Множина именица
Overview
Plural endings depend on gender: masculine usually takes -и, feminine -а changes to -е, and neuter -о/-е to -а.
This lesson covers the nominative plural (subject form); other cases have their own plural endings.
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.
Many monosyllabic masculine nouns - one syllable in the nominative singular - insert -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. Some frequent one-syllable nouns take no infix and simply add -и: зуб (tooth) → зуби, прст (finger) → прсти, дан (day) → дани - learn these separately.
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 the lesson on noun gender, 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.
Extra stem changes in some plurals
Some masculine nouns change their stem before -и. Learn common forms such as ђак → ђаци and бубрег → бубрези as vocabulary.
Some masculine nouns have a vowel that disappears in the plural: момак → момци, пас → пси. Learn common forms as vocabulary; detailed sound-change rules come later.
Irregular plurals to memorize
A few common nouns have irregular plural forms that are best learned as vocabulary: човек → људи, око → очи, ухо → уши, дете → деца and брат → браћа.
For now, learn дете → деца and брат → браћа as irregular plural forms. Their agreement patterns are covered later.
Tables
| Gender | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine (consonant) | -и | студент → студенти |
| masculine (one syllable, hard consonant) | -ови | град → градови |
| masculine (one syllable, soft consonant) | -еви | кључ → кључеви |
| feminine in -а | -е | жена → жене |
| feminine, ending in a consonant | -и | ноћ → ноћи |
| neuter | -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 the lesson on noun gender: consonant-final masculine → -и (or -ови/-еви for many one-syllable nouns), -а-feminine → -е, -о/-е-neuter → -а.
- Many one-syllable masculine nouns add -ов-/-ев- before -и; learn the frequent forms as chunks. Some common nouns add only -и, such as зуб → зуби, прст → прсти and дан → дани.
- 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.
- Some masculine nouns change their stem in the plural. Learn common forms such as ђак → ђаци and бубрег → бубрези as vocabulary.
- Not every one-syllable masculine noun takes -ов-/-ев-. Several frequent ones add plain -и: зуб (tooth) → зуби, прст (finger) → прсти, дан (day) → дани. Learn them as individual words, the way you learn век → векови.
- Деца and браћа are irregular plural forms. Learn them with their singular forms; agreement is covered later.
- The plural forms очи and уши are irregular. Learn them as vocabulary.