Singular Cases Suffixes in Serbian
Case name: | Answers question: | Used to describe: | Suffixes (I tried describing just the majority of case endings, general rule, not the exceptions and specific ones) | |
Nominative | KO? ŠTA? Who? What? | Usually the subject of a sentence and predicative | - Masc. most often ends in a consonant - Fem. most often ends in A - Neut. most often ends in -E or -O | |
Genitive | KOGA?ČEGA? Of who? Of what? | Possession, belonging, a part of something | - Masc. nouns take an - A ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -E ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - A ending (while some nouns in animate category add an infix T, so you get deteTA, pileTA) | |
Dative | KOME?ČEMU? To whom? To what? | The noun to which/ whom something is given, shown, etc. | - Masc. nouns take an - U ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -i ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - U ending | |
Accusative | KOGA? ŠTA? Whom? What? | Usually the object of a sentence | - Masc. nouns describing inanimate concepts don't change while nouns in animate category (person / animal / plant) take an - A ending, the same as the genitive case - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -U ending - Neut. nouns describing inanimate concepts don't change, regardless of the category (animate/inanimate) | |
Vocative | HEJ! Calling someone or in poems referring to something or some place | Used to address somebody or something | - Masc. nouns ending in a consonant take an - E ending, the ones ending in an -a drop the final -a and take an -O suffix, otherwise they don't change (examples: Dejvid - Dejvide! Pera - Pero! Mirko - Mirko! ) - Fem. nouns of the foreign origin don't change in the locative, while the two and more syllable ones drop the final -a and take an -O ending, while names ending in -CA drop the final A and take an -E (Marina! Kim! Nada - Nado! Ljubica - Ljubice!) - Neut. nouns don't change | |
Instrumental | S KIM? ČIM? Using, with, whom? Using, with, what? | Company (with preposition s) or utilization of something or someone to accomplish an action | - Masc. nouns take an - OM ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -OM ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - OM ending >>> for all genders, after some "soft" sounds you will have an ending -EM (mužEM, tušEM...) | |
Locative | GDE? O KOME? O ČEMU? Where? About whom? | Location, Relation | (It's good to know that the locative = dative in form) - Masc. nouns take an - U ending - Fem. nouns drop the final -a and take an -i ending - Neut. nouns drop the final -e or -o and take an - U ending |
Plural Cases Suffixes in Serbian ... coming soon
Exercise with Case Suffixes in Serbian
Draga Anna,
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ps. the answer key is in comments