Adjective agreement in the instrumental singular
In short
| gender | instrumental sg | example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | -im | s mladim bratom, oštrim nožem |
| feminine | -om | s mladom sestrom, plavom kosom |
| neuter | -im | s mladim detetom, lepim licem |
Adjective -om + noun in -om is feminine instrumental; adjective -om + noun in -u is masc/neut dative-locative. The adjective keeps -im even when a soft-stem noun takes -em.
A2 · Lesson 10 · Adjectives in the instrumental singular
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
You already put nouns in the instrumental: s bratom for the person you are with, olovkom for the thing you do something with. As soon as an adjective stands in front of that noun, the adjective has to change too. This is the last singular case ending left to learn — after this lesson you can build a fully agreeing noun phrase in every singular case.
The two endings
| gender | ending | example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | -im | s mladim bratom — with a young brother |
| feminine | -om | s mladom sestrom — with a young sister |
| neuter | -im | s mladim detetom — with a young child |
Only two endings, then. Masculine and neuter share -im, and the feminine takes -om. The feminine phrase rhymes with itself — mladom sestrom, plavom kosom, hladnom vodom — because the noun ends in -om as well. The masculine and neuter phrases do not rhyme: the adjective ends in -im and the noun in -om or -em (starim autom, malim detetom, s toplim mlekom). Do not let the noun pull the adjective along.
The trap is the feminine ending. -om on an adjective is also the masculine and neuter dative-locative ending from the previous lesson. Compare: s mladom sestrom (instrumental, feminine) against mladom bratu (dative, masculine) and o mladom detetu (locative, neuter). Read the noun to tell them apart. Noun in -u after the adjective means dative-locative, masculine or neuter; noun in -om means instrumental, feminine. And a masculine or neuter noun in the instrumental never has -om on its adjective — it has -im: s bolesnim detetom, never s bolesnom detetom.
Soft stems: the noun changes, the adjective does not
After a soft consonant — č, ć, đ, š, ž, j, lj, nj — a masculine or neuter noun takes -em instead of -om in the instrumental: prijateljem, nožem, mužem, licem. The adjective ignores this. It keeps -im whatever its noun does: sa starim prijateljem, oštrim nožem, s lepim licem. The same is true when the adjective itself has a soft stem: in the dative-locative you saw vrućem beside mladom, but in the instrumental it is plain vrućim and vrućom, exactly like mladim and mladom. There is no -im / -em alternation to remember here.
Describing a person
This is how Serbian says what somebody looks like in a single phrase: s(a) plus the instrumental of the feature. Čovek s dugom bradom — a man with a long beard. Devojka s plavom kosom — a girl with blond hair. Dečak s okruglim licem — a boy with a round face. The adjective agrees with the feature, not with the person: brada and kosa are feminine, so dugom and plavom; lice is neuter, so okruglim. The bare instrumental, with no preposition, is still the tool: pišem crvenom olovkom, sečem oštrim nožem, peremo kosu hladnom vodom.
Before a word that starts with s, z, š or ž the preposition is written sa: sa starim prijateljem, sa sedom kosom. Elsewhere plain s is the usual form, though sa is never wrong.
The whole singular in one table
| case | masculine | feminine | neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | mlad | mlada | mlado |
| accusative | mladog (a person or animal), mlad (a thing) | mladu | mlado |
| genitive | mladog | mlade | mladog |
| dative-locative | mladom | mladoj | mladom |
| instrumental | mladim | mladom | mladim |
Read the table by column and the pattern is short. The feminine walks through -a, -u, -e, -oj, -om. Masculine and neuter agree everywhere except the nominative and the accusative of a thing, and their instrumental -im is the only ending in the whole singular that is not built on -o-.
Check what you read
6 of the 14 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Idem u grad s ___ bratom.
Razgovaram s ___ ženom.
Šetam s ___ detetom.
Ko je onaj čovek s(dug) bradom?
Sečem hleb(oštar) nožem.
Pijem čaj s(topao) mlekom.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Pišem plavom olovkom.
I am writing with a blue pen.
Sečem hleb oštrim nožem.
I am cutting bread with a sharp knife.
Sedim sa starim prijateljem.
I am sitting with an old friend.
Razgovaram s mladom ženom.
I am talking with a young woman.
Češljam kosu novom četkom.
I am combing my hair with a new brush.
Šetam s malim detetom.
I am walking with a small child.
Pijem čaj s toplim mlekom.
I drink tea with warm milk.
Ne pričaj s nepoznatim čovekom.
Do not talk to an unknown man. (one person)
Deda piše pismo starim perom.
Grandpa is writing a letter with an old pen.
Juče sam pričala s ljubaznim gospodinom.
Yesterday I talked with a kind gentleman. (woman speaking)
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 32
Try it yourself
Translate a sentence that uses this rule. The check marks the word that went wrong and names the rule behind it, as in the app.
Sentences
Write it in Serbian
I am writing with a blue pen.