Множина именица
Overview
Serbian marks the plural differently by gender: masculine nouns typically add -и, feminine -а-nouns swap it for -е, and neuter nouns swap -о/-е for -а - predictable directly from the gender you already learned to spot in noun-gender-a1.
This lesson covers only the nominative plural - the subject form. Every case lesson (genitive-case-a2, dative-case-a2, accusative-case-a2, instrumental-case-a2, locative-case-a2, vocative-case-a2) adds its own plural endings on top of what you learn here.
Masculine plural: -и, and the -ов-/-ев- infix
Most masculine nouns simply add -и to the consonant-final singular: студент → студенти, пријатељ (friend) → пријатељи. Nothing else changes.
A monosyllabic masculine noun - one syllable in the nominative singular - inserts -ов- or -ев- before that same -и. After a hard final consonant the infix is -ов-: град (city) → градови, мост (bridge) → мостови. After a soft/palatal final consonant (ч, ж, ш, ђ, ћ, џ, љ, њ, ј, ц) the infix is -ев- instead: кључ (key) → кључеви, нож (knife) → ножеви.
Feminine and neuter plural
Feminine nouns ending in -а swap it for -е: жена (woman) → жене, књига (book) → књиге. Feminine nouns ending in a consonant instead - the exception class from noun-gender-a1, like ноћ - take -и: ноћ (night) → ноћи.
Neuter nouns swap their singular -о or -е for -а: село (village) → села, поље (field) → поља. This covers most neuter nouns cleanly, but a small class of nouns ending in -е inserts an -ен- infix instead of a plain swap - име (name) → имена, време (time) → времена - so it isn't quite as exception-free as it looks.
Sibilarization and the fleeting а
When a masculine noun's stem ends in the velar consonants к, г, х, that consonant often softens to ц, з, с before the plural -и - sibilarization: ђак (pupil) → ђаци, бубрег (kidney) → бубрези, орах (walnut) → ораси. For a monosyllabic noun this usually replaces the -ов-/-ев- infix rather than joining it - one-syllable ђак just sibilarizes and adds -и, not *ђакови - but not always: век (century) → векови keeps its к unchanged and takes the infix instead, so a monosyllabic к/г/х-final noun still has to be checked rather than assumed.
Some masculine nouns carry a fleeting а (непостојано а) in their last syllable - a vowel that appears only in the nominative singular to break up an unpronounceable consonant cluster, and disappears once any ending is added: момак (young man) → момци, пас (dog) → пси. Момци shows both changes at once: the fleeting а drops (момак → момц-) and the exposed к sibilarizes to ц before -и.
Irregular plurals to memorize
A handful of very common nouns have a plural that no rule predicts and simply has to be learned as vocabulary: човек (person, man) → људи (people), око (eye) → очи (eyes), ухо (ear) → уши (ears). Очи and уши are relics of the old Slavic dual number, once reserved for naturally paired things.
Дете (child) → деца (children) and брат (brother) → браћа (brothers) are irregular the same way, with a twist: деца and браћа are themselves feminine-singular-shaped collective nouns with special verb agreement, covered in collective-verbal-nouns-b2. For now, just learn the plural word.
Tables
| Gender | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| мушки (сугласник) | -и | студент → студенти |
| мушки (један слог, тврд сугласник) | -ови | град → градови |
| мушки (један слог, мек сугласник) | -еви | кључ → кључеви |
| женски на „-а“ | -е | жена → жене |
| женски на сугласник | -и | ноћ → ноћи |
| средњи | -а | село → села |
Examples
Compared with…
English marks almost every plural with one ending, -s (or -es), regardless of gender - a category English nouns don't even have. Serbian instead picks the ending from gender, and layers sound changes (sibilarization, the fleeting а) that English's plain -s never triggers. The one genuine bridge is irregular plurals: English already has child→children and man→men, so a plural that must be memorized rather than derived is a familiar idea - only the words and their number (five, not two or three) differ.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Predict the plural ending from the gender you already learned in noun-gender-a1: consonant-final masculine → -и (or -ови/-еви for one-syllable nouns), -а-feminine → -е, -о/-е-neuter → -а.
- Before assuming a one-syllable masculine noun just needs a plain -и, check its last consonant: hard → -ов-, soft/palatal (ч, ж, ш, ђ, ћ, џ, љ, њ, ј, ц) → -ев-, and к/г/х often sibilarize instead of taking any infix - but not always, so a noun like век (→ векови) still has to be checked individually.
- The five irregular plurals - човек→људи, дете→деца, брат→браћа, око→очи, ухо→уши - cannot be derived from any rule; learn them as fixed vocabulary pairs, the same way you memorize an English irregular plural like child→children.
- Sibilarization is one common outcome for a monosyllabic masculine noun ending in к, г or х - ђак → ђаци, never *ђакови - but it is not the only one: several everyday nouns of the same shape instead take the -ов- infix and do not sibilarize, like век (century) → векови, not *веци.
- Деца and браћа are, underneath the irregular meaning, grammatically feminine-singular-shaped collective nouns that trigger plural verb agreement - a behavior explored fully in collective-verbal-nouns-b2; at this level, just learn the plural form itself.
- Очи and уши are leftovers of the old Slavic dual number - a third grammatical number, alongside singular and plural, once reserved for naturally paired things - which is why they follow no regular plural ending at all.
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 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.