Редни бројеви
Overview
Ordinal numbers (први, други, трећи…) give a position in a sequence and agree with the noun in gender, number and case, like adjectives.
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 from the lesson on adjectives (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 the lessons on the genitive and on days and months.
There is an important exception: when booking or confirming something, the verbs заказати/заказан (to book/booked) govern за + accusative for the target date instead of the bare genitive above - „Термин је заказан за седми октобар.“ (The appointment is booked for October seventh.) This is a separate, booking-specific construction, not a competing way to state a date in general.
Floors and grades
Ordinals also name floors and school grades, both with the locative case after на/у (see the lesson on the locative) - the ordinal agrees with the masculine noun exactly like any adjective would.
Tables
| Cardinal | Ordinal (masc.) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| један | први | suppletive |
| два | други | suppletive |
| три | трећи | irregular stem |
| четири | четврти | irregular stem |
| пет | пети | regular: + -и |
| шест | шести | regular: + -и |
| седам | седми | drop -ам, + -ми |
| осам | осми | drop -ам, + -ми |
| девет | девети | regular: + -и |
| десет | десети | regular: + -и |
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 - except a date booked with заказати/заказан, which takes за + accusative instead.
- In a compound ordinal, only the very last element changes - everything before it is a plain cardinal number, formed exactly as in the lesson on numbers.
- 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 the positive adjective declension from the lesson on adjectives case-for-case, though (as noted above) ordinals stay in the definite form throughout, unlike the plain adjectives of that lesson.
Summary
Opens Focus mode: one exercise at a time, with explanations - either script accepted.