pet + Genitive Plural

Counting Five or More

Level 3

In nominative or accusative quantity phrases, cardinal numbers from five through one hundred take a genitive-plural noun.

How It Works

In nominative or accusative quantity phrases, cardinal numbers from five through one hundred take a genitive-plural noun. As a subject, this quantity construction commonly takes a neuter singular predicate.

Compare Trije otroci so prišli with Pet otrok je prišlo. Crossing the counting boundary changes the noun to genitive plural and the common agreement pattern to neuter singular. The rule also covers 21–24: enaindvajset knjig and dvaindvajset knjig. After a multiple of one hundred, the one-to-four pattern starts again: sto ena knjiga, sto dve knjigi, sto tri knjige, sto štiri knjige. Do not choose agreement from the last digit alone. Other cases reshape the whole quantity phrase, as in s petimi otroki.

Examples (3)

  1. Pet knjig je na mizi.

    Five books are on the table.

  2. Pet otrok je prišlo.

    Five children came.

  3. Vidim šest hiš.

    I see six houses.

How It Connects

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pet + Genitive PluralLevel 3Counting Five or More

Learn This First

Understand genitive and grammatical number before learning higher-number quantity phrases.

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Words in This Pattern

pet