Lesson 61. Genitive: 'Whose? What of?'
Genitive (Genitiv) — one of the most useful cases. It answers "whose? what of?".
Where It’s Used
- Negation of existence:
Nemam vremena.("I don't have time"). - Possession:
knjiga moje sestre("my sister's book"). - Quantity:
litar vode, kilogram jabuka. - Numbers 5 and higher:
pet knjiga, deset godina. - With prepositions
od, iz, do, bez, kod, preko, ispod, iznad, ispred, iza, oko, posle, pre…(there are many; we learn them gradually).
Examples
Nemam brata. (Немам брата.)
— I don't have a brother.
Dolazim iz Rusije. (Долазим из Русије.)
— I'm from Russia.
Idem do škole. (Идем до школе.)
— I'm going to school.
Čaša vode, molim. (Чаша воде, молим.)
— A glass of water, please.
Imam pet jabuka. (Имам пет јабука.)
— I have five apples.
Ovo je knjiga moje sestre. (Ово је књига моје сестре.)
— This is my sister's book.
Exercises
Exercise 1
What does "Nemam novca" mean?
Show explanation
Negation of existence → genitive.
Exercise 2
Translate: Dolazim iz Beograda.
Show answer
"I'm from Belgrade."
Lesson vocabulary
- dolaziti долазити
- come, arrive
- čaša чаша
- glass
- vreme време
- time