Adjective Gender Agreement

Level 1

A Croatian adjective normally agrees with its noun in gender. Basic singular contrasts include dobar, dobra and dobro.

How It Works

Compare Grad je velik., Kuća je velika. and Selo je veliko. The description is similar, but each noun requires its own gender form.

Some adjectives change their stem as well as the ending: dobar → dobra → dobro. Do not form every feminine by merely appending -a to the masculine dictionary form.

The examples here use singular predicate adjectives in the nominative. An adjective before an object noun needs accusative agreement, and plural nouns need plural forms. Longer masculine forms also have their own definiteness and syntactic uses; this introductory pattern does not settle all of those choices.

Examples (4)

  1. Grad je velik.

    The city is large.

    Velik is masculine singular.

  2. Kuća je velika.

    The house is large.

    Velika is feminine singular.

  3. Selo je veliko.

    The village is large.

    Veliko is neuter singular.

  4. Knjiga je dobra.

    The book is good.

    Dobar loses its a before the feminine ending.

How It Connects

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Adjective Gender AgreementLevel 1

Learn This First

Gender is the category that selects the basic adjective form.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.