AHA! CROATIAN
  • HOME
    • Navigation: A ROAD MAP
    • Contacts
  • LEARNING CROATIAN
    • CROATIAN: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Kosa, koza, koža
      • 002 Pronouncing 'au'
      • 003 Can language influence behaviour?
      • 004 First day of the week
      • 005 Do Croatians assign gender to objects?
      • 006 Za četiri dana, na dva dana
      • 007 My brain becomes full!
      • 008 Sretan rođendan ti
      • 009 Na kavu, po kavu, za kavu?
      • 010 Until you don't do it
    • CROATIAN: Posts 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Nazvati nekoga, telefonirati nekomu
      • 012 If she were a man ....
      • 013 Streets with two names?
      • 015 Tri, četiri, sad!
      • 016 I feel like crying!
      • 017 I felt like crying, I will feel like crying
    • DAKLE ŽELIŠ BITI KAO PRAVI HRVAT, JE L' DA? HOME >
      • 001 Ovako!
      • 002 Je l' tako?
      • 003 Tako je!
      • 004 Izvoli! Izvolite!
      • 005 Eto!
    • CHALLENGES FOR YOU >
      • 001 Crossword puzzle 1
  • GRAMMAR
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Where are the pronouns?
      • 002 Padeži and noun endings
      • 003 Endings of pronouns and adjectives
      • 004 "u" ili "na" ?
      • 005 The declensions of Tko? and Što?
      • 006 Ja sam na Trgu bana Josipa Jelačića
      • 007 Going and coming: u-iz, but na-sa
      • 008 Sav - All, every
      • 009 Number of subjects and the verb 'biti'
      • 010 Koga nazoveš? Komu telefoniraš?
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Declension of place names
    • GRAMMAR TITBITS - HOME >
      • 001 Dati - dativ
    • GRAMMAR REFERENCE SECTION HOME >
      • 001 Questions that define the case of nouns
      • 002 All nouns have gender
      • 003 Nouns in the nominative case
      • 004 Nouns: Declension categories
      • 005 Declension of regular nouns
  • SAYINGS
    • SAYINGS: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Ne daj se!
      • 002 U tom grmu leži zec!
      • 003 Baš me briga!
      • 004 Mačji kašalj!
      • 005 Što je, tu je!
      • 006 Eto ti ga na!
      • 007 Na licu mjesta
      • 008 Sve si to ti kriv!
  • VOCAB
    • Vocabulary: POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Even dying is not easy!
      • 002 To laugh or to smile?
      • 003 Nahraniti, sahraniti .... schmahraniti
      • 004 Prefixes that modify verb meanings
      • 005 Prefixes on base verb stati
      • 006 Country names - noun or adjective?
      • 007 Names of towns: A grammatical nightmare
      • 008 Countries: What do we call their citizens?
      • 009 Baš
      • 010 What a joke! vic or šala?
    • Vocab THEMES: HOME >
      • 001 In the time of coronavirus
    • Što je korijen riječi?: HOME >
      • 001 Nadimak
      • 002 Zora, prozor, zoran, ….
  • STUFF
    • STUFF: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Bookara
      • 002 Crossies?
      • 003 Jučer ili sutra?
      • 004 Ućitelji
      • 005 Požuri polako
      • 006 Kakav stil!
      • 007 The people of Magorje
      • 008 Where did the "j" go?
      • 009 koliko je kiše 50 litara po kvadratom metru?
      • 010 The dark side of the moon
    • Vicevi (Jokes)
  • EXPERIENCES
    • EXPERIENCES: POSTS 1 - 10 HOME >
      • 001 Licitarska srca
      • 002 My Aussie accent
      • 003 The upside down SIM card
      • 004 Buying fritule in Split
  • ABOUT CROATIA
    • Republika Hrvatska: HOME >
      • 001 Anthem: LIJEPA NAŠA
      • 002 Map of Croatia
      • 003 Županije: The counties of Croatia
    • Where/What/Who is that? HOME >
      • Where/What/Who? Pages 1 - 10 >
        • 001 A girl and a bird
        • 002 His left foot
        • 003 A rebel
        • 004 Čuvarica Omiša
        • 005 Giorgio or Juraj?
        • 006 Tovar and friend
        • 007 Up on high
        • 008 On an island
        • 009 Water wonderland
    • REGIONS, CITIES, TOWNS: HOME >
      • ZAGREB: HOME >
        • 001 Zagreb cathedral
        • 002 Advent in Zagreb
        • 003 Interliber book fair
        • 004 On the tramvaj in Zagreb
      • Dalmacija: HOME >
        • BEING AND SPEAKING DALMATIAN: HOME >
          • 001 Molin?
          • 002 Eleven Dalmatian commandments
          • Dalmatinski rječnik HOME >
            • Keywords A - J
            • Keywords K - N
            • Keywords O - R
            • Keywords S - Ž
            • English to Dalmatian
      • Zagorje: HOME >
        • 001 Autumn tones
    • SPORT: HOME
    • CULTURE: HOME >
      • 001 A night at the ballet
  • TKO SAM JA?
    • Tko sam ja? Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 The way we spoke

REFERENCE:  004 Declension categories of nouns

15/6/2019

0 Comments

 
How does this noun change depending on its case? And this one?

In the Croatian language, most nouns can be categorised into a number of types. In each category, the nouns have a particular gender, and we decline them according to case in a particular way - different from category to category. And then there are, surprise, surprise, some nouns that are not like any other.

Textbooks for learning Croatian usually introduce declension of nouns by reference to those listed below as “regular nouns.”

That is fine, but usually there is no mention that there are so many nouns that don’t fit the declension rules of regular nouns, and I found myself repeatedly being frustrated to find that there was another bunch of nouns that behaved differently – and were regarded as iznimke (exceptions).



With hindsight, I guess that I would have liked to know about the existence of the various types, right from the beginning. And so, I have put together the summary below in the hope that it might save you, my reader, from the same frustrations.

By the way, I don’t regard all non-regular nouns as exceptions – just nouns of different types.
The categories of nouns that I have listed below probably don’t correspond exactly with categories that Croation linguists use – but I guess that there is considerable overlap. I’ll probably need to revise my categorisation as time goes by as I become more experienced and receive more feedback from readers.

Actually, as I compose this post, I can see why the various categories of nouns are introduced to people learning Croatian in a drip-feed fashion: the categorisation is rather complex, and the various compartments are not independent of each other. I realise that I would have drowned in the complexity (and the disbelief).

Nevertheless, I would have liked to know that there is a bigger world “out there” than regular nouns. That would have prevented some frustration.
​

So, probably as in teaching and learning of all subjects (and certainly in the case of Chemistry, which I have been teaching for a little over 100 years, I think), the teacher has to make decisions between minimising confusion of the students now vs. frustration of the students later.

Now that I think about it, so many times I have been confronted with students exclaiming “Why did we get only half of the truth last year?” My standard reply has been something about confusion vs. frustration!

Anyway, as far as learning Croatian goes, I think that the balance between these competing forces only became about right for me after I enrolled with Mateja at SpeakCro.
​
Have I been “rabbiting on” a little? Sorry.


Here are my provisional categories of declension types of nouns in the Croatian language:
​
 
1.         Regular nouns

These are the ones that you will find in the tables of introductory textbooks.

There are three sub-categories (male, female, and neuter) each with their own rules of declension – that is, how the endings of the nouns change according to case in sentences (See Declension of regular nouns, not yet available).

The rules for deciding which category any regular noun belongs to are simple:

1a.       If the nominative singular form of a regular noun (the word that you find in dictionaries) ends in a consonant, it is masculine, and has particular declension rules.

Examples of masculine regular nouns are:
            muškarac (man)                        stol (table)
            zrak (air)                                   dojam (impression)
            dučan (shop)                             trg (square)
            grad (town, city)                       tramvaj (tram)
            centar (centre)                          prijatelj (friend)
 
1b.       If the nominative singular form of a regular noun ends in –a, it is feminine.   

​Examples of feminine regular nouns are:
            žena (woman, lady)                   knjiga (apple)
            osoba (person)                          jabuka (aple)
            čaša (glass)                               zgrada (building)
            ptica (bird)                                 riba (fish)
            voda (water)                              rijeka (river)
            tradicija (tradition)                     prijateljica (female friend)
​

1c.        If the nominative singular form of a regular noun ends in –o or –e, it is neuter.
​

Neuter regular nouns include, for example:
            vino (wine)                               mlijeko (milk)
            selo (village)                             ostalo (remainder)
            jedinstvo (unity)                        prijateljstvo (friendship)
            sunce (sun)                               more (sea)
            polje (field)                               dijete (child)
            čekanje (waiting)                      hodanje (walking)
 
As well as jedinstvo and prijateljstvo, there are a whole bunch of neuter regular nouns that end in –stvo, such as: bogatsvo (wealth); računstvo (arithmetic, reckoning); društvo (company of people); and susjedstvo (neighbourhood).

​I can see that these words have something in common, but I can’t describe it.
​

The nouns čekanje and hodanje are two examples of the 153 871 neuter nouns that are called gerunds. These are nouns formed from verbs.

            The birds are singing. (Ptice pjevaju.) In this sentence, the word “singing” is a verb.
            I hear the singing of the birds. (Čujem pjevanje ptica.) In this sentence, “singing” is a noun, called a gerund.

In English, we form gerunds with the ending –ing.
In Croatian, gerunds have the endings –anje, or –enje.

​Think of just about any verb, and in many cases you can identify a gerund noun.
            plivati (to swim)           plivanje (swimming)
            skakati (to jump)           skakanje (jumping)
            trcati (to run)                trčanje (running)
            govoriti (to talk)            govorenje (talking)
 
​

2.         Masculine nouns that end with –a.

The nouns tata (dad) and gazda (boss) are feminine nouns – despite the masculinity of the people that they refer to!

There are only a few such nouns. Others are:
            komšija (neighbour – an alternative to susjed, used in some regions)
            starješina (superior, senior)
            sluga (servant)
            pristaša (follower)
as well as the names Nikola (Nicholas) and Jura (George)

Just looking ahead, they are declined like regular feminine nouns (my category 1b, above).

But (grimace!) adjectives that describe them, and pronouns that replace them, decline as though masculine!
In fact, my dictionary indicates that they are female nouns. These are strange beasts indeed.
​
Ne daj se! Don’t give up!
​

 
3.         Feminine nouns that end with a consonant: i-nouns

There are a significant number of feminine nouns that end in a consonant, and which are declined differently from regular feminine nouns.

Some of the most common of these are:
            bol (pain)                       bolest (sickness)
            ćud (temper, mood)       dob (age, era)
            glad (hunger)                 jesen (autumn)
            kap (drop)                      kokoš (hen)
            kost (bone)                    krv (blood)
              ljubav (love)                   moć, nemoć (power, weakness)
            noć (night)                     obitelj (family)
            pomoć (help)                  ponoć (midnight)
            riječ (word)                    sol (salt)
            smrt (death)                   stvar (thing)
            večer (evening)              vijest, povijest (news, history)
​

There are also many such nouns ending in –ost, such as: budućnost (future); čitljivost (readability); mladost (youth); očekivanost (predictability); pismenost (literacy, ability to read); radost (joy); važnost (importance); žalost (sorrow).
 
You will see from the way that we decline them (Link when post available) why they are called i-nouns.
 

4.         Collective nouns (zbirne imenice)

These are nouns that refer to a “bunch” of items/objects/animals. The number of items is irrelevant, and in fact they may be uncountable. We use collective nouns when we are not referring to particular individual items in the aggregate of them.

There are sub-categories of collective nouns:

4a.       Plural nouns that end in –e.

These are srednji rod (neuter) nouns that do not exist in the singular. Each of these nouns is derived from the noun for one of the items (by what is called iotization). Here are some examples:
            cvijeće (flowers), derived from the singular cvijet.
            drveće (trees), derived from the singular drvet.
            grožđe (grapes), derived from the singular grozd.
            lišće (leaves), derived from the singular list.
            gošće (guests), derived from the singular gost.
            kamenje (rocks), derived from the singular kamen.
            grmje (shrubs, bushes), derived from the singular grm.
            granje (branches), derived from the singular grana.


4b.       Collective nouns that end in –ad.

These are feminine collective nouns for people or animals, and include:
​            momčad (team), from the singular momak.
            pilad (chickens), from the singular pile.
            perad (poultry), a general term including hens, chickens, ducks, and turkeys.
            siročad (orphans), from the singular sirota.

These are in fact a subset of my category 3: Feminine nouns that end with a consonant( i-nouns)
 
4c.        Djeca, braća

These are plural nouns that decline as feminine singular nouns.
            djeca (children), plural of dijete.
            braća (brothers), plural of brata.

Although these nouns decline as singular feminine nouns, and related possessive pronouns and adjectives are as for singular feminine nouns, verbs following the nominative noun are as though the noun is plural.

Personal pronouns replacing these nouns are as for neuter plural.

Complex stuff! More in a special post (LINK HERE)
​
 
5.         Pluralia tantum

This is a fancy name for nouns that only have a plural form, but refer to a single item. Some of these are feminine nouns, and decline as the plural form of feminine nouns. Others are neuter, and decline accordingly.

Feminine: gaće (a pair of pants); hlače(a pair of trousers); ljestve (ladder); novine (newspaper); kolica (shopping trolley).

Neuter: leđa (back), pluća (lungs); prsa (chest); usta (mouth); vrata (door, throat); križa (cross); kola (coach, of a train).
 
​

6.         Vrijeme, ime, Sljeme

These nouns have a peculiar declension of their own (see LINK)
​

 
7.         Place names
​

To anyone learning Croatian, some place names in any but nominative case can seem quite strange. Place names can be of various types, such as:
  • Split and Zagreb are singular masculine nouns.
  • Vinkovci is a plural masculine noun.
  • Stari Grad and Mali Lošinj each consists of a singular masculine adjective and noun.
  • Pula, Crikvenica, and Rijeka are singular feminine nouns.
  • Velika Gorica and Sveta Nedelja both consist of a singular feminine adjective and noun.
  • Vodice is a plural feminine noun.
  • Imotski behaves as though a masculine adjective.
  • Makarska behaves as though a feminine adjective.
  • Đakovo is a singular neuter noun.
  • Dugo Selo consists of a singular neuter adjective and noun.
  • ​
And so there are some interesting declinations, which I talk about in a special post (LINK)
 
​
8.         Misfits, exceptions

Of course, there are quite a few nouns that don’t fit into any of my categories above.

​I will from time to time list some of them here.

​

 
Click here to go to   Aha! Croatian: A ROAD MAP

​

0 Comments
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • HOME
    • Navigation: A ROAD MAP
    • Contacts
  • LEARNING CROATIAN
    • CROATIAN: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Kosa, koza, koža
      • 002 Pronouncing 'au'
      • 003 Can language influence behaviour?
      • 004 First day of the week
      • 005 Do Croatians assign gender to objects?
      • 006 Za četiri dana, na dva dana
      • 007 My brain becomes full!
      • 008 Sretan rođendan ti
      • 009 Na kavu, po kavu, za kavu?
      • 010 Until you don't do it
    • CROATIAN: Posts 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Nazvati nekoga, telefonirati nekomu
      • 012 If she were a man ....
      • 013 Streets with two names?
      • 015 Tri, četiri, sad!
      • 016 I feel like crying!
      • 017 I felt like crying, I will feel like crying
    • DAKLE ŽELIŠ BITI KAO PRAVI HRVAT, JE L' DA? HOME >
      • 001 Ovako!
      • 002 Je l' tako?
      • 003 Tako je!
      • 004 Izvoli! Izvolite!
      • 005 Eto!
    • CHALLENGES FOR YOU >
      • 001 Crossword puzzle 1
  • GRAMMAR
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Where are the pronouns?
      • 002 Padeži and noun endings
      • 003 Endings of pronouns and adjectives
      • 004 "u" ili "na" ?
      • 005 The declensions of Tko? and Što?
      • 006 Ja sam na Trgu bana Josipa Jelačića
      • 007 Going and coming: u-iz, but na-sa
      • 008 Sav - All, every
      • 009 Number of subjects and the verb 'biti'
      • 010 Koga nazoveš? Komu telefoniraš?
    • GRAMMAR POSTS 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Declension of place names
    • GRAMMAR TITBITS - HOME >
      • 001 Dati - dativ
    • GRAMMAR REFERENCE SECTION HOME >
      • 001 Questions that define the case of nouns
      • 002 All nouns have gender
      • 003 Nouns in the nominative case
      • 004 Nouns: Declension categories
      • 005 Declension of regular nouns
  • SAYINGS
    • SAYINGS: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Ne daj se!
      • 002 U tom grmu leži zec!
      • 003 Baš me briga!
      • 004 Mačji kašalj!
      • 005 Što je, tu je!
      • 006 Eto ti ga na!
      • 007 Na licu mjesta
      • 008 Sve si to ti kriv!
  • VOCAB
    • Vocabulary: POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Even dying is not easy!
      • 002 To laugh or to smile?
      • 003 Nahraniti, sahraniti .... schmahraniti
      • 004 Prefixes that modify verb meanings
      • 005 Prefixes on base verb stati
      • 006 Country names - noun or adjective?
      • 007 Names of towns: A grammatical nightmare
      • 008 Countries: What do we call their citizens?
      • 009 Baš
      • 010 What a joke! vic or šala?
    • Vocab THEMES: HOME >
      • 001 In the time of coronavirus
    • Što je korijen riječi?: HOME >
      • 001 Nadimak
      • 002 Zora, prozor, zoran, ….
  • STUFF
    • STUFF: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Bookara
      • 002 Crossies?
      • 003 Jučer ili sutra?
      • 004 Ućitelji
      • 005 Požuri polako
      • 006 Kakav stil!
      • 007 The people of Magorje
      • 008 Where did the "j" go?
      • 009 koliko je kiše 50 litara po kvadratom metru?
      • 010 The dark side of the moon
    • Vicevi (Jokes)
  • EXPERIENCES
    • EXPERIENCES: POSTS 1 - 10 HOME >
      • 001 Licitarska srca
      • 002 My Aussie accent
      • 003 The upside down SIM card
      • 004 Buying fritule in Split
  • ABOUT CROATIA
    • Republika Hrvatska: HOME >
      • 001 Anthem: LIJEPA NAŠA
      • 002 Map of Croatia
      • 003 Županije: The counties of Croatia
    • Where/What/Who is that? HOME >
      • Where/What/Who? Pages 1 - 10 >
        • 001 A girl and a bird
        • 002 His left foot
        • 003 A rebel
        • 004 Čuvarica Omiša
        • 005 Giorgio or Juraj?
        • 006 Tovar and friend
        • 007 Up on high
        • 008 On an island
        • 009 Water wonderland
    • REGIONS, CITIES, TOWNS: HOME >
      • ZAGREB: HOME >
        • 001 Zagreb cathedral
        • 002 Advent in Zagreb
        • 003 Interliber book fair
        • 004 On the tramvaj in Zagreb
      • Dalmacija: HOME >
        • BEING AND SPEAKING DALMATIAN: HOME >
          • 001 Molin?
          • 002 Eleven Dalmatian commandments
          • Dalmatinski rječnik HOME >
            • Keywords A - J
            • Keywords K - N
            • Keywords O - R
            • Keywords S - Ž
            • English to Dalmatian
      • Zagorje: HOME >
        • 001 Autumn tones
    • SPORT: HOME
    • CULTURE: HOME >
      • 001 A night at the ballet
  • TKO SAM JA?
    • Tko sam ja? Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 The way we spoke