Measures and Containers

This construction expresses partitive quantification (деони генитив) when buying groceries, ordering drinks, or following recipes.

1. Number and Measure Agreement
The numeral directly determines the grammatical form of the measure unit. The measure noun in turn governs the genitive case of the item being measured, while the choice between singular and plural genitive is determined by the countability of that substance or item:

• Number 1 (један, једна, једно): Agrees with the measure noun like an adjective in gender, number, and syntactic case. When ordering or buying (acting as direct objects), masculine inanimate and neuter nouns match the nominative, while feminine nouns end in -у:
  један литар млека (masculine inanimate: accusative = nominative)
  једно паковање пиринча (neuter: accusative = nominative)
  једну чашу воде (feminine: accusative singular in -у)
• Numbers 2, 3, 4 (два, две, три, четири): Govern the paucal ending on the measure noun. Note that the number 2 inflects for gender to match the measure unit: use два with masculine and neuter measures, and две with feminine measures (while три and четири remain unchanged for all genders):
  — Masculine and neuter measures take -а: masculine два килограма шећера, neuter два паковања пиринча
  — Feminine measures ending in -а take -е: две чаше воде, три флаше вина, четири шоље кафе
• Numbers 5 and up (пет и више): Govern the genitive plural on the measure noun:
  пет килограма кромпира
  десет литара млека (note the fleeting a in литара)
• Accusative case when ordering (direct objects): For numbers 2 and above, phrases with inanimate measure units generally keep their nominative form (Accusative = Nominative). For example, Желим два килограма јабука or Дајте ми три флаше воде. However, compound numbers ending in 1 (e.g., 21, 31) are an exception: the numeral једна and feminine measure nouns decline into the regular accusative singular in -у (e.g., Желим двадесет једну флашу воде).
• Compound numbers: Strictly follow the rule of their final numeral component (compound number agreement). For example, двадесет један литар (ends in 1), двадесет две флаше (ends in 2), and двадесет пет чаша (ends in 5). When a compound number ends in a teen number (11–19), such as сто дванаест литара, it regularly takes the genitive plural because its final word belongs to the 5+ category.

2. Genitive Form of the Measured Item
The noun representing what is contained or weighed depends purely on its countability, remaining constant regardless of the number:

• Mass, liquid, or uncountable nouns stay in the genitive singular:
  литар млека, три чаше воде, килограм брашна, кутија кекса
• Countable items stay in the genitive plural:
  килограм јабука, две кутије јагода, три пакета банана

3. Avoiding 'од' for Contents
In standard Serbian, contents are indicated by the genitive case alone without a preposition (e.g., чаша воде, not *чаша од воде).
• Use од + генитив for the material something is made of (шоља од порцелана) or the original type/former contents of a container (флаша од вина = a wine bottle, чаша од јогурта = a yogurt cup).
• Use за + акузатив for designed purpose (за + акузатив намене: шоља за кафу = a coffee cup, чаша за воду = a water glass).