Written by: Milica Antović. Adapted by: Milica Bokšan
Since nouns are a crucial part of almost every sentence, knowing regular and irregular nouns in Serbian is obviously an important topic.
So, for most words, you just need to change the very last vowel based on the gender of the noun. But you probably already know that making plural nouns is not always that simple.
Some words like to stretch out, drop letters, or change completely. That’s why we made this simple guide to help you understand exactly how the plural works in Serbian!
Regular plural of nouns in Serbian
Making a regular noun plural in Serbian is simple. It depends on the gender of the noun. You can refresh the noun gender here.
Here is how the plural works for each of the three genders.
Regular Nouns in Serbian: Masculine nouns
Most masculine nouns end in a consonant in their singular form. To make them plural, add the letter -i to the end of the word.
- telefon – telefoni (= phone – phones)
- lekar – lekari (= doctor – doctors)
- parfem – parfemi (= perfume – perfumes)
Regular Nouns in Serbian: Feminine Nouns
Most feminine nouns end in the letter -a in their singular form. To form the plural, replace final -a with an -e.
- sestra – sestre (= sister – sisters)
- kuća – kuće (= house – houses)
- stolica – stolice (= chair – chairs)
While most feminine nouns end in -a, there is a group of feminine nouns that end in a consonant in their singular form. To make these nouns plural, you add the letter -i to the end of the word.
- stvar – stvari (= thing – things)
- kost – kosti (= bone – bones)
- noć – noći (= night – nights)
- bolest – bolesti (= disease – diseases)
Regular Nouns in Serbian: Neuter nouns
Neuter nouns end in either -o or -e in their singular form. Replace final -o or -e with an -a to make them plural.
- selo – sela (= village – villages)
- pivo – piva (= beer – beers)
- vino – vina (= wine – wines)
Only Plural Nouns in Serbian (Pluralia Tantum)
Some nouns have only plural forms.
- farmerke (= jeans)
- makaze (= scissors)
- vrata (= door)
- usta (= mouth)
Now, let’s start with the irregular plural of nouns in Serbian.
Irregular plural of nouns in Serbian
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Masculine Nouns Ending in -i
Some foreign words in Serbian end in -i and are masculine nouns.
To make them plural, just add -ji.
- taksi → taksiji (= taxi – taxis)
- hobi → hobiji (= hobby – hobbies)
- žiri → žiriji (= jury – juries)
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Masculine Nouns Ending in -in
To form the plural of masculine nouns ending in -in, first drop –in.
Then, just as we did for regular masculine nouns, add -i to form the plural. Essentially, just drop -n.
This is common with nationalities, professions, and people from cities or countries.
- Srbin → Srbi (= Serb – Serbs)
- Beograđanin → Beograđani (= citizen of Belgrade – citizens of Belgrade)
- hrišćanin → hrišćani (= Christian – Christians)
- čobanin → čobani (= shepherd – shepherds)
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Masculine Nouns Ending in -k, -g, -h
Some masculine nouns change their final consonant when forming the plural. It happens before the plural ending -i.
k → c
g → z
h → s
- učenik → učenici (= student – students)
- vojnik → vojnici (= soldier – soldiers)
- trening → treninzi (= training – trainings)
- orah → orasi (= walnut – walnuts)
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Fleeting A
Some masculine nouns lose the -a- before the final consonant in the plural. Usually, these words end in -ac / -ak in the singular.
- muškarac → muškarci (= man – men)
- policajac → policajci (= policeman – policemen)
- momak → momci (= guy – guys)
The same thing happens in some international words ending in -zam / -ar:
- sarkazam → sarkazmi (= sarcasm – sarcasms)
- spektar → spektri (= spectrum – spectra)
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Plural of Short Masculine Nouns
Many short masculine nouns in Serbian (usually one-syllable nouns) add -ov- or -ev- before the plural ending -i.
-OV-
Most nouns use -ov- after hard consonants.
- drug → drugovi (= friend – friends)
- park → parkovi (= park – parks)
- stan → stanovi (= flat – flats)
- grad → gradovi (= city – cities)
-EV-
Nouns ending in soft sounds (j, lj, nj, č, ć, ž, š, đ, dž) usually use -ev-.
- muž → muževi (husband – husbands)
- kralj → kraljevi (= king – kings)
- ključ → ključevi (= key – keys)
- nož → noževi (= knife – knives)
Nouns ending in -s, -z, -c can form the plural using -ovi / -evi.
- voz → vozovi (= train – trains)
- nos → nosevi (= nose – noses)
- vic → vicevi (= joke – jokes)
- mraz → mrazevi (= frost – frosts)
Exceptions
Some short masculine nouns do not have -ov- or -ev- in the plural.
- dan → dani (= day – days)
- prst → prsti (= finger – fingers)
- konj → konji (= horse – horses)
- pas → psi (= dog – dogs) Note the fleeting A.
Short masculine words with 2 plural forms
Some nouns can have both a short and a long plural. So, you just need to memorize one that you like more. Nice, isn’t it?
- vuk → vuci / vukovi (= wolf – wolves)
- znak → znaci / znakovi (= sign – signs)
- miš → miši / miševi (= mouse – mice)
- pauk → pauci / paukovi (= spider – spiders)
Short masculine nouns with -L in plural
Some masculine nouns ending in -o have -l- before the plural ending -ov-.
- deo → delovi (= part – parts)
- posao → poslovi (= job – jobs)
- sto → stolovi (= table – tables)
Irregular Nouns in Serbian: Neuter Nouns With Extra Letters
Some neuter nouns add an extra -n- or -t- in the plural. Instead of simply changing -o or -e to -a, these nouns expand their base form before the plural ending.
Nouns adding -n-
Some neuter nouns ending in -e add -n- in the plural.
- ime → imena (= name – names)
- vreme → vremena (= time – times)
- rame → ramena (= shoulder – shoulders)
- prezime → prezimena (= last name – last names)
Nouns adding -t-
Some neuter nouns add -t- in the plural.
- dugme → dugmeta (= button – buttons)
- ćebe → ćebeta (= blanket – blankets)
- bure → bureta (= barrel – barrels)
- drvo → drveta (= tree – trees)
Collective nouns
Some Serbian nouns form the plural in unusual ways. They can change completely.
Have a look at these:
- dete → deca (= child – children)
- brat → braća (= brother – brothers)
- gospodin → gospoda (= gentleman – gentlemen)
These plural forms are collective nouns, which denote a group of things taken as a whole. They mean plural, but they behave grammatically like singular nouns: the cases and agreement in the sentence.
The nouns above do not have a regular plural form; they are just collective nouns with plural meaning.
However, some nouns can have both a collective noun and a regular plural. Let’s have a look here:
- cvet → plural: cvetovi / collective noun: cveće (= flower – flowers)
- drvo → plural: drveta / collective noun: drveće (= tree – trees)
- pile → plural: pilići / collective noun: pilad (= chicken – chickens)
- dugme → plural: dugmeta / collective noun: dugmad (= button – buttons)
These collective forms refer to a group as a whole (singular) collection.
Completely Different Plural Forms
Just like a person becomes people in English, Serbian has the same word that changes entirely:
- čovek → ljudi (= person – people)
Nouns That Change Gender in Plural
Some nouns change gender in the plural.
- oko → oči (= eye – eyes)
- uho → uši (= ear – ears)
Oko and uho (=uvo) are neuter nouns in the singular, but in the plural they become feminine with the ending -i:
- Imam plave oči. (= I have blue eyes.)
- Imam velike uši. (= I have big ears.)
That’s All, But…
If you’d like to learn more about plural (or anything else) in Serbian, let us know, and one of our Serbian teachers will guide you through the process!
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