Lesson 28. Feminine gender
The main marker
Almost all Serbian feminine nouns end in -a:
A rare group — ending in a soft consonant
A small number of feminine words end in -ost, -ć, or other soft consonants:
These words you just have to remember. They are similar to English “night” and “love” — but in Serbian their gender is clearly feminine.
Agreement
Feminine nouns pair up with:
- Possessives:
moja, tvoja, naša. - Demonstratives:
ova, ta, ona(this, that). - Adjectives in
-a:crvena, plava, velika.
Exercises
Exercise 1
“My book” — which form is correct?
Show explanation
knjiga is feminine. You need the form moja.
Exercise 2
Pick the feminine noun:
Show explanation
jabuka is feminine (it ends in -a). The others are not feminine.
Exercise 3
Write in Serbian: “my school”, “my cat”, “my love”.
Show answer
moja škola, moja mačka, moja ljubav.
Exercise 4
Make 3 sentences with feminine nouns. Use the pattern moja ... je ....
Show answer
For example:
— Moja sestra je velika.
— Moja kuća je bela.
— Moja mačka je mala. (mala — small, fem. form of mali.)
Exercise 5
The word stolica (chair) — what gender is it? And the word vrata (door)?
Show answer
stolica ends in -a → feminine.
vrata — neuter, but always plural! (like English “scissors” or “trousers”).
Lesson vocabulary
- radost (радост)
- — joy
- stvar (ствар)
- — thing
- ova (ова)
- — this (fem.)
- ta (та)
- — that (fem.)
- tvoja (твоја)
- — your (fem.)
- naša (наша)
- — our (fem.)
- mala (мала)
- — small (fem.)