → Toto je môj stôl.
Sound: in ten, tento, tamten the te is hard: an exception to the soft de, te, ne, le.
myš is feminine although it ends in a consonant: the word list shows the gender in parentheses.
False friend: tabuľa is a board (in a classroom), not a table; a table is stôl. stolička is a chair.
Common mistakes:
• × tá zošit → ten zošit (zošit is masculine)
• × tento číslo → toto číslo
• × Kde tvoje pero? → Kde je tvoje pero?
This, this one here, that one over there
Tento is ten plus -to; tamten has tam- in front.
| Gender | ten — the, that | tento — this one, here | tamten — that one, over there |
|---|---|---|---|
| masc. | ten zošit | tento zošit | tamten zošit |
| fem. | tá kniha | táto kniha | tamtá kniha |
| neut. | to číslo | toto číslo | tamto číslo |
Kde? — words for places
These words don't change. Uprostred means the same as v strede.
| In Slovak | In English |
|---|---|
| tu | here |
| tam | there |
| hore | up, upstairs |
| dole | down, downstairs |
| vpravo | on the right |
| vľavo | on the left |
| vpredu | in front |
| vzadu | at the back |
| v strede | in the middle |
| uprostred | in the middle |
Lesson notes
Ten, tento, tamten: this and that
Why: to point at a thing and say where it is.
The word ten (this, that) changes with the noun's gender, which you already know: masc. ten, fem. tá, neut. to, like môj, moja, moje.
This one, here: add -to to ten: tento, táto, toto. That one, over there: put tam- in front: tamten, tamtá, tamto. Example: Táto kniha je tu, tamtá je tam.
To ask where, use kde? The answer: tu (here), tam (there), or a place word from the table. As in English “Where's…?”, the question needs je: Kde je tvoje pero?
On its own, “Toto je … / To je …” means “This is … / That is …”: here toto doesn't change with the gender of what it names: Toto je môj stôl (stôl is masculine), but tento stôl. Wrong: × Tento je môj stôl → Toto je môj stôl.
Sound: in ten, tento, tamten the te is hard: an exception to the soft de, te, ne, le.
myš is feminine although it ends in a consonant: the word list shows the gender in parentheses.
False friend: tabuľa is a board (in a classroom), not a table; a table is stôl. stolička is a chair.
Common mistakes:
• × tá zošit → ten zošit (zošit is masculine)
• × tento číslo → toto číslo
• × Kde tvoje pero? → Kde je tvoje pero?