EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 30 Three Beers: Less than 5 Things 174 / 600
30 Three Beers: Less than 5 Things
We’re now able to say two, able to say apples, able to say beers... but do we really
know how to say two apples or two beers in Croatian? Sadly, not really. So let’s
learn it!
Surprisingly, Croatian uses two different ways of counting things: one for numbers 2-
4, and another for larger numbers! I’ll show how to count less than 5 things first.
Words for some numbers adapt to the gender of the noun you count:
fem. neut./masc.
both
obje oba
obadvije obadva (colloq.)
2 dvije dva
3 tri
4 četiri
I have included the Croatian words for both, since they behave identically as the
words for two. The alternative forms obadvije and obadva are considered a bit
colloquial (opinions vary).
But what form of nouns comes after the number? If you have expected N-pl, you’ll
be surprised. It’s genitive singular (although it’s more than one thing). We can count
apples and ships now!
dvije jabuke two apples
dva broda two ships
dva prijatelja two friends
But what about using them in a sentence? Do they change as single nouns, e.g. in
accusative, etc.? No, such forms number-noun normally not change at all:
Imam dvije jabuke 24 . I have two apples.
Vidim dva broda 24 . I see two ships.
(Standard Croatian insists that numbers also change according to case. That’s very
rare in speech. If you’re interested, check 99 Aorist Tense and Other Marginal
Features.)
What about using adjectives (red, my) with counted nouns? Somehow, a special
thing happens – adjectives get special endings:
gender adjectives (2-4)
fem. -e
neut./masc. -a