Agreement After Five and More

Level 3

Five and higher normally select genitive plural nouns.

How It Works

Compare tri knjige with pet knjiga. Adjectives inside the larger-number phrase also take genitive plural: pet novih knjiga.

In Pet učenika je došlo, je and došlo treat the number phrase as a quantity. Actual agreement can vary with context and how strongly the people are treated as individuals, so learn this as the common quantity pattern.

Compound counts require attention to their final number: dvadeset dvije knjige differs from dvadeset pet knjiga. The teen numbers, such as dvanaest, belong with the genitive-plural pattern.

Examples (3)

  1. Kupujem pet novih knjiga.

    I am buying five new books.

    Novih knjiga is genitive plural.

  2. Šest učenika je došlo.

    Six pupils have arrived.

    The quantity subject takes je došlo.

  3. U torbi imam dvanaest olovaka.

    I have twelve pencils in my bag.

    Dvanaest selects genitive plural olovaka.

How It Connects

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

Agreement After Five and MoreLevel 3

Learn This First

Higher numerals select genitive plural nouns and have their own predicate agreement.

Words in This Pattern

petšestsedamosamdevetdeset