Cjelina 10: Razgledavanje grada
⚙️ 10 | 1 | Lekcija 3: Planovi za Dubrovnik – Gramatika
The Noun “dio”
The noun dio (part) is masculine in gender and it has the following declension pattern.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dio | dijelovi |
| Accusative | dio | dijelove |
| Dative | dijelu | dijelovima |
| Locative | dijelu | dijelovima |
| Instrumental | dijelom | dijelovima |
| Genitive | dijela | dijelova |
The Vocative Case – masculine gender
So far you have encountered situations in which our students call each other. Let’s look at two examples in which our male students were called.
| Personal name | We would say: |
|---|---|
| Davor | Onda, Davore, kako je bilo na vjenčanju? |
| Luka | Luka, što ti jedeš za doručak? |
| Mario | A ti, Mario? Što želiš raditi nakon što diplomiraš? |
| James | James, reci nam više o tvojem gradu? |
When directly addressing someone, a personal name has to be in the Vocative case. It’s the only case that functions to address someone. Here are the rules you need to have in mind for Vocative Case when addressing someone with a masculine name.
Masculine personal names
Luka, Vanja, Dario, Mario, Frane, Ante
- Masculine names that end in –a, –o, and –e will have their forms equal to Nominative. No change occurs with these names.
James, John, Steve
- Foreign names (if considered foreign in Croatian) will have the same form as the Nominative case. No change occurs with these names.
Adam, Davor
- Names that end in a consonant will take the ending –e. Example: when one of our students in Croatia wants to call Davor, they need to say Davore.
- Adam is a foreign name, but it fits with the naming system in Croatian, so it does take the ending –e (Adame, reci mi…).
Blaž
- If a masculine name ends in a palatal consonant (i.e. Croatian letter): –č, –ć, –dž, –đ, –š, –ž, –lj, –nj, –j → they will take the ending –u. Example: Blažu, reci mi istinu.
Personal names, when in Vocative case, always have to be separated by a comma in the sentence.
- Onda, Davore, kako je bilo na vjenčanju?
- Luka, što ti jedeš za doručak?
- A ti, Mario? Što želiš raditi nakon što diplomiraš?
- James, reci nam više o tvojem gradu?
The Vocative Case – feminine gender
Let’s look at several examples when the Vocative is used for feminine gender. Have in mind, at the beginner-level, this is a simplified version of the Vocative case. There is much more on this topic to be discussed later. For now, you are only getting acquainted with the concept of the Vocative case.
| Personal name | We would say: |
|---|---|
| majka | Majko, mogu li ići u kino? |
| prijateljica | Prijateljice moja, drago mi je da te vidim! |
| Ljubica | Ljubice, gdje si bila jučer? |
| Sonja | Sonja, kako si? Nismo se dugo vidjele. |
| Ines | Ines, zvala sam te! Nisi se javila. |
The rules for feminine Vocative case:
nouns in –a
- Most of the general nouns that end in –a will take the ending –o in the Vocative case
nouns in –ica
- General nouns that end in –ica, and consist of two or more syllables, will take the ending –e in the Vocative case
personal names in –ica
- Personal names such as Ljubica, Marica, or Katica will take the ending –e in the Vocative case
Personal names in –a
- Many female personal names in –a will keep the same form as in the Nominative case (i.e., no change)
Foreign names
- Female foreign names (Ines, Nives, or Dolores) will never change their forms
