Declension of numerals

So far you have learned what a number does to the NOUN after it: jedan agrees, dva, tri, četiri take the counting form (dva evra), and from pet upwards the noun goes into the genitive plural (pet evra). This lesson is about the number's OWN shape. It only shows up when something else — usually a preposition — puts the whole phrase into another case: u jednoj radnji (in one shop), sa dvema karticama (with two cards), obema rukama (with both hands).

jedan behaves like an adjective

You already decline adjectives, and jedan is simply one of them: it agrees with its noun in gender and case, with the same endings as ovaj or moj.

• Kupila sam kaput u jednoj maloj radnji. — I bought a coat in one small shop.
• Ova ponuda važi samo za jednog kupca. — This offer is valid for one customer only.

dva/dve, tri, četiri and oba/obe

These four have their own endings. In the genitive they end in -ju, and in the dative, locative and instrumental — one shared form — in -ma. dva and oba keep their gender split: dve and obe (for feminine nouns) have -e- where the others have -a-. The noun after an oblique dvama, trima, obema stands in the matching plural case: u dvema prodavnicama, sa trima prijateljima.

• Ista jakna ima različitu cenu u dvema prodavnicama. — The same jacket has a different price in two shops.
• Popust važi u trima gradovima. — The discount is valid in three cities.
• Držao je kese obema rukama. — He was holding the bags with both hands.

In everyday speech people often leave these numbers unchanged — u dva grada, sa tri prijatelja, u oba slučaja. You will hear that constantly. The declined forms are what careful and written Serbian uses, and a few are completely natural in speech too: obema rukama is the everyday way to say 'with both hands'. In this lesson, when a preposition governs the phrase, write the declined form.

In a compound number, only the last part moves

You already know the last element of a compound number decides the noun's form. It is also the only element that declines: dvadeset stays as it is, and jedan takes the case. sa trideset jednog evra (from thirty-one euros), dvadeset jednom kupcu (to twenty-one customers — the noun is singular because of jedan).

From pet upwards: nothing to learn

Here is the good news. pet, šest, deset, dvadeset, sto and all the other numbers from five up never change, whatever the preposition: u šest prodavnica, sa pet prijatelja, od deset evra. The noun stays in the genitive plural, exactly as you learned. The round hundreds are the same: sto, dvesta, trista, četiristo, petsto are single words that never change — za dvesta dinara, sa petsto dinara u džepu.

• Tu jaknu smo tražili u deset prodavnica. — We looked for that jacket in ten shops.
• Za dvesta dinara dobiješ kafu i kiflu. — For two hundred dinars you get a coffee and a croissant.

stotina, hiljada, milion, milijarda are nouns

The big numbers are not really numbers at all — they are ordinary nouns, and you treat them exactly like any other noun. hiljada (thousand) and stotina (a hundred, used mostly as 'hundreds of') are feminine nouns in -a; milion and milijarda (billion) are a masculine and a feminine noun. So they:

• take their own counting form after a small number, like any noun: dve hiljade, tri miliona, četiri milijarde;
• go into the genitive plural after five and up: pet hiljada, deset miliona, pet milijardi;
• decline after a preposition or in the dative: sa hiljadama kupaca (with thousands of customers), prodaje hiljadama kupaca (sells to thousands of customers);
• put whatever they count into the genitive plural: hiljada dinara, milion stanovnika.

• Stan košta sto dvadeset hiljada evra. — The flat costs a hundred and twenty thousand euros.
• Grad ima milion stanovnika. — The city has a million inhabitants.

Do not confuse sto with stotina. sto is the plain number 'a hundred' and never changes (sto dinara). stotina is a noun, used mostly in the plural for a vague large amount: stotine ljudi (hundreds of people), nekoliko stotina jakni (several hundred jackets).