Genitive Plural

Level 3

Genitive plural: usually -a.

How It Works

nominative pluralgenitive plural
stolovistolova
kućekuća
selasela
prijateljiprijatelja
ljudiljudi
noćinoći

Three groups cover most nouns:

  • Masculine: -a after the plural stem, including -ov- and -ev- (stolova, noževa). A few take -i (ljudi).
  • Feminine in -a: the nominative plural -e becomes -a (kuća, sestara). A vowel often appears between two consonants: pjesma becomes pjesama.
  • Neuter: -a (sela, pitanja).

You use this case after numbers from five up and after words such as mnogo, nekoliko and nema: pet stolova, mnogo kuća.

Examples (4)

  1. Nema stolova u sobi.

    There are no tables in the room.

    Nema takes the genitive plural.

  2. U selu ima pet kuća.

    There are five houses in the village.

    Pet takes the genitive plural.

  3. Imam mnogo prijatelja.

    I have many friends.

    Mnogo takes the genitive plural.

  4. Na trgu ima mnogo ljudi.

    There are many people on the square.

    Ljudi has -i in the genitive.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the nominative plural after pet.

    Pet stolovi.
    Pet stolova.

    After five and above, the genitive plural is needed.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Genitive PluralLevel 3

Learn This First

The genitive plural is formed from the stem.

Words in This Pattern

genitivmnožina