Slovenian Words Ending in -L

The final L in some Slovenian words in the nominative can be pronounced as U or L. This can be tough to guess for someone who is learning the language, so I will give a few tips when to pronounce the final L as L or as U.

The words where we always pronounce L as U at the end:

• masculine participles ending in -L in singular: delal [delau̯], šel [šeu̯], živel [živeu̯] …
• some masculine adjectives ending in -L: vesel [veseu̯], bel [beu̯], debel [debeu̯], topel [topəu̯], mrzel [mrzəu̯], svetel [svetəu̯], cel [ceu̯], votel [votəu̯], gnil [gniu̯], zrel [zreu̯], gol [gou̯]

L pronounced as U:

• žal [žau̯] – unfortunately
• žival [živau̯] – animal, F
• stol [stou̯] – chair
• sol [sou̯] – salt, F  
• fižol [fižou̯] – bean
• piščal [piščau̯] – whistle, F
• del (telesa, hiše …) [deu̯] – part of the body, house…
• pekel [pekəu̯] – hell
• misel [misəu̯] – thought, F
• zmrzal [zmrzau̯] – frost, F
• vogal [vogau̯] – corner
• vol [vou̯] – ox
• orel [orəu̯] – eagle
• osel [osəu̯] – donkey
• plevel [pleveu̯] – weed
• pepel [pepeu̯] – ash
• posel [posəu̯] – business
• smisel [smisəu̯] – meaning, sense
• pol (pice, torte, kilograma, litra …) [pou̯] – half a pizza, cake, kilogram, liter… (Half of something!)

L pronounced as L:

• šal [šal] – scarf
• val – wave
• predal – drawer
• kopel – bath, F
• pokal – cup
• pomol – pier
• spol – gender, sex
• sokol – falcon
• glagol – verb
• glavobol – headache
• zobobol – toothache
• words of foreign origin: hotel, model, gel, portal, angel, kanal – canal, channel, tunel – tunnel, gol – goal (sport), alkohol – alcohol, skalpel – scalpel, kristal – crystal, simbol – symbol
• pol (treh, petih, sedmih …) – half past two, four, six… (When expressing time!)

ə = semivowel, F = feminine

When we change the ending of the noun in different cases we pronounce the letter L in any case.

Žival: Nimam domače živali [živali]. – I don’t have a pet.

Sol: Brez soli [soli] hrana nima okusa. – The food has no taste without salt.

Fižol: Ne maram fižola [fižola]. – I don’t like beans.