Grammatical Gender of Nouns in Serbian
Grammatical Gender: Masculine, Feminine, Neuter (Rod imenica)
Serbian nouns belong to three genders: masculine (ending in consonant or -o/-e), feminine (ending in -a or consonant), and neuter (ending in -o or -e).
In Serbian grammar, every noun possesses an inherent *Grammatical Gender (Gramatički rod): Masculine (Muški rod), Feminine (Ženski rod), or Neuter (Srednji rod)*. Gender dictates the inflectional paradigm of the noun and triggers agreement in adjectives, pronouns, numerals, and past participles:
*1. Masculine Gender (Muški rod): - Typical ending: Consonant (grad = city, student, sto = table, prozor = window). - Male proper names in -o / -e: Marko, Danilo, Pavle, Đorđe (decline like feminine in -a or masculine). - Animacy distinction: In the singular, masculine animate nouns have Accusative = Genitive (Vidim studenta), whereas inanimate nouns have Accusative = Nominative (Vidim grad*).
*2. Feminine Gender (Ženski rod): - Typical ending: -a (žena = woman, knjiga = book, kuća = house, škola = school). - Consonant-ending abstract feminines (III declension): noć (night), ljubav (love), stvar (thing), reč (word), kost* (bone).
*3. Neuter Gender (Srednji rod): - Typical ending: -o (after hard consonants: selo = village, mesto = place) or -e (after soft consonants: polje = field, more = sea, dete* = child).
Agreement Rule: Attributive adjectives and verbs in the past tense strictly match the noun in gender, number, and case (novi grad, nova knjiga, novo selo; student je radio, studentkinja je radila, dete je radilo).
Examples
Beograd je prelep istorijski grad na ušću dveju velikih reka.
Belgrade is a beautiful historic city at the confluence of two large rivers.
Ova nova naučna knjiga pruža odličan pregled slovenske filologije.
This new scientific book provides an excellent overview of Slavic philology.
Naše malo mirno selo nalazi se u prelepoj dolini blizu planine.
Our small quiet village is located in a beautiful valley near the mountain.
Iskrena ljubav i duboko poštovanje su osnova svakog pravog prijateljstva.
Sincere love and deep respect are the foundation of every true friendship.
Related terms
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