Expressing dates with the genitive
In short
Dates — everything in the genitive, no preposition.
| Nominative | Date form (genitive) | |
|---|---|---|
| day + month | prvi maj | prvog maja |
| dvadeset peti decembar | dvadeset petog decembra | |
| year | dve hiljade peta godina | dve hiljade pete godine |
Ordinal = adjective: masculine -og with the day, feminine -e with godine. Only the last element of a compound number changes.
| Month alone | u + locative |
|---|---|
| in January | u januaru |
| in September | u septembru |
| in November | u novembru |
| in December | u decembru |
Months: januar, februar, mart, april, maj, jun, jul, avgust, septembar, oktobar, novembar, decembar — genitive septembra, oktobra, novembra, decembra.
Written: 8. mart 2025. — a full stop after every number.
A2 · Lesson 41 · Months and dates
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
To say when something happens, English puts a preposition in front of the date: on the first of May. Serbian puts no preposition there at all. The date itself changes shape instead, and that change is what carries the meaning "on".
Prvi maj is the first of May as a name. Prvog maja is on the first of May. Both words have moved into the genitive: the ordinal takes the masculine genitive -og you already know from adjectives, and the month, a masculine noun, takes the genitive -a.
| Nominative (the name) | Genitive (on that day) | English |
|---|---|---|
| prvi maj | prvog maja | on 1 May |
| osmi mart | osmog marta | on 8 March |
| dvanaesti april | dvanaestog aprila | on 12 April |
| dvadeset peti decembar | dvadeset petog decembra | on 25 December |
The ordinal is an adjective, so nothing new has to be learnt for it: prvog, drugog, trećeg, petog, desetog, dvadesetog are the ordinary masculine genitive singular forms. It is masculine because the day it counts is dan.
In a compound number only the last element is an ordinal and only it changes: dvadeset peti becomes dvadeset petog. The dvadeset in front of it never moves.
The twelve months
| Month | In a date (genitive) | English |
|---|---|---|
| januar | januara | January |
| februar | februara | February |
| mart | marta | March |
| april | aprila | April |
| maj | maja | May |
| jun | juna | June |
| jul | jula | July |
| avgust | avgusta | August |
| septembar | septembra | September |
| oktobar | oktobra | October |
| novembar | novembra | November |
| decembar | decembra | December |
The last four months drop the -a- of their final syllable before any ending: septembar but septembra, decembar but decembra. Month names are written with a small letter, even at the start of a date.
Writing a date
In writing, every number in a date is followed by a full stop, because the full stop is what marks it as an ordinal: 1. maj, 8. mart 2025., 25. 12. 2024. The full stop does not end the sentence; it belongs to the number.
What is written 8. mart is read aloud as osmi mart when you are naming the day, and as osmog marta when you are saying that something happens then.
A month with no day
When you name only the month, there is no date to put in the genitive, and Serbian goes back to the preposition u with the locative: u januaru, u avgustu, u septembru. This is the same u you use for being in a place.
| Serbian | English |
|---|---|
| petog januara | on 5 January |
| u januaru | in January |
| dvadesetog jula | on 20 July |
| u julu | in July |
| u novembru | in November |
| u decembru | in December |
The year
A year is counted with an ordinal too, but the noun behind it is godina, which is feminine — so the ordinal takes the feminine genitive -e, and the word godine follows it. Again only the final element is the ordinal.
| Year | Serbian | English |
|---|---|---|
| 2001. | dve hiljade prve godine | in 2001 |
| 2010. | dve hiljade desete godine | in 2010 |
| 2019. | dve hiljade devetnaeste godine | in 2019 |
| 2024. | dve hiljade dvadeset četvrte godine | in 2024 |
| 2025. | dve hiljade dvadeset pete godine | in 2025 |
A full date runs day, month, year, and every part of it stands in the genitive: Rodio sam se desetog juna dve hiljade druge godine. No preposition anywhere.
One place the genitive does not appear: when you answer Koji je danas datum?, you are naming the day rather than saying when something happens, so you use the nominative — Danas je prvi mart. Compare Putujemo prvog marta, "We travel on the first of March".
Check what you read
6 of the 16 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Rođendan mi je(dvanaesti) aprila.
Putujemo petog(mart).
Božić se slavi sedmog(januar).
Danas je ___ mart.
Slavimo Novu godinu ___ januara.
Sneg pada u ___.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Putujemo prvog marta.
We travel on the first of March.
Rođendan mi je petnaestog marta.
My birthday is on the fifteenth of March.
Koje godine si se rodio?
What year were you born in? (to a man)
Moj rođendan je dvanaestog aprila.
My birthday is on the twelfth of April.
Venčanje im je dvadeset drugog juna.
Their wedding is on the twenty-second of June.
Poklon ću ti dati osmog marta.
I'll give you the present on the eighth of March.
Godišnjica našeg venčanja je devetog avgusta.
The anniversary of our wedding is on the ninth of August.
Božić se u Srbiji slavi sedmog januara.
Christmas is celebrated in Serbia on the seventh of January.
Da li putujete šestog ili sedmog februara?
Are you travelling on the sixth or the seventh of February?
Stan smo kupili dve hiljade petnaeste godine.
We bought the flat in two thousand and fifteen. (a man speaking about himself and his wife)
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 18
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
We travel on the first of March.