The two exception classes
Ten minutes of the grammar lesson's own two exceptions to the ending rule: a lexical class of masculine nouns for male people that ends in -а like колега and туриста, and a lexical class of feminine nouns that ends in a consonant like ствар, реч and the whole -ост class. Build three sentences giving each exception its correct - not its ending-predicted - agreement, then hear one of the consonant-ending feminines said aloud.
The part of the grammar page this lesson drills — read it here, then use it.
The two exception classes
A lexical class of nouns for male people ends in -a but stays grammatically masculine. Frequent examples are тата (dad), деда (grandpa), судија (judge); the list is not complete, so check the gender of a new word in a dictionary. These nouns decline like feminine -a nouns but take masculine agreement: мој тата, not моја тата. Unlike тата and деда, which name only men, судија is an occupational noun - its agreement can follow the real judge's sex, defaulting to masculine only when unspecified.
A second lexical class of feminine nouns ends in a consonant instead of -а - most productively, virtually every abstract noun in -ост (младост, радост, могућност), plus a number of frequent concrete nouns like ноћ, реч, крв. Worth memorising as a class, since the consonant ending alone would otherwise suggest masculine; the examples do not exhaust it, so check the gender of a new word in a dictionary.
| Ending | Gender | Example |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | masculine | brat |
| -a | feminine | žena |
| -o | neuter | selo |
| -e | neuter | polje |
| consonant (exception) | feminine | noć |
| -a (exception, male person) | masculine | tata |