Indeclinable nouns and adjectives
In short
| never changes | example |
|---|---|
| woman's name not in -a | kod Karmen, sa Ines |
| woman's surname not in -a | od gospođe Smit (but gospodina Smita) |
| roze, braon, bordo, lila, teget, bež, super, fer | u roze haljini |
| abbreviations read as letters | u EU, članica EU |
The case shows on the words around it: tu novu Ines, sa gospođom Smit.
These DO decline: auto → auta, autom · taksi → taksija, taksijem · intervju → intervjua, intervjuu.
B2 · Lesson 5 · Nepromenljive imenice i pridevi
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
By now almost every Serbian word you use changes its ending with its role in the sentence: Ana, kod Ane, sa Anom; crvena haljina, u crvenoj haljini. A small group of words refuses to do this. They look exactly the same in every case, and your job with them is restraint: do not add an ending. The case is still there — it is simply shown by the words around them: the preposition, an adjective, a demonstrative, the verb. Words like this are called indeclinable.
Which words never change
- Foreign women's names that do not end in -a: Karmen, Ines, Nikol, Meri. (In B1 you met the same thing with feminine names in a consonant.)
- Women's surnames that do not end in -a — foreign ones like Smit or Merkel, and Serbian ones like Petrović too, when they belong to a woman.
- A handful of adjectives, mostly colours borrowed from other languages: roze (pink), braon (brown), bordo (burgundy), lila (lilac), teget (navy blue), bež (beige), and two words of quality, super (great) and fer (fair).
- Most abbreviations read letter by letter, such as EU (the European Union): u EU, članica EU.
Names: the first name changes, the surname does not
Put a normal name next to an indeclinable one and the difference is easy to see. Ana takes every ending you know; Karmen stays Karmen.
| Case | Ana | Karmen |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | Ana je ovde. | Karmen je ovde. |
| genitive | kod Ane | kod Karmen |
| dative | dajem Ani | dajem Karmen |
| accusative | vidim Anu | vidim Karmen |
| instrumental | sa Anom | sa Karmen |
| locative | o Ani | o Karmen |
Surnames follow the person, not the word. A man's surname in a consonant declines like any masculine noun; the same surname on a woman does not. The title gospodin / gospođa declines normally in both columns, and that is what tells you the case.
| Case | a man | a woman |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | gospodin Smit | gospođa Smit |
| genitive | od gospodina Smita | od gospođe Smit |
| dative | gospodinu Smitu | gospođi Smit |
| accusative | vidim gospodina Smita | vidim gospođu Smit |
| instrumental | sa gospodinom Smitom | sa gospođom Smit |
When a woman's first name ends in -a, the first name declines and the surname still does not: pismo od Ane Smit, sa Anom Petrović.
Adjectives like roze: the noun does the work
An indeclinable adjective sits in front of its noun like any other adjective, but only the noun (and any other adjective or demonstrative) shows case, gender and number.
| Case | an ordinary adjective | an indeclinable adjective |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | ova crvena haljina | ova roze haljina |
| genitive | bez crvene haljine | bez roze haljine |
| accusative | kupila je crvenu haljinu | kupila je roze haljinu |
| locative | u crvenoj haljini | u roze haljini |
| instrumental | sa crvenom haljinom | sa roze haljinom |
The same holds for every gender and for the plural: braon cipele, teget jakna, bordo auto, super vreme, To nije fer.
Who shows the case: the words around it
Since the indeclinable word gives nothing away, the words next to it carry everything. A demonstrative, a possessive, a normal adjective or a title agrees with it in the case it is in: Da li znaš tu novu Ines? (accusative), sa mojom drugaricom Nikol (instrumental), u toj bež jakni (locative). Decline these words exactly as you would before any feminine or masculine noun.
Which gender?
An indeclinable word still has a gender, and you need it for agreement. The common tendencies:
- A woman's name or surname is feminine, whatever its ending: Ines je stigla, Karmen je bila tu.
- An abbreviation usually takes the gender of the main word of its full name: EU = Evropska unija, so EU je donela nova pravila (feminine).
- A borrowed noun ending in a consonant is usually masculine: brend, kompjuter, mejl.
- A borrowed noun ending in -i, -u or -o is usually masculine too: taksi, intervju, auto, radio — moj stari radio, novi auto.
These are tendencies, not laws: loanwords get their gender partly by convention, and a few go against the pattern. When in doubt, look at how the adjective next to the word behaves in a sentence you trust.
The trap: ending in a vowel is not enough
It is tempting to decide that any foreign-looking word ending in a vowel stays unchanged. It does not. Ordinary borrowed nouns like auto, taksi, intervju, radio and nivo are masculine nouns and decline normally: intervju and nivo simply add the ending (intervjua, nivoa), taksi and radio put a j before it (taksija, radija), and auto swaps its final -o for the ending (auta, autu).
| Case | auto | taksi | intervju |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | auto | taksi | intervju |
| genitive | auta | taksija | intervjua |
| dative / locative | autu | taksiju | intervjuu |
| instrumental | autom | taksijem | intervjuom |
Rule of thumb: a thing with a borrowed name (a car, a taxi, an interview) declines; a woman's name, a colour word like roze and an abbreviation read letter by letter do not. So: u autu, taksijem, u tom intervjuu — but u roze haljini, kod Karmen, u EU.
Abbreviations are the least tidy group. Those pronounced as one word, especially with a consonant at the end, often do take an ending after a hyphen in writing (NATO-a). The ones read letter by letter, like EU, normally stay as they are — use that as your default.
Check what you read
6 of the 17 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Juče sam bila kod ___.
Razgovarala sam sa ___ o poslu.
Ovo pismo je od gospođe ___.
Došla je na žurku u(roze) haljini.
Da li poznaješ(taj) Karmen iz kancelarije?
Juče sam razgovarao sa(gospođa) Merkel.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Imali smo super vreme na moru.
We had great weather at the seaside.
Nije fer da samo ja plaćam račun.
It's not fair that only I pay the bill.
Dala sam Nikol lila šal za rođendan.
I gave Nicole a lilac scarf for her birthday. (woman speaking)
Njihov novi logo je jednostavan, ali šik.
Their new logo is simple, but chic.
Kupila je roze haljinu i braon cipele.
She bought a pink dress and brown shoes.
Ovaj brend pravi samo teget i bež dukserice.
This brand makes only navy blue and beige sweatshirts.
Na reklami je devojka u bordo haljini sa teget torbom.
In the advert there's a girl in a burgundy dress with a navy blue bag.
Novi meni u tom kafiću je mnogo bolji od starog.
The new menu in that café is much better than the old one.
U novoj kolekciji dizajnerke Karmen ima mnogo lila i roze nijansi.
In designer Carmen's new collection there are lots of lilac and pink shades.
Da li ti se više sviđa ovaj bež kaput ili onaj braon?
Do you like this beige coat better, or that brown one?
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 had great weather at the seaside.