Word order

Declarative sentence

Usual word order:
Subject + predicate + other constituents of the sentence + full stop (.)

Word order in Slovak is fairly flexible:

Peter ide dnes prvý raz do školy. (Today Peter is going to school for the first time.)
Dnes ide Peter prvý raz do školy.
Do školy ide dnes Peter prvý raz.
Prvý raz ide dnes Peter do školy.
= The meaning of the sentence does not change, but we can emphasise individual words by changing the word order.

Interrogative sentence

Usual word order:
(Interrogative pronoun) + predicate + subject + other constituents of the sentence + question mark (?)

Jano býva v Bratislave.
Býva Jano v Bratislave?

Jano ide do školy.
Kam ide Jano?

Imperative sentence

Usual word order:
(Form of address) + predicate + other constituents of the sentence + exclamation mark (!)

Píš úlohu!
Spite osem hodín!
Deti, čítajte knihy!

Complex sentence

A compound sentence is a simple combination of two or more sentences. The word order does not change.

The word order in a complex sentence depends on the type of complex sentences, so those word orders are explained individually.

Word order in a sentence with dative and accusative

Peter si zabudol knihu. Martina, požičaj mu knihu!

In the sentence above, one object is in the accusative (knihu) and the other object is in the dative (mu). The word order depends on how these objects are expressed. Remember two rules:

1. If both objects are expressed by pronouns, the order is D + A.
2. If one of the objects is expressed by a noun and the other by a pronoun, the pronoun takes precedence over the noun.

Otec požičal synovi auto.
Otec mu požičal auto.
Podaj mi tú knihu.
Podaj mi ju.
Dal si bratovi kľúče?

The word order of a sentence can be reversed to emphasize an element of the sentence:

Požičaj tú knihu Petrovi.
Otec požičal svoje auto synovi.

See also:
Formation of questions
Complex sentence