Professional Documents
Culture Documents
patterns, and I hope that will make it easier for you to learn
Nouns in Serbian are in singular and plural, and there are thee grammatical genders: masculine,
feminine and neuter
1) Maculine nouns:
1a- most masculine nouns in the nominative singular (cases will be explained later, for now, it�s
important to know that nominative is the first- basic noun case) end in a consonant
e.g. siN = son
momaK = a young man
1d- many words of foreign origin that in the nominative singular end in vowels are also masculine
e.g. autO � car
pirE � mashed potatoes
intervjU � interview
2) Feminine nouns:
2a- most feminine nouns in nominative singular have the ending �a
e.g. �enA � woman
klupA � desk
tugA � sadness
2c- also, all abstract nouns ending in consonant with the suffix �ost are feminine
e.g. mladOST- youth
�alOST- sorrow
3) Neuter nouns
3a- most neuter nouns in nominative singular end in �o or �e
e.g. selO � village
poljE � field
detE � child
also...it's mportant to know demonstrative pronouns that go with nouns of each gendre:
Exercise:
1. determine the gender of nouns and give your reasoning for the choice that you made:
e.g. �ivot � life = masculine singular, follows 1a rule that most of the nouns ending in consonant are
masculine
a) pijatelj - friend
b) stan � apartment
c) ruka - hand
d) drvo � tree
e) taksi � taxi
f) Darko
g) krava � cow
h) radost � joy
i) nebo � sky
j) pile � chicken
2) put a demonstrative of your choice ( �this� or �that�) that corresponds to the nouns from the
first exercise.
e.g. ovaj �ivot � this life, taj �ivot- that life (remember that demonstrative pronouns agree with a
noun in gender and number)
3) try to make plural form of the words from the first exercise, and add demonstrative nouns to them.
e.g. plural form of �ivot is �ivoti
these lives � ovi �ivoti
those lives � ti �ivoti
introduction to cases: Every noun is Serbian undergoes changes and has different forms, that
belong to specific cases, which are determined by the particular situation, that it, what is being said at
the time.
There are 7 cases in Serbian language:
1. Nominative
2. genitive
3. dative
4. accusative
5. vocative
6. instrumental
7. locative
I will go through each one of the cases, in an attempt to explain their role, usage�so bare with me�at
the end I�ll make a table of some of the most common patterns�.if you don�t understand, please let
me know�because I, myself, find this to be a very difficult grammar section to explain to non-natives
Abbreviations:
m.- masculine
f. � feminine
n. � neuter
sg. � singular
pl. � plural
nom. � nominative
gen. � genitive
dat.- dative
acc.- accusative
voc. � vocative
inst. � instrumental
loc. � locative
adj. - adjective
NOMINATIVE: 1) NOMINATIVE
Nominative is the first and basic case in Serbian language. We call it also �a case of the subject�,
because it answers the question Ko je to? / �to je to? ( Who is it? / What is it? ). Dictionaries classify
nouns according to their nominative case form.
Roles:
a) a role of a subject in the sentence
e.g. Ptica leti. � A bird flies.
Ptica � nom. f. sg.
b) the part of the predicate with the copula�.descriptive predicate�the one that uses verb �to be�
e.g. ovo je lijepa slika. � this is a nice painting
�je lijepa slika� is a descriptive predicate in the sentence
je- 3rd person sg. present, verb �to be� � biti
slika � nom. f. sg.
lijepa � adj. f. sg. nom. (remember that adjectives in Serbian agree with nouns they describe in
number (here sg.), in gender (here f.) and in case (here nom.))
GENITIVE: 2) GENITIVE
Genitive is the second case and can be recognized by asking questions like koga/čega se to tiče?
(whom or what does it concern?) ,
Roles:
a) to indicate possession
to je imanje mog oca. � that is my father's property
imanje (m), pl. imanja � property
mog- adj. gen. m. sg.
oca � gen. m. sg.
b) with partitive meaning; this happens frequently after verbs as piti-to drink, uzeti/uzimati- to take
e.g. dajte mi vode i sira. � give me some water and some cheese.*
* in serbian you don't necessarily need to emphasize word 'some' � ne�to
Dajte � comes from dati-to give, imperative, 2nd person pl.
Vode- comes from voda (f), - water...
Sira � comes from sir (m) � cheese
If you, however want to say 'Give me the water and the cheese' then you would use accusative...i'll
talk about it later...and it would mean you're talking about the whole amount 'dajte mi vodu i sir'
d) in certain expressions of time; in this usage however, the noun cannot stand on its own�it must be
accompanied by an adjective or by a modifier
e.g. Pro�le godine sam putovao Evropom. � Last year I traveled through Europe.
Godine- dat. f. sg. � comes from godina (f) � year
Pro�le - is a modifier , it means last, comes from pro�la- adj. f.
e.g. on ima dosta novca za put � he has enough money for the trip
novca- gen. m. sg. Comes from novac (m), pl. novci � money and in this case it�s after dosta
f) after all numbers except �one� (jedan/jedna/jedno) in masculine and neuter form
e.g. tri pjesnika- three poets
pjesnik (m), pl. pjesnici � poet
i) after a large number of prepositions that I�ll concentrate on in a separate section later
DATIVE and LOCATIVE: Dative and locative are extemely close to each other in form and
roles...sometimes difficult to distinguish...but, the most important difference to remember is that
dative is the case of movement, therefore, in the sentence usually follows verbs of movement, action,
change...while locative is 'the static' case, therefore, describes place, time, manner *
3) DATIVE
Dative is a third noun case, and could be used in answers to questions such as:
Kome/ čemu daje�? � to whom or to what you�re giving?
Roles:
a) to indicate the recipient of an object
e.g. Otac je dao pismo sinu. � the father gave the letter to the son.
To whom? To the son- sinu- gen. m. sg. Comes from sin (m), pl. sinovi- son
c) to indicate the person (sometimes a thing) affected by some action or verbal situation
e.g. Otvori mi vrata � open the doors for me.
mi- dat. � short form of meni- meaning �to me�
d) following verbs are usually followed by nouns or pronouns in the dative case:
činiti se � to seem
dopadati se � to be pleasing to
pomagati � to help
pripadati � to belong to
slu�iti � to be of service to
smetati � to disturb
sviđati se � to be pleasing to/ to like
vjerovati � to believe
e) after the impersonal construction of adverb plus �je�- 3rd person sg. Verb �to be�-biti
e.g. drago mi je � it�s my pleasure
mi- short form of meni- �to me�
te�ko je majci � it�s difficult for a mother
majci- comes from majka (f)- mother
7) LOCATIVE
Locative is the seventh case, and as previously said, it�s a �static�, more descriptive case�it gives
answers to questions like O kome/ o čemu govori�? ( who are you talking about? Or what are you
talking about? )
Role:
a) object of the preposition- after prepositions u � in, na- on (in their connotation of �location�) and
after po � by, in, pri- next to, o- about, nasuprot � on the opposite side
e.g. sjedimo na terasi � we�re sitting on the balcony
terasi- comes from terasa (f), pl. terase � balcony, here used after �na�=�on�
* coming back to the beginning of our little dative- locative voyage, I just want to illustrate that main
difference after you�re familiar with the roles of each one of them:
ACCUSATIVE: 4) ACCUSATIVE
Accusative is the fourth case of nouns and answers the question Koga ili �to vidi�? � whom or what
do you see?
Roles:
a) it's the case of a direct object
e.g. Imam novu torbu. � I have a new bag
torbu- comes from torba (f), pl. Torbu � bag....here it's the object of the action...of verb 'imati'- to
have
** in genitive d) we already mentioned that gen. can determine the time, but we also emphasized
that it cannot stand on its own without an adjective or a modifier...while in accusative it can stand
without any of them.
e.g. radio sam u resoranu pro�log mjeseca. � i worked in the restaurant last month.
It has that 'pro�log' in it � from pro�li- last, therefore in genitive
Radio sam u restoranu mjesec dana � i worked in a restaurant for a month
No modifiers therefore it's in accusative
c) after prepositions �u�- in, �na�- on, �o�- about, �pod�- under, �nad�- above, �pred�- in
front, �za�- behind, �među� � in between , when they serve as a terminus for an act of motion *
e.g. Stavio sam knjigu na sto. � i put a book on the table.
The action is over, therefore, that �na�-on, serves as a terminus
And �sto� � table, has the same from as in nominative�but it�s role is to determine dirction or
place, therefore it�s not nominative
* going back to our explanations for locative and remembering that we mentioned in the rule a) that
locative is used after �u� or �na�, let�s see the difference between these two cases
we mentioned that locative is stationary case, while here, our accusative that follows �u� or �na�
specifies the end of an action
e.g. stavio sam knjigu na sto- I put the book on the table
sto-acc.m. sg. � on the table
e.g. knjiga je na stolu. � the book is on the table�.no action is visible�we�re not moving that book
or putting it, we�re not changing its position, therefore�sto- in this case stolu- is loc.m.sg.
d) after prepositions �kroz�- through, �mimo�- past by, other then, �niz�- downwards, �uz�-
upwards, �po�- for, �za�- for
e.g. Put void uz rijeku- the road leads up the river.
Rijeku-acc.f.sg. � comes from rijeka (f), pl. rijeke � river
VOCATIVE: 5) VOCATIVE
it�s a fifth case, used for �calling� people, objects�that is, summoning their attention or addressing
them.
Role:
a) it plays an important role in direct speech, therefore, it�s used in literature works mostly, in
poetry, drama etc.
- it applies to the names or titles of people to whom one wishes to talk
Gospodine Markoviću, kako ste? � Mr. Markovic, how are you doing?
- also, in a stylistic figure in poetry, when one personifies etc.
e.g. na�a mila Boko, nevjesto Jadrana! � our dear Boka, the bride of the Adriatic Sea!
This is the first verse from a poem written by Aleksa �antić, called 'Boka'*
'Boka' is one of the 20 most beautiful bays in the world, on the south-west of Montenegro...it's
gorgeous...seriosuly! its full name is 'Boka Kotorska'
INSTRUMENTAL: 6) INSTRUMENTAL
Instrumental is the sixth case that answers the question 's kim, sa čime?' � with who, with what
Roles:
a) designation of instrument by which some action is accomplished:
e.g. Đak pi�e olovkom - a student writes with (by means of) a pencil.
With what? With a pencil- olovkom � comes from olovka (f), pl. Olovke- pencil
Idem u �kolu autobusom. � I'm going to school by bus.
Autobusom-inst.m.sg. � comes from autobus (m), pl. Autobusi- bus
I've noticed that the genitive case is used when saying \"one day\". Jednog dana
Can you explain this to me? Because I thought that the genitive case was only for numbers other than
one. Is the genitive used here because it is a general expression of time? - jednog dana
What you're mentioning here is called the TEMPORAL GENITIVE - it is used in expressions of time
and has an adverbial function. Yes, you're right, it is generally used in response to the question
'when?'.
Ona pere kosu SVAKOG DANA. - She washes her hair every day
IDUĆE SUBOTE idemo na more. - We're going to the coast next Saturday.
***
In all other situations just follow the rule mentioned above.