Fleeting a
A That Appears and Disappears
Some stems lose a in another form.
How It Works
Treat this as a change inside a particular word family, not as a universal spelling shortcut. The vowel in pas is absent in psa, while the a of grad stays in grada.
Adjectives also show the alternation: dobar, dobra, dobro. Some genitive plurals contain an a absent from the nominative singular, such as djevojka → djevojaka.
Other consonant changes can happen at the same time. Check the whole resulting form instead of deleting a and assuming that every other letter remains unchanged.
Examples (3)
- Vidim malog psa.
I see a small dog.
Pas loses a in the accusative singular psa.
- Ona je dobra prijateljica.
She is a good friend.
Dobra has the stem dobr-.
- Ovdje ima mnogo djevojaka.
There are many girls here.
Djevojaka shows a in the genitive plural.
How It Connects
Learn This First
Case changes can expose a vowel that disappears from the stem; compare whole inflected forms.
Related Patterns
Practice Fleeting a in Bubblegum
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