Neighbourhoods and Locations in Ljubljana
Are you currently an expat living in Ljubljana? Do your Slovenian friends often ask where exactly you live in Ljubljana, and you have no idea how to say that in Slovenian?
Would you like to say in Slovenian that you come from a certain part of Ljubljana, but you struggle because you don’t know which preposition, case or ending to use? (So many things that need to be considered… 🙂 ) Here’s a little help:
- to express where we are or where we live we need to use the 5th case – the locative: Kje živiš? – Živim na Viču. (Where do you live? – I live in Vič.)
- to express where we come from we need to use the 2nd case – the genitive: Od kod si? – Sem z Viča. (Where are you from? – I’m from Vič.)
Slovenian has two pairs of prepositions which have to be used together. These are na – s/z and v – iz, both meaning in – from.
The capital of Slovenia may seem quite small but in fact has many neighbourhoods, so expect people would ask you where exactly you live.
Let’s see how we would say where exactly we are:
1.The neuter gender (declined as adjectives):
| Location in Ljubljana | Kje (Where) | Od kod (Where from) |
| Trnovo | v Trnovem | iz Trnovega |
| Sostro | v Sostrem | iz Sostrega |
| Kodeljevo | na Kodeljevem | s Kodeljevega |
| Tomačevo | v Tomačevem | iz Tomačevega |
2. The masculine gender:
| Location in Ljubljana | Kje (Where) | Od kod (Where from) |
| center | v centru | iz centra |
| Bežigrad | za Bežigradom* | iz Bežigrada |
| Vič | na Viču | z Viča |
| Podutik | v Podutiku | iz Podutika |
| Rudnik | na Rudniku | z Rudnika |
| Šentvid | v Šentvidu | iz Šentvida |
| Zalog | v Zalogu | iz Zaloga |
Exception: Živim za Bežigradom. (I live in Bežigrad. Literally: I live behind Bežigrad.) – the 6th case (the instrumental)
3. The feminine gender:
| Location in Ljubljana | Kje (Where) | Od kod (Where from) |
| Šiška | v Šiški | iz Šiške |
| Ježica | na Ježici | z Ježice |
| Rožna dolina | v Rožni dolini | iz Rožne doline |
| Rakova jelša | na Rakovi jelši | z Rakove jelše |
4. The neuter gender:
| Location in Ljubljana | Kje (Where) | Od kod (Where from) |
| Štepanjsko naselje | v Štepanjskem naselju | iz Štepanjskega naselja |
| Polje | v Polju | iz Polja |
5. The feminine gender (plural):
| Location in Ljubljana | Kje (Where) | Od kod (Where from) |
| Črnuče | v Črnučah | iz Črnuč |
| Dravlje | v Dravljah | iz Dravelj |
| Vižmarje | v Vižmarjah | iz Vižmarij |
| Prule | na Prulah | s Prul |
| Fužine | v Fužinah | iz Fužin |
| Moste | v Mostah | iz Most |
| Poljane | na Poljanah | s Poljan |
| Murgle | v Murglah | iz Murgel |
| Jarše | v Jaršah | iz Jarš |
| Savlje | v Savljah | iz Savelj |
| Vevče | v Vevčah | iz Vevč |
| Koseze | v Kosezah | iz Kosez |
| Stožice | v Stožicah | iz Stožic |
These city parts are in plural so we also need to conjugate them in plural. For example: Črnuče so daleč. (Črnuče are far.)
Examples of use:
- Trenutno sem v Šiški. (I’m in Šiška at the moment.)
- Živim v hiši na Rudniku. (I live in a house in Rudnik.)
- Katja je iz Črnuč. (Katja is from Črnuče.)
- Mi živimo v centru. (We live in the city center.)
- Na Prulah je lepo. (It’s nice in Prule.)
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