s + (genitive)

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Gavril
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s + (genitive)

Postby Gavril » 2015-01-25, 6:51

Dober dan,

The construction s + [genitive] is translated as "from" by my dictionary. How does the meaning of this construction differ from the meaning of words such as iz and od?

For example, which would be preferable in these sentences?

Sem vozil z/od/iz Jurovskega Dola do Mežice.

To lepo uro sem dobil z/od Matije.

Se je smejal tako močno, da je padel s/od stola.


Hvala!

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Ashucky
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Re: s + (genitive)

Postby Ashucky » 2015-01-25, 15:25

The preposition iz would be more correctly translated as "out (of)" and s/z as "off (of)". Slovene, unlike English, uses two different prepositions to denote "from [place]", which forms a pair with two prepositions for "to [place]": iz - v (out of - into) and s/z - na (off of - onto). There are some rules so you can often predict which preposition a certain place name takes, but when it comes to many native place names in Slovenia, it's sometimes hard to tell and the best way then is to see what the local population uses.

Some examples:
Grem v Ljubljano. - Sem/prihajam iz Ljubljane.
Grem na Jesenice. - Sem/prihajam z Jesenic.
Grem v mesto/vas/gozd. - Prihajam iz mesta/vasi/gozda.
Grem na grad/goro/otok. - Prihajam z gradu/gore/otoka.
Grem v Italijo. - Sem iz Italije.
Grem na Finsko. - Sem s Finske. (quick rule of thumb: if the country ends in -ska, it requires na-s/z)

Similarly, the preposition od (from) forms a pair with do (to/towards). This is used in time tables, for example, od šestih do petih (from six to five), when expressing directions, or when saying that you received something from someone, or going to someone('s place), such as Grem do Mateja (I'm going to Matej's) - Prihajam od Mateja. (I'm coming from Matej's).

So, with that I hope you can figure out yourself which preposition should be used in the example sentences you wrote before, but if not (and if there's anything unclear, ask), here are the correct versions:
Sem vozil od Jurovskega Dola do Mežice.
To lepo uro sem dobil od Matije.
Se je smejal tako močno, da je padel s stola.
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Gavril
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Re: s + (genitive)

Postby Gavril » 2015-01-25, 16:05

Thanks -- I didn't know until now that s/z was the counterpart of na (I had thought that it was od instead).

You mentioned that od and do are used when expressing directions -- can you elaborate on that a bit?

For example, what would be the difference between saying

Sem vozil od Jurovskega Dola do Mežice.
versus
Sem vozil iz Jurovskega Dola v Mežico. [Based on the Googling I did, iz and v seem to be the correct prepositions for these locations.]

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Re: s + (genitive)

Postby Ashucky » 2015-01-25, 21:24

Well, both are correct, actually. When it comes to expressing movement from one place to another, you can use either od-do or iz/s/z-v/na.

The first pair, od-do, is usually used when talking about the distance or something more in general, it's kind of like treating the place names as single indivisible points (akin to expressing time, it's just temporal points, or in case of place names, spacial points). If you use the other pairs, iz/s/z-v/na, there's more emphasis on the places as actual 3D settlements, but the overall meaning doesn't really change.
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