INTRODUCTION TO THE CROATIAN LANGUAGE LESSON 3

NOUNS 1. NOUN GENDER

There are three noun genders – masculine, feminine and neuter.

If a person or an animal is male, its grammatical gender will be masculine, and for living things that are female, the grammatical gender will be feminine.

What makes it slightly more complicated is that the names of inanimate objects also have a gender, which is not determined by any of the characteristics of the object.

How to tell which nouns are in which gender?

Rules in Croatian regarding noun gender are straightforward. The gender is determined based on the last letter of the word:

Masculine (muški rod):

Words in the singular ending in a consonant are masculine: (except about 250 nouns which are feminine but have a special declination) Examples: muž (husband), susjed (neighbour), stol (table), ručak (lunch) Words in the plural ending in an “i” are masculine: Examples: muževi (husbands), susjedi (neighbours), stolovi (tables), ručkovi (lunches)

There are also some masculine nouns that end in “a”

• The nouns tata (dad) and gazda (boss) are feminine nouns – despite the masculinity of the people that they refer to!

• There are only a few such nouns. Others include: • komšija (neighbour – an alternative to susjed, used in some regions) • starješina (superior, senior) • sluga (servant) • pristaša (follower) • as well as some men’s names such as Nikola, Jura, Luka, Andrija, etc.

Example nouns in masculine form:

Muškarac – man Dućan – shop Centar – center Stol – table Trg – square Prijatelj – friend Zrak – air Grad – town Dojam – impression Tramvaj – tram

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Feminine (ženski rod):

Words in the singular ending in “a” are feminine (except a very small number that are masculine) Examples: voda (water), mama (mother), stolica (chair), čaša (drinking glass) Words in the plural ending in “e” are feminine Examples: vode (waters), mame (mothers), stolice (chairs), čaše (drinking glasses)

Example nouns in feminine form:

Žena – woman Voda – water Riba – fish Osoba – person Tradicija – tradition Rijeka – river Čaša – glass Knjiga – book Prijateljica – friend Ptica – bird Jabuka – apple Zgrada – building

There are a significant number of feminine nouns that end in a consonant (also called the “i-nouns), and which are declined differently from regular feminine nouns.

Some of the common ones are:

bol ( pain kost (bone) ponoć (midnight) bolest (sickness) krv (blood) riječ (word) ćud (temper, mood) ljubav (love) sol (salt) dob (age, era) moć, nemoć (power, smrt (death) glad (hunger) weakness) stvar (thing) jesen (autumn) noć (night) večer (evening) kap (drop) obitelj (family) vijest, povijest (news, kokoš (hen) pomoć (help) history)

There are also many such nouns ending in –ost, such as:

budućnost (future) pismenost (literacy, ability to read) čitljivost (readability) radost (joy) mladost (youth) važnost (importance) očekivanost (predictability) žalost (sorrow).

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Neuter (srednji rod):

Words in the singular ending in “o” or “e” are neuter Examples: more (sea), kazalište (theater), kino (cinema), pivo (beer) Words in the plural ending in “a” are neuter Examples: mora (seas), kazališta (theaters), kina (cinemas), piva (beers)

Example nouns in neuter form:

Vino – wine Čekanje – waiting Prijateljstvo – Selo – village Mlijeko – milk friendship Jedinstvo – unity Ostalo – remainder More – sea Sunce – sun Dijete – child Polje – field Hodanje – walking

Each of the genders have their own rules of declension – that is, how the endings of the nouns change according to case in sentences.

Declension is when the form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article changes to indicate number (e.g., plural vs singular) or grammatical case (e.g., manner of categorizing nouns, pronouns, adjectives, participles, and numerals according to their traditionally corresponding grammatical functions within a given phrase, clause, or sentence – nominative, genitive, etc.). For instance, declension for a number means it tells us whether the noun is plural or singular. Grammatical case tells us the position and function of the noun or pronoun in the sentence.

2. GERUND NOUNS

The nouns čekanje and hodanje are two examples of neuter nouns that are called gerunds. These are nouns formed from verbs.

• The birds are singing. (Ptice pjevaju.) In this sentence, the word “singing” is a verb. • I hear the singing of the birds. (Čujem pjevanje ptica.) In this sentence, “singing” is a noun, called a gerund.

• In English, we form gerunds with the ending –ing. • In Croatian, gerunds have the endings –anje or –enje.

Just about any verb can become a gerund noun. For example:

• Plivati (to swim) = plivanje (swimming) • Skakati (to jump) = skakanje (jumping) • Trčati (to run) = trčanje (running) • Govoriti (to talk) = govorenje (talking)

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3. COLLECTIVE NOUNS (ZBIRNE IMENICE)

These are nouns that refer to a “bunch” of items/objects/animals. The number of items is irrelevant and may be uncountable. We use collective nouns when we are not referring to individual items in the aggregate.

There are sub-categories of collective nouns: plural nouns that end in “e,” collective nouns that end in “ad,” and feminine nouns that end in a consonant.

Plural nouns that end in “e”.

These are srednji rod (neuter) nouns that do not exist in the singular. Each of these nouns is derived from the noun for one of the items (by what is called iotization). Here are some examples:

• cvijeće (flowers), derived from the singular cvijet. • drveće (trees), derived from the singular drvet. • grožđe (grapes), derived from the singular grozd. • lišće (leaves), derived from the singular list. • gošće (guests), derived from the singular gost. • kamenje (rocks), derived from the singular kamen. • grmje (shrubs, bushes), derived from the singular grm. • granje (branches), derived from the singular grana.

Collective nouns that end in “ad”

These are feminine collective nouns for people or animals, and include:

• momčad (team), from the singular momak. • pilad (chickens), from the singular pile. • perad (poultry), a general term including hens, chickens, ducks, and turkeys. • siročad (orphans), from the singular sirota.

Feminine nouns that end with a consonant

These are plural nouns that decline as feminine singular nouns. • djeca (children), plural of dijete. • braća (brothers), plural of brat.

4. NOUNS IN PLURAL FORM REFERRING TO A SINGLE ITEM

Some of these are feminine nouns and decline as the plural form of feminine nouns. Others are neuter and decline accordingly.

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Feminine: • gaće (a pair of pants) • hlače (a pair of trousers) • ljestve (ladder) • novine (newspaper) • kolica (shopping trolley)

Neuter: • leđa (back) • pluća (lungs) • prsa (chest) • usta (mouth) • vrata (door, throat) • kola (coach, of a train)

5. CASES (PADEŽI)

There are seven grammatical cases (gramatički padeži).

For every grammatical case, a corresponding question helps understand the noun declension.

Case Question Nominativ (Nominative) Tko? Što? (who? what?) Genitiv (Genitive) Koga? Čega? (of whom? of what?) Dativ (Dative) Komu? Čemu? (to whom? wo what? To whom or what am I going toward?) Akuzativ (Accusative) Koga? Što? (whom? what?) Vocativ (Vocative) Oj! Ej! (oi! hey!) addresses people or things; usually followed by a comma Lokativ (Locative) O komu? O čemu? Gdje? (about whom? about what? where?) Instrumental S kime? S čime? (with whom? with what?)

Nominative The nominative case marks the subject of a verb (the predicate). Nouns, adjectives, etc. in the nominative form stay unchanged.

Fakultet je uvijek otvoren. = The faculty is always open.

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Genitive The genitive case marks a characteristic (trait), substance, belonging, property or origin.

Luka nosi kantu vode. = Luka is carrying a bucket of water.

Dative The dative case is most easily pictured as a case of giving, selling, donating something to someone. Dative is used in expressing goal or intention.

Ivan je dao svoju bilježnicu Mariji. = Ivan gave his notebook to Marija.

Accusative The accusative case is used for nouns that are objects in a sentence. In some cases, the noun in the accusative case remains unchanged, like the in nominative form.

On je pao niz stepenice. = He felt down the stairs.

Vocative The vocative case is used when you are addressing or calling someone.

Ivana, stani! = Ivana, stop!

Locative The locative case is the case which determines the place and the surroundings of the action taking place.

Auto je parkiran u garaži. = The car is parked in the garage.

Instrumental The instrumental case is the case of companionship and instrumentality.

Idem vani s prijateljima. = I am going out with friends.

6. STRESS AND PITCH

Each vowel can be either kratak (short) or dug (long) and there are two types of stress, ulazni (rising) and silazni (falling). The accent is a combination of length and stress. Because of this, there are four standard types of accents in the Croatian language: short falling, short rising, long falling and long raising.

There are five basic rules on word accentuation.

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1. A word can have only one type of accent. This is applicable even to very long words such as otorinolaringologija (otorhinolaryngology) or prijestolonasljednik (heir to the throne).

2. Single-syllable words always have falling accents, either long or short.

moć (power) → mȏć → long falling mač (sword) → mȁč → short falling trg (square) → tȑg → short falling stol (table) → stȏl → long falling

3. If the accent is on the first syllable, it can be any of the four accents.

žena (woman) → žèna → short rising kuća (house) → kȕća → short falling baka (grandma) → báka → long rising meso (meat) → mȇso → long falling

4. If the accent is on an inner syllable (i.e. any syllable apart from the first or the last), it can only be a rising accent.

razmišljati (to think) → razmíšljati → long rising inteligentan (intelligent) → inteligèntan → short rising prijestolonasljednik (heir to the thorne) → prijestolonásljednik → long rising otorinolaringologija (otorhinolaryngology) → otorinolaringològija → short rising

5. There is never an accent on the last syllable, with the exception of a few exclamations such as ohȏ (an exclamation expressing surprise).

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