Masculine nouns ending in -a

At A1 you learned that a noun ending in -a is feminine: žena, kuća, knjiga. That rule holds almost everywhere — but not for a small group of nouns that name men: tata (dad), deda (grandpa), kolega (colleague), sudija (judge), vođa (leader), gazda (boss, landlord), vojvoda (duke). They end in -a, yet the person they name is a man, and Serbian treats them as masculine.

So these words live a double life. Their shape comes from their ending: they change exactly like žena. Their gender comes from their meaning: every word that agrees with them — an adjective, ovaj/taj/onaj, moj/tvoj/naš, and the past participle — takes its masculine form.

1. The endings: exactly like žena

Do NOT give these nouns the endings of brat or prijatelj. The accusative is kolegu (like ženu), not a brata-style form; the dative is kolegi (like ženi), not a bratu-style form; the instrumental is kolegom (like ženom). Follow the ending, not the gender.

In address, kolego is the regular vocative. With family words the plain form is also used when calling someone: Tata! and Tato! are both fine, and so is Deda!

2. Agreement: always masculine

Everything that agrees with the noun ignores the -a and follows the man. This is where learners slip, especially with the past participle: it is kolega je došao, never the feminine došla.

Look at the accusative row: našeg novog kolegu. The adjective takes the masculine animate ending -og (as with našeg novog brata), while the noun takes -u (as with ženu). Both halves are correct together — each follows its own rule.

• Adjective: strog sudija (a strict judge), dobar tata
• Demonstrative: ovaj sudija, taj kolega, onaj vođa
• Possessive: moj deda, tvoj kolega, naš gazda
• Past participle: Sudija je rekao…, Tata je stigao., Deda je bio lekar.

3. The plural

The nominative plural also follows žena: kolege, sudije, tate. In the plural, agreement is less fixed: you will hear both te kolege su došle and ti kolege su došli. For now, learn the noun form; the plural sentences in this lesson avoid the choice.

Some of these nouns, sudija above all, can also refer to a woman, and then the agreement is feminine (sudija je rekla). In this lesson every sudija, kolega and vođa is a man, so use masculine agreement throughout. For a female colleague Serbian also has the separate word koleginica.