Serbian Lesson 2
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Druga Lekcija: Imenice i pridevi (I deo)
Lesson 2: Nouns and adjectives (part 1)
In the exercises for the previous lesson we encountered some words like slika, prijatelj, lep, dobar. These are nouns and adjectives, and in this lesson we are going to learn some basic things about them.
Firstly you should know that the Serbian language has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. That means that every noun in the Serbian language is either masculine, feminine or neuter. You're probably wondering how you will know the gender of a noun. Well, the only real solution is to look it up in the dictionary and remember it. But don't be scared, there are some rules which can help you determine the gender of the noun:
- Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant: prijatelj (friend), učitelj (teacher), prozor (window), mrav (ant)
- Feminine nouns usually end in -a: žena (woman, wife), majka (mother), mačka (cat)
- Neuter nouns end in -o and -e: selo (village), polje (field), more (sea)
Unfortunately this formula is pretty much fallible, because:
- Some masculine nouns end in -o and -e: Đorđe, Marko, Mile, Slavko. (those are usually masculine proper names.)
- Some masculine nouns end in -a: sudija (judge), vođa (leader)
- Some feminine nouns end in a consonant: stvar (thing)
But the above formula can help a bit, now you know that feminine nouns can never end in -o or -e, and neuter nouns can never end in -a or a consonant. ;)
Now let's learn how to make the plural of noun. For this lesson we will only get to know the basic concept of things.
- The nouns that end in a consonant (both masculine and feminine) build their plural by adding an -i : prijatelj -> prijatelji, stvar -> stvari
- The nouns that end in -a (both masculine and feminine) build their plural by changing that -a into -e: žena -> žene, sudija -> sudije
- The nouns that end in - o and -e (both maculine and neuter) build their plural by changing -o/-e into -a: polje -> polja
You're now probably thinking how it's very easy to make plural in Serbian, but I must disappoint you. Not all nouns build their plural this way. In future lessons we will return to this.
Adjectives are words which are closely tied to nouns, and they must follow the nouns in gender and number. That means that if you want to put an adjective which describes žene, you must put it in the feminine plural form.
How do we do this? Well, again we're going to learn just the basic concept and leave the complicated irregularities for the future lessons.
When you open a dictionary, you will find the adjectives put in the masculine singular indefinite
form, such as lep (beautiful). This form is fit to describe only masculine nouns in singular: lep prozor (a beautiful window). Lets see how other forms are made:
- For the feminine singular form add -a : lepa žena (a beautiful women)
- For the neuter singular form add -o : lepo selo (a beautiful village)
- For the masculine plural form add -i : lepi prozori (beautiful windows)
- For the feminine plural form add -e : lepe žene (beautiful women)
- For the neuter plural form add -a : lepa sela (beautiful villages)
Don't be fooled by the noun ending, the gender of the noun is what determines the adjective ending. Nouns that are a of feminine gender and end in a consonant will still have the adjective ending in -a (lepa stvar - a beautiful thing). There is only one exception (Remember this!!!): The masculine nouns that end in -a will in singular take the basic (masculine sigular) adjective form (jak vođa - a strong leader), whereas in plural they will take the feminine (!) plural form (jake vođe - strong leaders; not "jaki vođe" as one might expect.).
That's it. Now the exercises. :)
