Slovenian Slang: How Cool are You?

Slovenian slang expressions are shared between people of about the same age. The most widespread use is among young people, particularly teenagers. Typically, with slang, foreign words and phrases get introduced. In Slovenian slang spoken nowadays, words are taken mostly from English, and in the past German and Serbo-Croatian words were more common.

Slang is everywhere

Slang is present everywhere, including places where it shouldn’t be, for example, in media and books for the youth. Sometimes I’m even shocked when I hear new slang words and wonder where they came from. One reason for the popularity in this teen demographic, according to psychologists, is that slang is said to be a reflection of rebelliousness.

I use some Slovenian slang speaking to my friends too. Talking to my parents I tend to use less, which is good, because I would like to reduce my ‘slang vocabulary’. If I overuse it, I feel like a teenager, and of course I don’t want to feel that way. From observing and talking to some foreigners, I realised that they mostly don’t distinguish standard Slovenian from slang, but for those who started to learn our language, I think they hear the difference. In any case, I’m sure if they hear some Slovenian slang words which sound similar to English, they wouldn’t think that this is a Slovenian word. Maybe my colleague Paddy could say something about this, because he had an opportunity to observe and learn the language for a few months.

Slang is cool

I think that slang is so spread also because it is perceived as being cool, particularly by the younger generation. I have to say that I can hardly imagine that our teenagers would speak only standard Slovenian among themselves. They would seem too serious. A little bit of slang is okay, but everything has its limits.

I observe how people talk among themselves, among young and older generations. It’s surprising that young people talk to older people in a much better way than among their teenage peers. So, luckily a politeness is still been preserved. It’s also great that some people don’t use so much slang, especially if they come from other regions of Slovenia, out of Ljubljana region. In general I think that older generations preserve more the Slovenian standard language while they speak, than young ones. And it’s good that slang changes faster than standard language. Some words come and are popular for a while, and then they leave and some other expressions replace them. So, it’s not something, which could stay in the language forever. In that way standard Slovenian can be better preserved.

Examples of Slovenian Slang

I gathered some interesting expressions, so that, when you visit Slovenia, you can recognise when slang is being used, so you won’t think that our standard language is some strange mixture of Slovenian and English:

Slang	Standard Slovenian	English	Origin
basket	košarka	basketball
špilat	igrati	to play	from German: spielen
težiti	sitnariti	to nag
fajtat se	pretepati se	to fight
laufat	teči	to run	German: laufen
pardon	oprosti	‘excuse me’ or ‘pardon’
zakva	zakaj	why
šit	sranje	shit
drink	pijača	drink
valda	seveda	you bet
faca	‘pojava’, also ‘obraz’	‘character’, also ‘face’
okej	‘v redu’ or ‘dobro’	okay
kul	‘super’ or ‘dobro’	cool
un	tisti	that
jst	jaz	‘I’ or ‘me’
itak	seveda	of course
totalno	popolnoma	totally
keš	denar	cash
tumač	preveč	too much
sori	oprosti	sorry
lajf	življenje	life
beden	slab	bad, uncool
skos	vedno	always
bejba	dobra ženska	babe
‘frend’ (male) or ‘frendica’ (female)	‘prijatelj’ or ‘prijateljica’	friend
d best	najboljše	the best
‘tip’ or ‘model’	‘moški’ or ‘fant’	‘man’ or ‘boy’
folk	ljudje	‘folk’ or ‘people’
baje	‘domnevno’ or ‘menda’	supposedly
šov	predstava	show
plis	prosim	please
out	iti iz mode	out (of fashion)
in	‘moderno’ or ‘v modi’	in (fashion)
komp	računalnik	computer
luzer	zguba	loser
To ni fer!	To ni pravično!	It’s not fair!
izi	lahek, preprost	easy
simpl	preprosto	simple
flet	stanovanje	flat
cajt	čas	time	German: die Zeit
mejbi	morda, mogoče	maybe
tenks	hvala	thanks

And some sentences with Slovenian slang for fun:

Slang	Standard Slovenian	English
Ful sm hepi!	Zelo sem vesel! (vesela, for females)	I’m so happy!
Blo je okej.	Bilo je v redu.	It was okay.
Kok je blo izi!	Kako lahko je bilo!	It was so easy!
Ta folk je čist zmešan.	Ti ljudje so popolnoma zmešani.	These people are totally crazy.
Mejbi pridem dons.	Morda pridem danes.	Maybe I come today.
Fajn se mej! (‘fajn’ as in ‘fine’)	Lepo se imej!	Have a nice day!
Moj frend ma ful dobre šuze.	Moj prijatelj ima zelo dobre čevlje.	My friend has a very nice shoes.
Poslat morm mesič.	Poslati moram sporočilo.	I have to send a message.
Tenks!	Hvala!	Thanks!
Dobr biznis!	Dober posel!	Good business!
Ne tega plis okol govort.	Prosim, ne govori tega okoli.	Don’t speak about this, please.

Globalisation also affects the language. American culture, movies, music, technology, and internet all strongly influence the adoption of new words and phrases, but, as I mentioned before, slang continuously changes and for that reason it doesn’t represent a big danger. As people grow up and become more serious—because of their job, or a change of mentality—the use of slang usually fades out.