деца / браћа

Collective Nouns and Agreement

Level 3Sounds Like zbirne imenice: deca; braća

The nouns деца (children) and браћа (brothers) are collective nouns morphologically declined in the feminine singular, but functionally serving as plurals. Within their noun phrase, adjectives and possessives match their feminine singular form, while finite verbs and past participles take plural agreement (participles end in -ла).

How It Works

In Serbian, certain nouns function through suppletion—filling gaps in regular plural paradigms. The singular средњи род noun дете has no standard regular plural; instead, the collective noun деца is used. Similarly, the masculine noun брат uses the collective form браћа as its standard plural.

Declension: Feminine Singular Only
Both деца and браћа belong to the женски род на -а paradigm and decline strictly in the singular:

  • Nominative: деца, браћа
  • Genitive: деце, браће
  • Dative/Locative: деци, браћи
  • Accusative: децу, браћу
  • Vocative: децо, браћо
  • Instrumental: децом, браћом

They have no plural oblique cases (forms like *децама or *браћама do not exist).

The Agreement Split (Congruence)
Unlike inanimate mass collectives like лишће (leaves) which take singular verbs (лишће опада), деца and браћа designate individual human beings. This creates a split:

  • Inside the Noun Phrase: Adjectives, demonstratives, and possessives follow formal grammatical agreement in the feminine singular: својој доброј деци, та немирна деца.
  • In the Predicate: Verbs take semantic agreement in the plural: Деца трче, Браћа раде.
  • In Past Tense: In the перфекат, standard normative Serbian grammar requires the 3rd person plural auxiliary су (plural by meaning) combined with the радни глаголски придев ending in -ла: Деца су се играла, Браћа су дошла. In codified normative grammars (such as Stanojčić & Popović and Stevanović), this ending -ла in the predicate is classified as feminine singular (женски род једнине), agreeing morphologically in gender with the collective noun, while the finite verb agrees in the plural.

Counting with Деца and Браћа
Because they are collectives, you cannot use basic cardinal numbers directly with these collective forms (*два деца, *пет деца, *пет браћа). The rules for counting differ crucially between children and brothers:

  • Counting children: Збирни бројеви (collective numerals) are standard and most natural: двоје деце, петоро деце. For small numbers (2–4), cardinal paucal constructions using the singular noun дете (such as два детета, три детета) are also fully standard.
  • Counting brothers: Collective numerals ending in -о/-е (such as *двоје браће or *петоро браће) are not used for exclusively male groups like brothers. For 2–4, standard Serbian uses cardinal paucal constructions with the masculine noun брат: два брата, три брата, четири брата. To quantify groups of brothers using the collective noun браћа, you must use numeral nouns in -ица (бројне именице на -ица) with the genitive singular form браће: двојица браће, тројица браће, петорица браће.

Examples (5)

  1. Та немирна деца цело поподне трче по парку.

    Those restless children have been running around the park all afternoon.

    Word by Word: Those restless children whole afternoon run around park.

    The demonstrative and adjective 'та немирна' are feminine singular, while the verb 'трче' is 3rd person plural.

  2. Моја браћа су стигла касно синоћ.

    My brothers arrived late last night.

    Word by Word: My brothers are arrived late last-night.

    The possessive 'моја' is feminine singular, the auxiliary 'су' is 3rd person plural, and the participle 'стигла' ends in -ла.

  3. Купио је рођендански поклон својој старијој браћи.

    He bought a birthday gift for his older brothers.

    Word by Word: Bought he-is birthday gift to-his older brothers.

    Shows dative case: 'браћи' takes feminine singular dative modifiers ('својој старијој').

  4. Њихова деца су била веома весела.

    Their children were very cheerful.

    Word by Word: Their children are been very cheerful.

    Predicative adjectives and past copular participles ('била весела') both take the plural ending -ла.

  5. Разговарао сам са њиховом добром децом.

    I spoke with their good children.

    Word by Word: Spoke I-am with their good children.

    Demonstrates the instrumental singular case 'децом' with feminine singular modifiers ('њиховом добром').

Common Mistakes

  • Using a 3rd person singular verb with 'деца' or 'браћа'

    Деца се игра у дворишту.
    Деца се играју у дворишту.

    Even though 'деца' declines like a feminine singular noun, it designates individual humans and strictly requires a plural finite verb (играју, not игра).

  • Applying plural case endings to 'деца' or 'браћа'

    Причао сам са мојим децама.
    Причао сам са мојом децом.

    These nouns decline strictly using the singular paradigm of feminine 'a'-stems. There are no forms like *децама or *браћама.

  • Using masculine plural participles in standard written Serbian for 'браћа'

    Браћа су јуче дошли.
    Браћа су јуче дошла.

    Both 'деца' and 'браћа' take the participle ending '-ла' (дошла), which is the neuter plural form. Colloquially one also hears the masculine plural ending (дошли) with 'браћа', but standard Serbian prefers the neuter plural.

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деца / браћаLevel 3Collective Nouns and Agreement

Learn This First

Understanding collective nouns such as 'деца' and 'браћа' requires familiarity with their use as irregular plural notions, how masculine nouns ending in -a decline, and the rules of adjective agreement.

Words in This Pattern

децабраћа