The seven cases: what each one answers
Ten minutes meeting the system itself: Serbian marks a noun's role in the sentence - subject, possessor, object and more - with one of seven case endings, each traditionally learned by the question it answers. Build sentences naming what you know and what you're learning before choosing and translating your way through the rest, ahead of the one contrast you can already use: nominative versus accusative.
The part of the grammar page this lesson drills — read it here, then use it.
The seven cases
Serbian has seven cases. The table lists each case and its question.
| Case | Question | Use |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | ko? šta? | subject of the sentence |
| genitive | koga? čega? | belonging, od |
| dative | kome? čemu? | indirect object, ka |
| accusative | koga? šta? | direct object |
| vocative | - | direct address |
| instrumental | (s) kim? čim? | means, company |
| locative | o kome? o čemu? | place, topic (always with a preposition) |