44 Genitive Plural

N

A

DL

G

24

I

It’s finally the time to learn the genitive case in plural! Unfortunately, it’s not a simple form to create. For start, nouns get the following endings:

noun type	G-pl
nouns in -a (≈ fem.)	-a → -a* (or -i)
neuter nouns (≈ in -o, -e)	-o, -e → -a*
masc. nouns not in -a	N-pl -i → -a*
fem. not in -a (e.g. noć)	add -i

For example:

Goran se bojibojati se mrava. Goran is afraid of ants.

As this form coincides with G singular, the sentence could also mean Goran is afraid of an ant.

In the beginning, I wrote I will disregard vowel length, i.e. differences between long and short vowels, since many people in Croatia don’t have that difference in their speech. However, those that keep the difference, and Standard Croatian, have the -a in G-pl always long – while -a in other case endings is always short – so forms mrava (G) and mrava (G-pl) are not really pronounced the same. That specific length in G-pl is sometimes indicated in writing by putting a circumflex sign over the long vowel: mravâ. It’s by no means mandatory, you will see it from time to time. (A recent Croatian orthography manual recommends using a macron – a line over vowel – instead, e.g. mravā; it’s still very rare.)

There are no twists for nouns ending in -a, -o or -e preceded by only one consonant: nouns just get -a in G-pl.

Other nouns can get a kind of ‘lengthening’ (I indicated it by an asterisk).

How does it work? If a neuter or feminine noun would have two consecutive consonants just before the genitive plural -a, an additional a gets inserted between those consonants:

pjesma song → pjesama sestra sister → sestara zemlja ground, country → zemalja

carstvo empire → carstava društvo society → društava pismo letter → pisama

Some nouns (e.g. sestra sister and zemlja ground, country listed above) move the stress to the inserted -a-. There’s only a small number of them, and a good dictionary should list such stress shift.

Observe that before the two final consonants there may be more consonants (e.g. sestra): they play no role here. Also, pay attention that lj, nj and dž are single consonants.

This insertion never happens if those last two consonants are either st, št, šć, zd, žd or žđ (so-called non-splittable sequences):

zvijezda star → zvijezda

mjesto place → mjesta

Masculine nouns that get short plural endings, and end in a consonant, get the -a always attached to their nominative form, even if they have a specific case-base:

kolač (») cake → kolača
magarac (magarc-) donkey → magaraca
pas (ps-) dog → pasa
vrabac (vrapc-) sparrow → vrabaca

This makes their G-pl form distinct from the singular genitive. For example:

Ana se bojala pasa. Ana was afraid of dogs.

Ana se bojala psa. Ana was afraid of the dog.

Few masculine nouns that end in two consonants which are not a non-splittable sequence, get an additional a in the same way as feminine and neuter nouns:

bicikl bicycle → bicikala
koncert concert → koncerata
dokument document → dokumenata

However, masculine nouns that end in a vowel (in N) and get short plural endings, only add an -a to their case-base, as in any other case (therefore, they have G = G-pl):

anđeo (anđel-) m angel → anđela
auto (aut-) m car → auta

Some nouns on -a preceded by two or more consonants can have both -a in gen. plural (with an additional a inserted) and -i. Both are used, but versions with -i prevail in everyday speech, at least in larger cities in Croatia:

crkva church → crkava / crkvi
daska plank → dasaka / daski
karta card, map, ticket → karata / karti ®
olovka pen → olovaka / olovki
školjka shell → školjaka / školjki
voćka fruit tree → voćaka / voćki

These nouns can have both -a and -i but they never get an additional a inserted; they mostly end in -da or -nja:

nepravda injustice panda panda sekunda second ®

pažnja care, attention prijetnja threat šetnja walk

The ending -i is more common in spoken language, and it seems it’s getting more common in writing as well. The following often used nouns have just -i in G-pl:

bajka fairy tale borba struggle lopta ball majka mother maska mask molba plea

palma palm petlja loop plahta bed sheet ® tajna secret torba bag, big purse žalba complaint, appeal

This also applies to a couple of masculine nouns; a frequent example is (recall, it shifts its stress in plural):

mjesec month/moon → mjeseci

The noun čovjek man/human has the irregular plural ljudi people; its G-pl is also just ljudi.

The noun sat – when meaning hour – has G-pl sati.

Some nouns get an -u or something similar, instead of the endings listed above. These three nouns get almost always -u (although -a is mentioned in grammars for these nouns):

noga leg

ruka arm

sluga m servant

This noun gets -iju:

gost guest → gostiju

The strange plurals of oko eye and uho ear get -iju as well:

oči f pl. eyes → očiju

uši f pl. ears → ušiju

The following nouns can have both -a (or -i) and -iju:

kost f bone → kosti / kostiju
prst finger/toe → prsta / prstiju
nokat (nokt-) fingernail, toenail → nokata / noktiju
vrata n. pl. door → vrata / vratiju

Additionally, the following colloquial noun can get both -i and -iju, but the latter ending is seen as very colloquial:

dečko (dečk-) m boy → dečki / dečkiju ®

All such unexpected forms in the G-pl are listed in the Core Dictionary.

Compared to all the twists I had to explain for nouns, the genitive plural forms of adjectives are as simple as possible:

gender	adj. G-pl	example
fem.	-ih	velikih riba big fishes
neut.		velikih jezera big lakes
masc.		velikih stolova big tables

The adjective-often-used-as-pronoun sav (sv- +) has an alternative, non-standard form that’s sometimes seen is G-pl: sviju, besides the expected svih.

We can review endings of adjectives in DL, G and I cases in both singular and plural:

adj.	gender	DL	I	G
sing.	fem.	-oj	-om	-e
	neut. masc.	-om (-em)	-im	-og (-eg)
plur.	all	-im(+a)		-ih

As you can see, they are much simpler than they could be in principle.

In the following chapters, we’ll see many uses of G-pl in counting and measuring.

________

® Instead of karta, the word for map in Serbia is usually mapa, while karta means only playing card or ticket.

In some parts of Croatia, such as Dalmatia, and in Bosnia and Serbia, the word sekund is more common than sekunda.

Besides plahta, words čaršav or čaršaf are often used in Bosnia and completely prevail in Serbia, in meaning thin sheets, while plahta is used for thick covers.

The noun dečko is less common outside Croatia, and it’s not even used in some Croatian regions; it’s most common in Zagreb and surrounding areas.

↓ Something Possibly Interesting (click to show)

Many prescriptive manuals, dictionaries and grammars (i.e. books telling people how they should speak) demand stress shift left in G-pl in words like:

policajac (policajc-) policeman → policajaca G-pl

Very few people use that stress in G-pl in real life – people say simply policajaca. Consequently, the stress in G-pl of such words is a matter of dispute in Bosnia and Serbia, where certain local “linguists” insist on the dictionary stress, which consequently appears on the Public TV. This is much less debated in Croatia, where most people don’t care much what dictionaries prescribe.

The ending -i in G-pl is a bit controversial with people who like to prescribe how others should speak.

↓ Examples (click to show)

This ad on a window of a bookstore, during a Christmas season, says it’s a place of best gifts (therefore, najbolji dar is put to G-pl):

The adjective najbolji best is a so-called superlative form: such forms will be explained in 63 Bigger and Better: Comparatives.

The song Iskra Spark – also a common female name – by Damir Urban, ambitious Croatian singer-songwriter – is one of his later hits. It starts with:

Kada kosu stavi iza ušiju	When she puts her hair behind her ears
pretvori se u djevojčicu	She turns into a little girl
svoje tajne poklanja, zamuckujezamuckivati	She gives her secrets, stammers a bit
nekako izroni iz očiju	She dives out of her eyes somehow

You can see two G-pl forms with -iju: ušiju and očiju, from uši f ears and oči f eyes. The sex of subject isn’t revealed in the Croatian verse, but from the following parts it’s obviusly female. There’s a number of perfective verbs, from the pairs:

izranjati («) ~*/~ izroniti («) dive out pretvarati («) ~*/~ pretvoriti («) turn into stavljati ~ staviti put

As you can see, the first and the second pair have the common change of vowels, a vs o.

Observe that the pair pretvarati («) ~*/~ pretvoriti («) turn into describes what something turns into as a ‘fixed’ destination, always using u¨ + A. (The last 2 verb pairs, especially the last, quite important one, will be described in detail in later chapters.)

And the imperfective verb from the pair:

poklanjati ~ pokloniti («) give (as a gift)

Finally, there’s verb zamuckivati (-uje «) stammer a bit. It belongs to a special type of verbs, where actions and states are minuscule or in small steps; such verbs will be explained later, in 85 Small and Cute: Diminutives.

The song continues with:

Njene ruke grle kao šal	Her arms hug like a scarf
a tanki prsti bodubosti me pod rebra	And thin fingers poke me under my ribs
sporo rastirasti mala vrbo, dug je put	Grow slowly, little willow, the road is long
a ovaj svijet te čeka	And this world is waiting for you

In the second line, the verb bosti (bode, bo / boo) stab, poke is used with a destination (as normal for this verb), in this case pod¨ + A under, below (recall that pod¨ is one of prepositions used with I or A).

In the third line, there are two things we haven’t covered yet: the first is imperative rasti (here indistiguishable from the infinitive, but generally it’s a separate form) normally used for commands; the second is the vocative case mala vrbo (N is vrba willow), the form used for addressing and calling; vocatives will be explained in 72 Addressing: Vocative Case.

Two lines above start with a¨ and (‘switch-reference’), a conjunction we’ve covered in the last chapter.

A catchy chorus follows:

Treba nam tako malo, skoro ništa	We need so little, almost nothing
jedan kremen i jedna iskra	A flintstone and a spark
[da tama odeotići zauvijek iz nas	[So that darkness departs forever from us
a čudovišta padaju]	And monsters fall]
(Damir Urban)

Here the verb trebati need / should is used in the ‘inverse’ way: who needs is in DL, and what is needed (tako malo, skoro ništa, jedan kremen...) is in N. The last two lines, starting with da is something yet unexplained: they describe why they need these things: it’s a so-called purpose clause, which will be explained soon. It always starts with da.

You can watch video on YouTube™.

(Girls in the video are not his daughters; somehow, everyone in the video is wearing leggings):

As in all his songs, virtually only the standard stress is used.

↓ Exercise (click to show)

Complete the following sentences:

Show a pop-up Croatian keyboard

Nema . There are no documents.

On je prijatelj . He is my sisters’ friend.

Bojim se . I’m afraid of big birds.

Auto je kod . The car is by the palm trees.

Meso je . The meat is without bones.

nebu. There are no stars in the sky.

Nema . There are no secrets.

Evo . Here are some glasses.

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