Adjective agreement in the genitive, dative-locative and instrumental plural

You can already say dobri kafići and volim dobre kafiće — the adjective follows the noun into the nominative and accusative plural. But the moment the plural noun goes after a preposition, after a number, or becomes the person you give something to, you have been leaving the adjective out: ima mnogo kafića, sedim sa prijateljima. This lesson gives you the last two adjective endings, and after it a plural noun phrase can carry its adjective anywhere in the sentence.

The good news: gender disappears

In the singular every case had three endings to remember, one per gender. In the oblique plural there is one ending per case, for all three genders. So only two forms are actually new: -ih for the genitive plural and -im for the dative, locative and instrumental plural (those three share a form on the noun too, remember: gostima, stolicama).

The endings go onto the stem you already use in the singular oblique cases: dobar becomes dobr-og in the genitive singular, so it is dobr-ih and dobr-im here; velik gives velik-ih, velik-im; svež gives svež-ih, svež-im; domaći gives domaćih, domaćim. The fleeting a of dobar, topao (toplih) and hladan (hladnih) drops exactly as it does in every other case.

Where you will use each one

• Genitive plural, -ih: after quantity words and numbers from five up (mnogo dobrih kafića, pet hladnih piva), after ima and nema (nema slobodnih stolova, nema domaćih kolača), after prepositions such as od, iz, kod, bez, zbog (bez svežih kolača), and as the possessor (kafić starih prijatelja).
• Dative plural, -im: the people you give, bring, recommend or say something to (konobar donosi jelovnik novim gostima, preporučujem mladim gostima vino, stalnim gostima daje najbolji sto).
• Locative plural, -im: where something is, after u or na (u malim kafićima, u skupim restoranima, na velikim stolovima).
• Instrumental plural, -im: who you are with, after s(a) (sa starim prijateljima, sedim sa dobrim ljudima), or the means you use (jedemo velikim kašikama).

Against the plural you already know

The mistake this lesson exists to stop: inside an oblique phrase, the accusative plural -e is not an option. Volim stare prijatelje is right, but sa stare prijatelje is not — after sa it has to be sa starim prijateljima. Look at the noun's ending first: if the noun says -a (genitive plural) the adjective says -ih; if the noun says -ima or -ama, the adjective says -im.

You will also hear and read -ima on the adjective: dobrima, novima. It is correct, and it is used mainly when the adjective stands on its own, without its noun: u starim kafićima je mirno, a u novima je gužva. Next to a noun, say -im. You only need to recognise the longer form.

The small words ovaj, taj and moj take the same shape of ending in the oblique plural — ovih kafića, mojim prijateljima. Recognise them for now; the next lesson works through their whole declension.