Nouns in -ost

Level 5

-ost names a quality.

How It Works

adjectivenoun
mlad (young)mladost (youth)
siguran (safe)sigurnost (safety)
iskren (honest)iskrenost (honesty)
zahvalan (grateful)zahvalnost (gratitude)

The noun is feminine even though it has no -a. It changes like noć:

nominativegenitiveaccusativeinstrumental
mladostmladostimladostmladošću

A vowel inside the adjective can drop (siguran, sigurnost). Not every adjective has a noun in -ost, and some use other suffixes (lijep, ljepota), so check new words.

These nouns are common in news, school and official language, where speakers name a quality instead of saying it with an adjective.

Examples (4)

  1. Mladost brzo prolazi.

    Youth passes quickly.

    Mladost comes from mlad.

  2. Sigurnost je važna.

    Safety is important.

    Sigurnost comes from siguran.

  3. Cijenim iskrenost.

    I value honesty.

    Iskrenost is the accusative.

  4. Pričamo o sigurnosti djece.

    We are talking about the safety of children.

    Sigurnosti is the locative.

Common Mistakes

  • Using a masculine adjective with the noun.

    Mladost je lijep.
    Mladost je lijepa.

    Nouns in -ost are feminine.

How It Connects

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

Nouns in -ostLevel 5

Learn This First

Suffix for abstract nouns.

Words in This Pattern

mladostsigurnostiskrenostzahvalnostmladsiguraniskrenzahvalanmogućnost