-а (женски род)

Feminine Nouns Ending in a

Level 1Sounds Like ženski rod na -a

Nouns ending in -a in their dictionary form (nominative singular) make up the primary class of feminine nouns in Serbian. They require feminine adjective and verb agreements.

How It Works

In Serbian, grammatical gender is an essential property of nouns. The vast majority of nouns ending in -a in the nominative singular belong to the feminine gender (traditionally classified as the third declension or treća vrsta, and often termed the e-vrsta or second declension in modern three-class frameworks).

1. Natural vs. Grammatical Gender
While female persons and animals ending in -a have natural feminine gender (e.g., мајка 'mother', мачка 'cat'), inanimate objects and concepts ending in -a have grammatical feminine gender (e.g., кафа 'coffee', школа 'school', идеја 'idea'). They all follow the exact same agreement rules.

Note: Keep in mind that while almost all nouns ending in -a are feminine, not every feminine noun ends in -a; a smaller group of feminine nouns ends in a consonant (such as ноћ 'night', ствар 'thing', љубав 'love'). See feminine consonant nouns.

2. Grammatical Agreement
Whenever you modify or describe a feminine noun, dependent words must agree in feminine gender and number:

  • Adjectives & Demonstratives: Take the ending -a in the nominative singular: нова књига (new book), ова соба (this room). See adjective agreement.
  • Past Tense Participles: The active past participle ends in -ла in the singular and -ле in the plural: Сестра је дошла (Sister arrived), Књиге су биле скупе (The books were expensive).

3. Basic Singular and Plural Forms

  • Nominative Singular ends in -а: књиг-а (book).
  • Nominative Plural ends in -е: књиг-е (books).
  • Accusative Singular (direct object) ends in -у: Читам књиг-у (I am reading a book). See feminine direct objects.

4. Key Exceptions to Keep in Mind
A few nouns ending in -a refer to male persons (e.g., тата 'dad', деда 'grandpa', судија 'judge', and male names like Никола). While they decline with -a endings, their agreement depends on number:

  • In the singular, they take masculine agreement: мој добри тата је дошао (my good dad arrived), not *моја добра тата је дошла.
  • In the plural, modifiers next to the noun take feminine forms (ове добре тате), while verb forms in the past tense accept either semantic masculine plural agreement (тате су дошли) or grammatical feminine agreement (тате су дошле).

See masculine nouns ending in -a.

Examples (4)

  1. Ова нова књига је веома занимљива.

    This new book is very interesting.

    Word by Word: This new book is very interesting.

    The subject noun 'књига' is feminine, so the demonstrative 'ова', descriptive adjective 'нова', and predicate adjective 'занимљива' all take feminine singular endings.

  2. Моја сестра живи у Београду.

    My sister lives in Belgrade.

    Word by Word: My sister lives in Belgrade.

    'Сестра' is a feminine noun of natural gender; the possessive pronoun 'моја' matches it in gender and number.

  3. Купио сам црвену торбу.

    I bought a red bag.

    Word by Word: Bought am red bag.

    The feminine noun 'торба' shifts from -a to -u ('торбу') when used as a direct object in the accusative case.

  4. Његове сестре су дошле јуче.

    His sisters arrived yesterday.

    Word by Word: His sisters are arrived yesterday.

    'Сестре' is the nominative plural (ending in -е). The past participle 'дошле' takes the feminine plural ending -ле.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the nominative ending -a instead of -u for direct objects.

    Пијем кафа свако јутро.
    Пијем кафу свако јутро.

    Feminine nouns ending in -a change to -u in the accusative singular when acting as direct objects of a verb.

  • Using masculine verb agreement in the past tense for feminine subjects.

    Марија је купио нову кућу.
    Марија је купила нову кућу.

    The past-tense participle must agree with the feminine subject, taking the feminine singular suffix -ла (купила), not the masculine -о (купио).

  • Assuming nouns in -a that refer to men take feminine agreement in the singular.

    Моја тата је дошла.
    Мој тата је дошао.

    Nouns ending in -a referring to male persons (like 'тата' or 'деда') take masculine agreement in the singular ('мој тата је дошао'). In the plural, direct adjectives must be feminine ('ове добре тате'), while verbs in the past tense allow either semantic masculine plural agreement ('тате су дошли') or grammatical feminine plural agreement ('тате су дошле').

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-а (женски род)Level 1Feminine Nouns Ending in a

Learn This First

To understand feminine nouns ending in -а, learners should first be familiar with the foundational concept of grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) in Serbian.

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