Agent and instrument noun suffixes
In short
| Suffix | Base | Example | Feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ač | verb | pevati → pevač; upaliti → upaljač (tool) | pevačica |
| -lac | verb | čitati → čitalac (gen. čitaoca, pl. čitaoci) | — |
| -telj | verb | učiti → učitelj | učiteljica |
| -ar | noun | slika → slikar, novine → novinar | novinarka |
| -ac | verb / adjective | pisati → pisac (pisca); stran → stranac | prodavac → prodavačica |
-lac: l → o everywhere except nom. sg. and gen. pl. -ac and -lac lose their a in the same forms.
B2 · Lesson 34 · Imenice vršioca radnje: -ač, -lac, -telj, -ar
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
Look at pevati (to sing) and pevač (singer), čitati (to read) and čitalac (reader), učiti (to teach, to learn) and učitelj (teacher). In each pair the noun is the verb with its ending swapped for a suffix that means the person who does this. Serbian builds hundreds of job and role names this way, so once you know the five suffixes you can read a noun you have never seen: strip the suffix, find the verb or noun underneath, and add "someone who…".
The five suffixes
| Suffix | Built on | Examples | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ač | a verb | pevati → pevač, igrati → igrač, voziti → vozač | the person who does it, and often a TOOL that does it: upaliti → upaljač (lighter) |
| -lac | a verb (the infinitive minus -ti) | čitati → čitalac, slušati → slušalac, posetiti → posetilac | the person who does it; often a member of an audience or a public |
| -telj | a verb (the infinitive minus -ti) | učiti → učitelj, graditi → graditelj, roditi → roditelj | the person who does it; frequent in formal and official words |
| -ar | a NOUN | slika → slikar, novine → novinar, lek → lekar, zub → zubar | the person who works with that thing |
| -ac | a verb or an adjective/noun | pisati → pisac, prodavati → prodavac, lov → lovac, stran → stranac | the person who does it, or who is like that |
Every one of these nouns ends in a consonant, so every one is masculine and declines like brat or grad: pevač, pevača, pevaču…. Because they name people, the accusative singular equals the genitive: Znam tog pevača.
-ar is the odd one out: it attaches to a THING, not to an action. Slikar is not "someone who pictures" but "someone who works with pictures". When you strip -ar and find no verb, look for a noun.
-ač: people and tools
-ač is the most productive suffix today, and it names machines as easily as people: usisati (to vacuum up) → usisivač (vacuum cleaner), upaliti (to light) → upaljač (lighter). The context tells you which: Vozač je stigao is a person, Upaljač ne radi is a tool.
-lac: watch the l turn into o
You already know that an l closing a syllable becomes o (video, čitao). Nouns in -lac show this in every form except the nominative singular and the genitive plural, because in all the others the fleeting a drops out and the l ends up closing a syllable:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | čitalac | čitaoci |
| genitive | čitaoca | čitalaca |
| dative | čitaocu | čitaocima |
| accusative | čitaoca | čitaoce |
| instrumental | čitaocem | čitaocima |
| locative | čitaocu | čitaocima |
Do not write čitalca or čitalci: those forms do not exist. Learn -lac nouns as a pair: čitalac – čitaoca. And when you meet an unknown word ending in -oca or -oci, put the l back to find the dictionary form.
-ac: the fleeting a
The a in -ac also drops out in every form except the nominative singular and the genitive plural: prodavac – prodavca – prodavci, pisac – pisca – pisci. So pisca in a sentence comes from pisac, not from some word pisca.
Women in these jobs: -ica and -ka
Most of these nouns have a feminine partner, made with one of two suffixes:
| Masculine | Feminine | How |
|---|---|---|
| pevač, igrač | pevačica, igračica | -ač + -ica |
| učitelj | učiteljica | -telj + -ica |
| prodavac | prodavačica | -ac + -ica, and c turns into č before it |
| novinar, lekar | novinarka, lekarka | -ar + -ka |
The feminine is a word of its own that you learn, not a form you can always build: pisac has the irregular partner spisateljica, and some masculine nouns have no settled feminine at all. Where you have not met a feminine, use the masculine noun for a woman too — that is always correct — rather than inventing one with -ica or -ka.
Check what you read
6 of the 21 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Čovek koji vozi autobus je ___.
Kad nestane struje, treba nam ___ da upalimo sveću.
Which of these nouns names a machine rather than a person?
Ova knjiga ima hiljade(čitalac).
Voditelj je razgovarao sa jednim(slušalac).
Upoznao sam jednog(posetilac) iz Japana.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Upaljač opet ne radi.
The lighter isn't working again.
Sećam se svog prvog učitelja.
I remember my first teacher.
Novinarka je odgovorila svakom čitaocu.
The journalist (a woman) replied to every reader.
Slikar je izložio nove slike.
The painter exhibited his new paintings.
Ovaj pisac ima mnogo čitalaca.
This writer has a lot of readers.
Moj brat je vozač autobusa.
My brother is a bus driver.
Naša učiteljica je bila veoma stroga.
Our teacher (a woman) was very strict.
Ona je najbolja igračica u ligi.
She is the best player in the league.
Prodavac nam je preporučio jeftiniji štampač.
The shop assistant recommended a cheaper printer to us.
Graditelji su završili most pre roka.
The builders finished the bridge ahead of schedule.
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 38
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 remember my first teacher.
the teacher was a man