Деклинација придева
Overview
basic-adjectives-a1 established that an adjective must agree with its noun in gender, number and case, and showed the nominative and accusative for a regular adjective like нов. This lesson gives the rest of the singular paradigm - genitive, dative, instrumental, locative - for masculine, neuter and feminine alike.
An adjective's oblique-case endings track the case-a2 lessons' noun endings closely enough that nothing here is a new concept - only a new set of endings to attach to a familiar shape.
Masculine and neuter - oblique cases, animacy, hard vs. soft stems
Masculine and neuter singular adjectives share every oblique case ending: genitive -ог(а), dative-locative -ом(е), instrumental -им - новог, новом, новим regardless of whether the noun is masculine or neuter, mirroring dative-case-a2's observation that dative and locative singular are (almost) identical.
Masculine accusative still splits by animacy exactly as accusative-case-a2 taught for nouns: an inanimate masculine noun keeps its adjective nominative-shaped („Купујем нов сто.“), while an animate one takes the genitive-shaped ending instead („Видим новог студента.“). Neuter accusative is always identical to the nominative - animacy never applies to neuter.
The genitive/dative-locative vowel is о after a hard stem consonant (нов-ог, нов-ом) but е after a soft one - ж, ч, ш, џ, ћ, ђ, љ, њ, ј, ц - as in свеж (fresh): свеж-ег, свеж-ем. The instrumental -им never alternates this way.
Feminine - full paradigm and one genuine ambiguity
Feminine singular declines нова → нове (gen.) → новој (dat./loc.) → нову (acc.) → новом (instr.), with no hard/soft о/е alternation at all - the endings already start with a vowel that needs no helper. Свежа follows the identical pattern: свежа, свеже, свежој, свежу, свежом.
Watch the instrumental feminine новом next to the masculine/neuter short dative-locative новом - they are spelled identically, and only the noun each one agrees with tells them apart: „Причам о новом стану.“ (locative masc.) versus „Разговарам са новом комшиницом.“ (instrumental fem.).
Longer and shorter endings - free variants
Masculine/neuter genitive and dative-locative each have a shorter, everyday ending (-ог, -ом) and a longer one (-ога, -оме) that sounds more formal - новог and новога, новом and новоме mean exactly the same thing. This is a stylistic choice, not a grammar rule to get right or wrong.
Tables
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| номинатив | нов | ново | нова |
| генитив | новог(а) | новог(а) | нове |
| датив | новом(е) | новом(е) | новој |
| акузатив (неживо / средњи) | нов | ново | нову |
| акузатив (живо, м.р.) | новог(а) | - | - |
| инструментал | новим | новим | новом |
| локатив | новом(е) | новом(е) | новој |
Examples
Compared with…
As basic-adjectives-a1 already noted, English adjectives never change form at all - no case, no gender, no number. This full oblique-case paradigm has zero direct English counterpart; the only route in is mechanical: know the noun's own case ending (already required by the case-a2 lessons) and match the adjective's ending to it every time.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Genitive and animate accusative share one ending (-ог(а)) for masculine singular adjectives, exactly mirroring the noun's own animacy rule from accusative-case-a2 - learn the noun's rule once, the adjective just copies it.
- Check the stem's last consonant before choosing -ог/-ом vs. -ег/-ем: ж, ч, ш, џ, ћ, ђ, љ, њ, ј, ц trigger the soft е; everything else defaults to о.
- The longer (-ога, -оме) and shorter (-ог, -ом) endings mean exactly the same thing - pick whichever sounds more natural in context; there is no grammar rule choosing between them.
- The plural follows a related but distinct set of endings, partly overlapping with the case-a2 lessons' noun plural tables - not spelled out fully here, to keep this lesson focused on the singular, where most learner errors concentrate.
- Adjective definiteness (нов vs. нови - indefinite vs. definite forms) is a separate, deeper layer built on top of this case paradigm, covered fully in adjective-definiteness-b2; this lesson treats the everyday, unmarked forms shown above as the default.
- Adjectives have no distinct vocative form of their own - an attributive adjective before a vocative noun stays in its nominative shape: „Драги пријатељу!“ keeps драги unchanged even though пријатељу is vocative.
Summary
Opens Focus mode: one exercise at a time, with explanations — either script accepted.
Grammar Words Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Guided lesson Listening Reading Writing Speaking Speaking Test
This lesson is the unit's first step. The grammar, the words and the first guided lesson are open to everyone; the rest of the unit's lessons and its text, dialogue and tasks come with Premium.