Appendix:Slovene nouns/first masculine declension

The first masculine declension follow all masculine nouns that have ending or  in genitive singular and the word. Nouns can follow all four accentual patterns and some can change gender in plural.

Basic sample
There are two things that determine the endings of a noun: whether it is animate or animate, and whether it is a hard or soft stem. Animate nouns have ending in accusative singular, while inanimate have a null ending. Soft stems (those ending in -c, -j, -č, -ž, -š) have -e- in endings instead of -o-:

Alterations
Note: the second form is, if not otherwise denoted, in genitive singular


 * Nouns can have -j-, -t-, or -n- infix


 * A relatively small number of masculine nouns have a nominative (and accusative, if inanimate) singular an ending -a ( (mostly the nouns that can also follow second masculine declination) 'servant'), -e ( 'final'), -o ( (a male name), or -u ( '(a name)'). Sometimes, but not always, the suffixes in Latin loanwords -as, -es, -is, -os, -us, and -um are considered an ending. Examples of this include Leonȋda,  Ȃvgija,  Aristọ̄tela,  Juvenȃla,  Arhȋloha,  Tȃcita, and  Tarẹ̑nta. These suffixes can be omitted (Leonȋd, Aristọ̄tel, Juvenȃl etc.), but if we do so, the stems that end with a vowel must be lengthened with a j-, even in nominative case (,, , etc.). The lengthening of the stem is also present in other cases if one does not decide to omit the suffix. Other times, the suffix is considered as a part of the stem, such as  Rọ̑dosa, and some can be declined both ways, such as  ọ̑bola/ọ̑bolosa and  alpinẹ̑ta/alpinẹ̑tuma. Modern Greek names are considered not to have an ending in nominative ( Makariosa).


 * The surname can have alternatively a stem Nepot- in other cases ( Nẹ̑pota).


 * some monosyllabic nouns have an ending in genitive singular (mọ̑st mostȗ 'bridge',  rodȗ 'lineage') – remnants of u-stem declension.


 * Many nouns have the stem shortened in cases where the ending is not a null ending (as it is nominative singular), mainly because they have a fill vowel, which is there to ease the pronunciacion. The change can be evident in writing, pronunciation, or both:
 * In writing, silent -e at the end of the stem is omitted in some loanwords  Wilda  and   Lafforgua, but not in cases where that would affect the pronunciation of preceding letters, such as in  / Wallacea  and   Georgea , except if it is preventing the nasalisation of the consonant + m/n that precede it, such as   Lamartina . If e is followed by other letters, it is kept in all cases, whether it is pronounced or not (  Holmesa  and   Jacquesa ).
 * In pronunciation, when the sound is not written with an e or o, such as in žánra and fílm fílma.
 * In both when the sound is written by its own letter, usually with an e, but also with a or o, such as pósla 'business' and  séjma 'fair'. In loanwords from other Slavic languages, fill vowels are preserved if the removal would break other grammatical rules. Examples include  Muromca,  Dudka,  Čapka,  Kragujevca, and  Zadra, but not, because Lev Lva would violate other grammatical rules, so it is declined as Lev Leva. The omission of the sound is also present in some non-Slavic loanwords, such as  / Münchna , ráster rástra, but sometimes the sound is preserved in all cases, where it is transformed into  or , such as  Ȃndersena and   Olafssona.


 * Nouns ending in -io (such as / 'radio') usually follow the soft inflection pattern radio instrumental singular radiem.


 * Names ending in a vowel and consonant that is not pronounced are j-stem nouns, and can be written following hard or soft declension, but always pronounced as in soft declension. The added -j- is not written, only pronounced ( instrumental singular Maratom/Maratem ). Same happens to those ending in r and a silent consonant (Macquart  instrumental singular Macquartom/Macquartem ).


 * Some nouns have the stem lengthened with -ov- in dual and plural, except in genitive case (for example wikt-grȃd nominative dual gradȏva 'castle', nominative dual grobȏva "grave"). These are usually monosyllabic nouns.


 * Some nouns have the ending -je in the nominative plural instead of -i. This is a remnant of the Common Slavic masculine i-stem inflection, which was mostly lost in Slovene except for this ending. For example: 'student', nominative plural študéntje,  'sir, lord', nominative plural gospọ̑dje,  'farmer', nominative plural kmẹ́tje, etc. Usually, the regular form is also allowed, but rarely preferred.


 * Some nouns (mostly those that have an ending -u in genitive singular) have a null ending in genitive dual/plural (, genitive plural lás 'hair', genitive plural zọ́b 'tooth'). Some can be declined either way (, genitive plural vozóv/vọ̑z).


 * About special stressed endings in plural, see mixed accent nouns.


 * Few nouns show the effects of the Slavic second palatalisation in some of the plural forms:
 * : nominative plural otróci, locative dual/plural otrọ̄cih.
 * : nominative plural volcjẹ̑. But this form is rare, the usual nominative plural is volkȏvi.


 * Many forms of the noun 'day' have two stems, a shorter one with only the consonants dn-, and a longer one dnẹ̑v-. The longer stem declines as a regular o-stem, while the shorter one has a unique set of endings not shared with any other noun. The formal, most appropriate declension, is a mix of both:


 * The masculine noun 'human, person' is suppletive. In the plural, the stem ljud- is used, which follows the mobile-accent o-stem declension:

Common colloquial or archaic additional forms

 * In the 19th century the ending -i was often used in the dative/locative singular instead of -u. This form was already included in the examples above.
 * In the 18th century the endings -ama, -am, and -ah were more common; nowadays they are purely dialectal. These forms are also already included.
 * All nowadays soft stems were up to 19th century declined as hard and that also holds true for most dialects.


 * A lot of nouns nowadays following the second masculine declension are colloquially declined with t- (usually, sometimes -a changes to -e) or n- (Carinthian dialects) infix.