| N |
| A |
| DL |
| G |
| 24 |
| I |
| V |
So far we have learned cardinal numbers (one, two), ordinal numbers (first, second), fractional numbers (half, third), and collective numbers (another set of one, two, used with some nouns).
Croatian has more numbers: this set actually consists of collective nouns which stand for groups of males. They are called group numbers, and are listed here:
|
both obojica 2 dvojica 3 trojica 4 četvorica |
5 petorica 6 šestorica 7 sedm-orica etc. |
The noun dvojica really stands for two men (or two boys — two males of any kind really). The same holds for all other nouns listed above. The pattern for larger group numbers is: take an ordinal adjective (e.g. osm-i), remove the final -i and add either -ero or -orica.
You will sometimes hear versions of adverbs with -oro (e.g. četvoro). They are very common in Bosnia and Serbia, and heard in Croatia as well.
Group numbers (obojica, dvojica, etc.) are nouns that behave exactly like djeca and braća, i.e. have feminine singular endings, require feminine singular forms of adjectives, but require verbs in plural!
For example:
Razgovarao sam s obojicom. I talked to both men. (or both boys) {m}
As e.g. djeca children, they require verbs in plural, despite being in feminine singular:
Djeca su otišlaotići past-f. Children left.
Obojica su otišlaotići past-f. Both men left.
These numbers give us another possibility: you can express counted pronouns, like us two. As you probably expect, the pronoun will be in the genitive case, and the form of the number will depend on the gender, but there’s one twist you probably didn’t expect: pronouns come before numbers. The forms are:
| all-male | mixed | all-female |
|---|---|---|
| nas obojica | nas oboje | nas obje |
| nas dvojica | nas dvoje | nas dvije |
| nas trojica | nas troje | nas tri |
| etc. |
You get the system: for all-male groups, the specific collective nouns listed above are used; for all-female groups, regular (cardinal) numbers in the feminine gender; for mixed groups, the collective numbers. Colloquially, the mixed sex pattern is very often used even for all-male and all-female groups.
The constructions above can mean either e.g. us two or two of us. However, there’s a variation, if two of us stands for two out of a larger group of us (e.g. there are five of us in total, and two of us should do something...). In such a case you can use either:
dvoje nas two of us, out of a larger group
dvoje od nas (the same, but a bit more precise)
Of course, instead of nas, you can use vas or njih (stressed forms must be used) to get various expressions:
njih trojica three of them (all male)
vas obje both of you (all female)
You can also use other quantity adverbs, and quantity adjectives, to quantify personal pronouns. When you use neki and similar words with pronouns, the rules change, you have to use od¨ + G:
|
nitko od nas none of us jedan od nas one of us netko od nas somebody of us neki od nas some of us mnogi od nas many of us svatko od nas each of us |
nekoliko nas several of us mnogo nas many of us dosta nas quite a few of us puno nas a lot of us svi mi all of us |
Of course, you can use the pronoun oni and so on. The rule is: pronoun-like words require od¨ + G, adverbs just G, while svi behaves like an adjective in such expressions, and both words change.
But this is not all! There are derived adjectives of the form number + measure. English examples would be 10-inch or four-year. In Croatian, they are spelled without a hyphen – in the standard spelling, at least – and the second part must be a (relational) adjective. The first part is derived from the ‘compounding forms’ of numbers:
| ‘Compounding’ number forms | |
|---|---|
|
1- jedno- 2- dvo- 3- tro- 4- četvero- 5- peto- 6- šesto- 7- sedmo- 8- osmo- 9- deveto- |
10- deseto- 11- jedanaesto- 12- dvanaesto- 20- dvadeseto- 100- sto- 200- dvjesto- 1000- tisuću- many više- |
For example:
trodnevni three-day
četverogodišnji four-year
četrdesetogodišnji forty-year
The linking vowel (-o- in most forms) appended to create the compound form is lost in rare cases when an adjective begins with a vowel; it’s not lost if the vowel is a part of the original number:
| desetinčni 10-inch | stoinčni 100-inch |
Despite being spelled as one word, they often pronounced with two places of stress, one on the number, another on the adjective. (You will occasionally see such adjectives in a non-standard spelling, as two words, or even with a hyphen, e.g. deset-inčni and deset inčni)
They are used as any other adjective:
Sutra počinjepočinjati trodnevni festival. A three-day festival begins tomorrow.
Bili smo na dvotjednom odmoru. We were on two-week vacation.
(Observe also placing of the indefinite subject after the verb.)
With forms derived from numbers based on 10 (10, 20, 50, etc.) you’ll sometimes see forms without the vowel -o-, that is pedesetgodišnji besides usual pedesetogodišnji. You will also see non-standard forms derived from numbers 5, 6 and 7, like ones for 4, that is:
|
(all colloq.) 5- petero- 6- šestero- |
7- sedmero- 8- osmero- |
When such adjectives – derived from relative adjectives of time periods – are used with people and animals, they mean three-year-old, forty-year-old, etc. For example:
Doveladovesti
past-f je šestogodišnjeg sina.
She brought her six-year-old son.
Note that the words derived from šesto- can mean both 6- and 600-; therefore, some people write compounds derived from 600- as šeststo-. In real life, confusion is rare – there are very few 600-year-olds around.
From these adjectives, there are nouns for ‘x-year-olds’ (i.e. boys/girls, men/women, but occasionally other animals, even some products). They are derived from the ‘compounding forms’ with appended godišnji by further appending -njak (m) and -njakinja (f). As with the most other male/female pairs, the male form is also generic/default:
Četverogodišnjaci vole trčati. Four-year-olds like to run. (i.e. Four-year-old kids)
Believe it or not, there are more words derived from numbers, but I’ll leave them for later.
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