Redni brojevi
Overview
Ordinal numbers - први (1st), други (2nd), трећи (3rd)… - say where something falls in a sequence, and unlike the cardinal numbers of numbers-a1, they behave exactly like adjectives: they agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe.
The first ten ordinals need to be memorized individually, since several deviate from a simple rule; from the eleventh onward, formation becomes mechanical.
Formation from the cardinals
први (1st) and други (2nd) are suppletive - unrelated in form to један and два. трећи (3rd) and четврти (4th) adjust the cardinal's stem irregularly. From пет (5) onward, most ordinals simply add -и to the cardinal - except седми (7th) and осми (8th), which drop -ам and add -ми instead of the plain -и.
From 11 onward the rule is fully mechanical - add -и to the cardinal. Сто (100) becomes стоти (100th), with an inserted т.
Compound ordinals only turn the very last element into an ordinal - everything before it stays a plain cardinal number: тридесет четврти (34th) - never both parts changed.
Adjective-like agreement
Every ordinal's case endings match the adjectives of basic-adjectives-a1 (see the table below) - but unlike нов, an ordinal always takes the definite (long) form: први, never a short *прв, in the masculine nominative singular.
Dates - nominative vs. genitive
Naming what today's date is uses the nominative, with the ordinal agreeing with an unstated masculine дан (day). Saying on which date something happened or will happen uses the genitive on both the ordinal and the month name, with no preposition at all - see genitive-case-a2 and days-months-a1.
Floors and grades
Ordinals also name floors and school grades, both with the locative case after на/у (see locative-case-a2) - the ordinal agrees with the masculine noun exactly like any adjective would.
Tables
| Cardinal | Ordinal (masc.) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| jedan | prvi | suppletive |
| dva | drugi | suppletive |
| tri | treći | irregular stem |
| četiri | četvrti | irregular stem |
| pet | peti | regular: + -i |
| šest | šesti | regular: + -i |
| sedam | sedmi | drop -am, + -mi |
| osam | osmi | drop -am, + -mi |
| devet | deveti | regular: + -i |
| deset | deseti | regular: + -i |
Examples
Compared with…
English ordinals are mostly a plain -th suffix (fourth, fifth, sixth…), with only first/second/third irregular, and - crucially - they never agree with anything: third floor uses the identical word whether the noun is masculine, feminine or plural. Serbian's full adjective-style declension (први/прва/прво, првог/прве) is a genuinely new category. Dates also differ structurally: English uses a preposition, on the 5th of March, where Serbian uses a bare case ending and no preposition at all.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Learn 1st–10th as one memorized block, since roughly half of them deviate from a simple rule; from 11th onward the + -и rule is fully reliable.
- Default to the genitive whenever a date answers on which day, and reach for the nominative only when naming what today's date is.
- In a compound ordinal, only the very last element changes - everything before it is a plain cardinal number, formed exactly as in numbers-a1.
- први, други, трећи, четврти, седми and осми all deviate from the plain cardinal + -и pattern in some way; treat them as vocabulary to memorize rather than a rule to derive.
- Masculine and neuter ordinal endings coincide in several cases (e.g., genitive -ог for both) - matching basic-adjectives-a1's positive adjective declension case-for-case, though (as noted above) ordinals stay in the definite form throughout, unlike the plain adjectives of that lesson.
Summary
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