EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural 145 / 600
25 Plural
So far we have learned three cases (apart from the default, nominative case, where
there’s nothing to learn). All forms we have seen were in singular: we couldn’t say
I’m eating apples or birds are singing.
Let’s now see how nouns look in plural. We’ll start with the simplest possibility:
nominative and accusative plural for nouns ending in -a and for neuter nouns (that
is, more or less all nouns that end in -o or -e).
The rules are very simple:
jabuka apple → jabuke apples
pismo letter → pisma letters
more sea → mora seas
Couple of feminine and neuter nouns exist only in their plural forms; they will be
indicated with their gender and "pl.":
gaće f pl. underpants
hlače f pl. pants, trousers ®
naočale f pl. eyeglasses ®
novine f pl. newspaper(s)
škare f pl. scissors ®
traperice f pl. jeans ®
kliješta n pl. pliers
leđa n pl. back(s)
pluća n pl. lung(s)
vrata n pl. door(s)
usta n pl. mouth(s)
Some English nouns, including translations of the Croatian nouns listed above have
the same property – there are only scissors and pliers.
So we now know how to make the nominative form in plural, but what about the
accusative case? It turns out that for such nouns, the accusative plural is equal to
the nominative plural! So we can say:
Jedem jabuke A . I’m eating apples.
Pišem pisma A . I’m writing letters.
There are couple of neuter nouns that don’t have regular plurals; if you want to
express plural you will have to use something called mass noun that will be
explained a bit later. Often used nouns with such problem are:
dijete (djetet-) child
janje (janjet-) lamb
pile (pilet-) chick
štene (štenet-) puppy
Such nouns are easy to distinguish: they all get an additional t in their case-base.
Four frequently used neuter nouns shift their stress in plural forms:
ime (imen-) name → imena
jezero lake → jezera
rame (ramen-) shoulder → ramena
jesti
pisati