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A1 Nouns and Adjectives
Here's a summary of case forms for nouns and adjectives. Some cases are marked
with an asterisk (*) meaning there is an explanation below the table.
This is the pattern for nouns in singular. The endings -a, -o, -e from nominative are
replaced with other case endings, except where it's indicated that an ending is added
to the nominative form (N +):
noun type (N) A DL I G
-a (≈ fem.) -u *-i -om -e
neut. (≈ -o, -e) = N -u N + m -a
not
in
-a
masc. not p/a = N -om -u -a
masc. p/a -a (-em)
fem. = N -i -i -i
The five rows above are declension types — groups of nouns having the same
endings. Since three of them are very similar (neuter and masc.), Croatian
declension is often described having three classes (e.g. I, II and III in some books).
Which group a noun belongs to is based on its gender and nominative ending:
all nouns in -a change in the same way (almost all are feminine, few are
masculine, e.g. tata Dad)
all neuter nouns change in the same way (they all end in -o or -e, but converse
doesn't hold: e.g. some nouns in -o are masculine, and don't belong to this
group)
all masculine nouns that don't end in -a (they usually end in a consonant)
belong to one of two groups, distinguished by their meaning
all feminine nouns that don't end in -a (they usually end in a consonant) belong
to the last group
Certain feminine nouns, ending in either -ka or -ga, end in DL in -ci and -zi,
respectively:
Amerika America → Americi
knjiga book → knjizi
The ending -em in the instrumental case is attached to nouns that end in a Croatianspecific
letter, e.g.:
mrav ant → mravom
konj horse → konjem
There are endings for adjectives: