Croatian/Main Contents/Level 2/Lesson 1

Nominative case of Masculine, Feminine and Neuter nouns

Singular/Jednina

Masculine nouns in the nominative case usually do not have a fixed ending. Student, pilot, profesor are all masculine nouns.

Feminine nouns have a fixed ending. If the student is female, the noun would change to studentica. The fixed ending is -ica, or occasionally, just an -a is there, like škola, school or plaža, beach.

Neuter nouns end with -o or -e. Neuter nouns usually can't be changed to masculine or feminine.

Muški rod (Masculine)	Ženski rod (Feminine)	Srednji rod (Neuter)
Student	Student + -ica = Studentica	Vino
Professor	Professor + -ica = Profesorica	Jaje

Plural/Množina

Masculine nouns, when plural, add -i onto the end of the word. But some masculine nouns, usually those with one syllable and some with two syllables, end with -ov/-ev depending on whether they, in singular, end with palatal consonant, or not. Those masculine nouns, which end with palatal consonant, add -evi to the stem of the word, and those who don't end with a palatal consonant, add -ovi.

• Palatal consonants:

j, lj, nj, đ, dž, č, ć, š, ž

Feminine nouns, when plural, replace the -a with -e onto the end of the word.

Neuter nouns, when plural, replace the -o/-e with -a onto the end of the word. Some nouns insert -en- between the stem and the plural, like ramena, shoulders. Also, some neuter nouns only exist in plural form, such as vrata, door. Finally, some nouns have an irregular plural, meaning they don't always end with -a in plural form, such as uho, ear, in singular, and uši, ears, in plural, or oko, eye, in singular, and oči, eyes in plural.

Muški rod (Masculine)	Ženski rod (Feminine)	Srednji rod (Neuter)
Student + -i = Studenti	Studentica -> Studentic + -e = Studentice	Vino -> Vin + -a = Vina
Kralj + -evi = Kraljevi	Profesorica -> Profesoric + -e = Profesorice	Jaje -> Jaj + -a = Jaja
Grad + -ovi = Gradovi	Škola -> Škol + -e = Škole	Ime -> Imen + -a = Imena

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