Croatian grammar reference section/Nouns #004a
A universal declension table?
Can we list the declined forms of all nouns in one reference table - Regular and irregular; masculine, feminine and neuter; singular and plural; all cases?
Well, all regular nouns?
Well, all regular nouns?
Wow! When I decided to try to summarise the various ways that nouns are declined, little did I realise how complex things are! In a word, the declension of nouns is un-summarizable.
There are even so many variations on the “regular” nouns that I don’t even know any longer whether the declensions of some nouns are variations of the regular, or irregular!
But’s let’s kick on, and explore some of the jungle ……..
There are even so many variations on the “regular” nouns that I don’t even know any longer whether the declensions of some nouns are variations of the regular, or irregular!
But’s let’s kick on, and explore some of the jungle ……..
Can all of the characteristic declension types be fully summarised in one universal table? No.
A simplified universal table
The table below (or variations of it) is often presented to beginning learners as a ready reference to the declension of masculine, feminine and neuter regular nouns – those of categories 1(a), 1(b), and 1(c) in the post 004 Declension categories of Croatian nouns.
The table below (or variations of it) is often presented to beginning learners as a ready reference to the declension of masculine, feminine and neuter regular nouns – those of categories 1(a), 1(b), and 1(c) in the post 004 Declension categories of Croatian nouns.
Declension of regular nouns. A simplified list of characteristic endings (suffixes).
In each case the noun is formed from the stem of the noun in nominative singular, to which the suffix is added. For example:
- stol (table) in singular locative case is stolu (stol- + -u).
- žena (woman) in plural dative is ženama (žen- + -ama).
So isn't that enough?
Well it is a good start. I don't think that I could have handled anything more elaborate than that. Any learner knows about overload (Please, Sir, my brain is full!)
But in the longer term, my experience of using this table is that although it was useful, I didn’t fully appreciate that it only applied to regular nouns, I was often confused by declination of non-regular nouns (which I didn’t realise were non-regular).
Even worse was that this table is a gross over-simplification, and has lots of ambiguities (for example, -o/-e. Eh, what!?)
But in the longer term, my experience of using this table is that although it was useful, I didn’t fully appreciate that it only applied to regular nouns, I was often confused by declination of non-regular nouns (which I didn’t realise were non-regular).
Even worse was that this table is a gross over-simplification, and has lots of ambiguities (for example, -o/-e. Eh, what!?)
Getting rigorous
I have tried to produce more rigorous universal table of declensions of regular nouns. It needs footnotes for explanations.
But beware: even this table doesn’t give the full story, even for regular nouns (see below).
But beware: even this table doesn’t give the full story, even for regular nouns (see below).
A more complete universal table of characteristic suffixes of regular nouns, according to case.
Footnotes:
- Muški rod, jednina, akuzativ case: The ending for animate nouns (živ) is different from that for inanimate nouns (neživ)
- Muški rod, jednina, vokativ case: The the suffix is -e if the end of the noun (in nominative singular) is a “hard” consonant, but -u if the noun ending is one of the “soft” consonants c, ć, č, š, đ, dž, lj, nj, j.
- Muški and srednji rod, jednina, instrumental case: The ending -om is used if the end of the noun (singular, nominative) is a “hard” consonant, but -em if the noun ending is a “soft” consonant c, ć, č, š, đ, dž, lj, nj, or j.
- Srednji rod, jednina, nominative case (as in the dictionary): Some end with -o (selo, vino), and some with -e (more, sunce). There is no 'rule' about which ones end with -o, and which ones end with -e, although mostly -o follows a hard consonant, and -e follows one of the “soft” consonants c, ć, č, š, đ, dž, lj, nj, j.
- Srednji rod, jednina, akuzativ and vokativ cases: The ending is the same as in nominativ case (-o if the nominative noun ends with -o, and -e if the noun ends with -e in nominative case).
- Muški rod, jednina, all cases: For most (but not all) monosyllabic nouns, and a few polysyllabic nouns, an infix -ov or -ev is placed between the noun stem and the standard ending: -ov in the case of nouns that end with a “hard” consonant, and -ev for nouns with a “soft” consonant c, ć, č, š, đ, dž, lj, nj, j. In the nominative case, for example, this can be equally regarded as having the ending -ovi or -evi, (rather than -i).
End of the story? Nah!
Even this more rigorous table can't show the endings in the case of:
- the 'fleeting -a' in all cases except genitive plural when 'a' is the penultimate letter in the nominative singular noun (See Nouns #005 Declension of regular masculine nouns).
- sibilarization or platalization if normal declination would give rise to certain letters being adjacent to each other (Croatian grammar #014: Sibilarization and palatalization).
A reminder ....
The 'universal' table of noun declinations above is only relevant to so-called regular nouns, and does not apply to the following categories of non-regular nouns defined in Post #004: Declension categories of nouns:
2. Masculine nouns that end with -a
3. Feminine nouns that end with a consonant: i-nouns.
4. Collective nouns.
4a. Plural nouns that end in -e.
4b. Collective nouns that end in -ad.
4c. djeca, braća.
5. Pluralia tantum.
6. Vrijeme, ime, Sljeme.
7. Place names.
2. Masculine nouns that end with -a
3. Feminine nouns that end with a consonant: i-nouns.
4. Collective nouns.
4a. Plural nouns that end in -e.
4b. Collective nouns that end in -ad.
4c. djeca, braća.
5. Pluralia tantum.
6. Vrijeme, ime, Sljeme.
7. Place names.
And so to ......
In the following posts in this section, I will try to show the declination of nouns in each category, one by one - not that I would expect anyone to remember the patterns, but these might serve as a reference check.
The ultimate check on the declension of every single Croatian noun
The ultimate guide to how each and every Croatian noun declines is to check out Wiktionary. Click HERE. Type the noun in the Search bar, click on the Search icon. Choose the 'Serbo-Croatian' option (sometimes a noun exists is more than one language, perhaps with a different meaning), and click 'Declension'. Every single noun! (and verb, and adverb, and adjective, ..............)