какав / колики / који

English speakers frequently rely on the single word 'what' across completely different contexts ('What car do you drive?', 'What is your room like?', 'What size is it?'). In Serbian, precision is required, and these interrogative pronouns divide the semantic space clearly.

1. Који, која, које (Identity and Selection)
This pronoun asks to single out an item from a set or to identify specific information (like names, numbers, or dates). It matches the noun in gender, number, and case using pronominal-adjectival endings:
• Masculine/neuter genitive singular: којег(а) or ког(а). Both longer forms (којег, којега) and contracted forms (ког, кога) are fully standard and widespread, whether used on their own or modifying a noun.
• Dative/locative singular: којем(у) or contracted ком(е).
• Pay close attention to animate and inanimate masculine accusatives: inanimate takes nominative (Који филм гледаш?), while animate takes genitive (Којег / Ког / Кога глумца волиш?).
• When modifying a noun directly, second-position enclitics frequently intervene right after који (left-branch extraction): Који си филм гледао? ('Which movie did you watch?').
• In identification questions asking for numbers, addresses, days, or choices, који serves as the interrogative predicate complement: Који је данас дан? ('What day is today?'), Који је твој број? ('What is your number?'), Која је твоја адреса? ('What is your address?'). Avoid direct English interference using шта in such copular clauses (*Шта је твој број? or *Шта је твоја адреса? are ungrammatical).

2. Какав, каква, какво (Nature, Quality, Property)
Use какав when inquiring about an attribute, type, or property rather than identity. It answers with a descriptive adjective:
• Какав је био филм? – Био је одличан и узбудљив. ('What was the movie like?' – 'It was great and exciting.')
• Morphologically, какав is a pronominal adjective (придевска заменица). The masculine nominative singular has a zero-ending with a fleeting a (какав vs. feminine каква, neuter какво). In oblique cases, it follows the pronominal-adjectival declension, taking the characteristic endings -ог(а) in the masculine/neuter genitive singular (каквог(а)) and -ом(е) in the dative/locative singular (каквом(е)), while the feminine genitive takes -е (какве).
• Like који, masculine accusative forms adhere strictly to the animacy distinction: inanimate takes nominative (Какав ауто возиш?), while animate takes genitive (Каквог човека тражиш?).

3. Колики, колика, колико (Physical Size, Scale, and Magnitude)
This pronoun is an inflecting adjective inquiring about physical dimensions, volume, as well as abstract magnitude, scale, bills, and debts:
• Колики је стан? – Огроман је! ('How big is the apartment?' – 'It's huge!')
• Колики је рачун? ('How much is the bill?') or Колики је био дуг? ('How large was the debt?')
• In the plural, it can refer to groups or scale (Колики су трошкови? – 'How high are the expenses?').
• Masculine accusative forms also follow the animacy rule: inanimate Колики сто купујеш? vs. animate Коликог пса имаш?.
• Crucial contrast: Колики is an adjective that agrees with the noun (колика кућа, колики прозор). Do not confuse it with the invariant quantifier колико ('how much / how many'), which takes a partitive genitive (Колико новца?, Колико соба има?) or asks for price.