Slovene Punctuation - Full Stop

Full Stop

Syntactical Use

A full stop (.) is a left-leaning punctuation mark. This means that it 'touches' the preceding word, but is followed by a space.

It is ordinarily used at the end of a neutral declaratory sentence, be it a real sentence with a predicate or a non-sentence.

• To je bilo včeraj. (This was yesterday.)
• Včeraj. (Yesterday.)

When a statement is articulated, the pitch is cadent, thus decreased towards the end of such a sentence.

In an indicative compound sentence with the last part an independent clause that does not end in a full stop, the full stop is omitted.

• Rekli so mi, naj grem, a kam? (They told me to go, but where?)
  • (and not "Rekli so mi, naj grem, a kam?.")

The final punctuation mark of a quoted sentence (with or without inverted commas) within a declaratory sentence is omitted if the quoted sentence is not preceded by a colon.

• Ko smo hodili po travi, smo opazili prepoved Ne hodi po travi. (When walking on the grass, we noticed the restriction Do not walk on the grass.)
• Ko smo hodili po travi, smo opazili prepoved: Ne hodi po travi!

A full stop is replaced by a comma in direct speech before the accompanying sentence.

• "Oh, mar bi bile ostale doma," je zamrmrala Marjeta. ("Oh, they/we might as well have stayed home," muttered Marjeta (Daisy).)

Non-Syntactical Use

Some abbreviations are, as in American English, always followed by a full stop.

• dr. (doktor; Dr, doctor); npr. (na primer; e.g., for example, exempli gratia); tj. (to je; this is); l. (leto; year); t.i. (tako imenovani; so-called); itn., itd. (in tako naprej, in tako dalje; etc., et cetera, and so on).

However, other abbreviations are, as in American English, never followed by a full stop.

• ZDA (Združene države Amerike; USA, United States of America)
• km (kilometer; km, kilometre)
• Fe (železo; Fe, iron)

Ordinal numerals are followed by a full stop.

Numbers may be separated by leaning full stops in the following cases:

• for time of the day
  • Ob 22.15 ('dvaindvajset petnajst' or 'dvaindvajsetih in petnajst minut') se film konča. (At 22.15 (10.15 pm) the film ends.)
    • 22.15 can also be written as 2215
• to separate thousands from the rest
  • 1.000.000 (en milijon; one million, 1,000,000) (but more usual is 1 000 000)
• to show multiplication
  • 3 · 9 (tri krat devet; three times nine)
    • note that in this case, the dot is raised to the line centre and is non-leaning

Dates are written with dots separating the day, month and year. Note that the numerical English dates below are British English; American English switches the month and the day. It is important to realise that the full stop is left-leaning; the space is intentional (yet only few are aware of that).

• 1. 10. 2003 (prvi deseti dva tisoč tri, prvi oktober dva tisoč tri; the first of October, two thousand and three, 1/10/2003)
• 25. 6. 1991 (petindvajseti šesti (junij) tisoč devetsto enaindevetdeset; the twenty-fifth of June, nineteen ninety-one, 25/6/1991)
• 30. maj (trideseti maj; the 30th of May)

If a non-syntactical full stop is at the end of a sentence, it is not usual to append another full stop to it; however, doing so is not incorrect.

• Prodajam časopise, avtobusne žetone, zobne ščetke itd. (I sell newspapers, bus tokens, toothbrushes, etc.)
• Prodajam časopise, avtobusne žetone, zobne ščetke itd..