Masculine Nouns

Level 1

Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, like grad (city), brat (brother) and prijatelj (friend). A few end in -a or -o.

How It Works

Bosnian nouns have three genders. Masculine is the largest group. Most of these nouns end in a consonant in the basic form (the nominative).

  • People: brat, otac, prijatelj, učitelj
  • Things: sto, grad, autobus, hljeb, ćevap

Notice that sto (table) and ćevap are masculine even though sto ends in a vowel. A few other nouns break the pattern too. Men's names in -o such as Marko are masculine, and so are tata (dad) and sluga (servant) in -a. Another entry covers the nouns in -a.

Masculine nouns take masculine partners: moj grad, velik grad, jedan grad. Use this as a test whenever you meet a new word.

Examples (5)

  1. Mostar je lijep grad.

    Mostar is a beautiful city.

    Grad ends in a consonant and is masculine.

  2. Moj brat pije kafu.

    My brother drinks coffee.

    Moj is the masculine form.

  3. Sto je velik.

    The table is big.

    Sto ends in a vowel but is masculine, so the adjective is velik.

  4. Amir je moj prijatelj.

    Amir is my friend.

    Prijatelj ends in a consonant.

  5. Otac čita knjigu.

    The father reads a book.

    Otac names a man.

Common Mistakes

  • Giving a masculine noun a feminine adjective.

    Mostar je lijepa grad.
    Mostar je lijep grad.

    Grad is masculine, so the adjective stays in its basic masculine form, without -a.

How It Connects

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

Masculine NounsLevel 1

Learn This First

Masculine nouns follow from knowing there are three genders.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

imenicamuškirod