Animate and Inanimate Masculine Nouns

Level 1

Masculine nouns are animate when they name people or animals, and inanimate when they name things. You can hear the difference first in the accusative: Vidím brata, but Vidím stôl.

How It Works

Every masculine noun belongs to one of two groups:

  • Animate (životné): people and animals. Examples are chlap (man), brat (brother), učiteľ (teacher), hrdina (hero), pes (dog) and kôň (horse).
  • Inanimate (neživotné): things, plants, places and ideas. Examples are dub (oak), stôl (table), stroj (machine), dom (house) and čaj (tea).

The group decides some endings. The first place you meet this is the accusative singular, the form for the object of a verb:

  • Animate nouns change: Vidím brata. (I see my brother.) Máme psa. (We have a dog.)
  • Inanimate nouns keep the dictionary form: Vidím dom. (I see the house.) Máme stroj. (We have a machine.)

Adjectives follow the same split: nového brata (a new brother) but nový dom (a new house).

In the plural, only nouns for men keep a special form. They end in -i, -ia or -ovia, as in chlapi, učitelia and hrdinovia. Animals in the plural usually behave like things, so pes becomes psy, like dub becomes duby.

A plant is not animate. A tree is alive, but dub is an inanimate noun.

Examples (6)

  1. Hľadám brata.

    I am looking for my brother.

    Brat is animate, so it becomes brata as an object.

  2. Hľadám nový stôl.

    I am looking for a new table.

    Stôl is inanimate, so it does not change.

  3. Máme psa.

    We have a dog.

    Animals are animate in the singular, so pes becomes psa.

  4. Máme nový počítač.

    We have a new computer.

    Počítač is inanimate, so it keeps its dictionary form.

  5. Chlapi sú unavení.

    The men are tired.

    Nouns for men have their own plural ending, and the adjective ends in -í.

  6. Duby sú vysoké.

    The oaks are tall.

    Inanimate nouns take a plural like duby, and the adjective ends in -é.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving an animate noun unchanged as an object.

    Mám brat.
    Mám brata.

    Brat names a person, so it is animate and takes -a in the accusative.

  • Adding the animate ending to a noun for a thing.

    Vidím stola.
    Vidím stôl.

    Stôl is a thing, so it is inanimate. Its accusative looks just like the dictionary form.

  • Forgetting that the adjective changes with an animate noun.

    Mám nový kamarát.
    Mám nového kamaráta.

    With an animate object, both words change: kamarát becomes kamaráta and nový becomes nového.

How It Connects

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

Animate and Inanimate Masculine NounsLevel 1

Learn This First

Before Animate and Inanimate Masculine Nouns, learn Masculine Nouns. Animacy divides masculine nouns into people and animals versus things.