Plural Insert -ov- and -ev-

Level 3

Short masculine nouns often get -ov- or -ev- in the plural.

How It Works

Many one-syllable masculine nouns put -ov- or -ev- between the stem and the plural ending -i.

Singular	Plural	Meaning
brod	brodovi	ship
grad	gradovi	city
sin	sinovi	son
nož	noževi	knife
muž	muževi	husband

The rule of thumb is that -ev- comes after soft consonants (č, ć, đ, š, ž, j, lj, nj) and -ov- comes after the rest.

Some short nouns skip the insert, and you have to learn them: dan, dani; zub, zubi; pas, psi. Longer nouns usually take plain -i: student, studenti.

With the insert, k, g, h do not change, so you get drug, drugovi (compare učenik, učenici, where the ending -i changes k to c).

Examples (5)

Sarajevo i Mostar su lijepi gradovi.
Sarajevo and Mostar are beautiful cities.
Grad gets -ov- in the plural.
Na stolu su noževi i viljuške.
Knives and forks are on the table.
Nož gets -ev- after the soft ž.
Hasan ima tri sina.
Hasan has three sons.
After tri, the noun takes the counted form sina.
Vidim brodove na rijeci.
I see ships on the river.
Brodove is the accusative plural.
Ovi dani su topli.
These days are warm.
Dan is an exception and has no insert.

Common Mistakes

Using plain -i on a regular short noun.
Brodi su na rijeci.
Brodovi su na rijeci.
Brod takes -ov- in the plural.

How It Connects

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

Plural Insert -ov- and -ev-Level 3

Learn This First

Some plurals add -ov- or -ev-.

Plural of Masculine Nouns
It extends masculine plurals.
Level 1

Words in This Pattern

brodsin

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