90 More Number-like Words

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In this chapter, we finally cover all the remaining numbers and number-like words.

First, you can use suffix -ak to create numbers (not adjectives!) that correspond to English -odd. They are formed only from ‘round’ numbers, such as:

desetak ten-odd
dvadesetak twenty-odd
stotinjak hundred-odd

Such numbers behave like 10, 20 and 100 – i.e. like quantity adverbs – G-pl is used with them, and the whole phrase behaves as neuter singular:

Desetak ljudi je na plaži. Ten-odd people are on the beach.

There are nouns derived from smaller numbers using -ica and -ka (the derivation is not regular, forms must be remembered):

1 → jedinica 2 → dvojka 3 → trojka 4 → četvorka 5 → petica

6 → šestica 7 → sedmica 8 → osmica 9 → devetka 10 → desetka

They mean e.g. ‘digit two’, or colloquially, something with the number on it, e.g. a playing card, bus or tram – depending on the context:

Čekat ću šesticu. (colloq.) I’ll wait for a number 6 tram.

However nouns derived from 1, 3 and 4 have special meanings as well:

jedinica unit
trojka three-person team
četvorka four-person team

(English sometimes uses a noun for the three-person team, taken from Russian: troika. You see it’s almost identical to Croatian.)

For two-person teams (and other two-item groups), the common word is par pair.

There is another type of compound adjectives and adverbs derived with numbers and -struk, standing for multiplicity:

Multiplicity adjectives
jednostruk	one-fold, single-layer
dvostruk dupli (colloq.)	double
trostruk	triple
četverostruk	fourfold
peterostruk	5-fold
šesterostruk	6-fold
...	...
deseterostruk	10-fold
...	...
dvadeseterostruk	20-fold
stostruk	100-fold
mnogostruk višestruk	multiple, manifold

As you can see, they are derived from numbers in a specific way – mostly from the ‘compounding forms’, but for numbers 5 and over, there’s extra -ero- inserted between the ‘compounding form’ and the suffix -struk.

While all these words are really used, some, like jedanaesterostruk 11-fold are very rare. All these words are adjectives, for example:

Razgovarali smo s trostrukim prvacima Europe. We talked to three-time European champions. (lit. ‘triple champions of Europe’)

The adjectives mnogostruk and višestruk are very common.

All these adjectives, in neuter form, are used as adverbs too, so you can tell how many times something is better:

Novi mobitel je dvostruko bolji. The new cellphone is twice better.

Novi mobitel je duplo bolji. (colloq., the same meaning)

Instead of dvostruk, the colloquial word dupli is very common in speech.

There are more adjectives that use this pattern; the most common are ones derived with -stran sided, such as:

obostran both-sided
šesterostran six-sided

Three more suffixes with this pattern are commonly used:

-djelan (-djeln-) having X parts
-kratan (-kratn-) having X parts (in time)
-značan (-značn-) having X meanings

All three are normally combined only with smaller numbers and više-. For example:

Imam dvodjelni kupaći kostim. I have a two-piece swimming suit.

So far, all these words were derived from cardinal numbers (one, two...) but some words are derived from ordinal numbers (first, second...); for example, nouns for students in various grades of the primary school:

prvaš (») 1st grader drugaš (») 2nd grader trećaš (») 3rd grader četvrtaš (») 4th grader

petaš (») 5th grader šestaš (») 6th grader sedmaš (») 7th grader osmaš (») 8th grader

Feminine forms are derived with -ica, e.g. prvašica.

Then, there are a couple of adjectives derived from ordinal numbers, but they usually use only the first three ordinal numbers, e.g.:

prvorazredan (prvorazredn-) first-class
drugorazredan (drugorazredn-) second-class
trećerazredan (trećerazredn-) third-class

(the rest is coming soon)

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