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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 68 Three Men: Group Numbers 397 / 600
68 Three Men: Group Numbers
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 listed here:
both obojica
2 dvojica
3 trojica
4 četvorica
5 petorica
6 šestorica
7 sedm-orica
etc.
The pattern for larger 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 these numbers with -oro (e.g. četvoro). They
are very common in Bosnia and Serbia, and heard in Croatia as well.
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 nouns are mass nouns,
i.e. they are in singular, despite meaning plurality, and change like any other singular
nouns on -a:
Razgovarao sam s obojicom I . I talked to both men. (or both boys)
Actually, the nouns obojica, dvojica, etc. behave exactly like djeca and braća: they
require verbs in plural, despite being in feminine singular. Compare:
Djeca N su otišla. Children left.
Obojica N su otišla. Both men left.
otići past-f
otići past-f
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