Pet hiljada dinara: the of-plural and everything that gets counted
Remember "two eggs, five eggs": the English noun never moves. Serbian switches shapes — after two, three and four one form, from five up another — and that other form is the plural of-form (genitive plural), the case of "of": "a lot OF money". Without it this unit cannot name a sum, a term or an amount. For example: “Стан кошта педесет хиљада евра, а поправка пет стотина” — The apartment costs fifty thousand euros…
How it works
Remember "two eggs, five eggs": the English noun never moves. Serbian switches shapes — after two, three and four one form, from five up another — and that other form is the plural of-form (genitive plural), the case of "of": "a lot OF money". Without it this unit cannot name a sum, a term or an amount.
What it looks like. For most words the ending -a, and a long one: dinar — pet dinara, čovek — pet ljudi (its own thing), godina — pet godina, mesto — pet mesta. Feminine words on a consonant take -i: stvar — pet stvari, noć — pet noći. A few keep an old -u: ruka — pet ruku, noga — pet nogu.
Where it is obligatory. After numbers from five up: pet evra, deset minuta, sto dinara, hiljadu dinara. After koliko, mnogo, malo, nekoliko, dosta: koliko ljudi, mnogo novca, nekoliko dana. After nema, bez, od, do, iz, kod, pored: nema para — there is no money, bez dokumenata — without documents.
The trap inside the numbers themselves. Hiljada — thousand — is itself a feminine noun and counts like one: jedna hiljada, dve hiljade, pet hiljada — and then one more of-form follows: pet hiljada dinara. Milion is masculine: dva miliona, pet miliona. Two hundred and three hundred are fused: dvesta, trista; from four hundred on they split: četiristo, petsto.
And the rule everyone trips on. Counting goes by the LAST digit: dvadeset jedan dinar — singular!, dvadeset dva dinara, dvadeset pet dinara. So sto jedan dinar, not "sto jedan dinara". English makes the same move silently — "twenty-one dinar" — which is why nobody notices until the ending betrays them.
Year and age. Imam trideset godina, imam dvadeset jednu godinu, imam dvadeset dve godine. The same last-digit count, and the same in dates: dve hiljade dvadeset pete godine.
Table
| the word | two, three, four | five and up | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| dinar | dva dinara | pet dinara | dinar |
| evro | dva evra | pet evra | euro |
| godina | dve godine | pet godina | year |
| minut | dva minuta | pet minuta | minute |
| čovek | dva čoveka | pet ljudi | person |
| hiljada | dve hiljade | pet hiljada | thousand |
| milion | dva miliona | pet miliona | million |
| procenat | dva procenta | pet procenata | percent |
By example
- Стан кошта педесет хиљада евра, а поправка пет стотинаStan košta pedeset hiljada evra, a popravka pet stotinaThe apartment costs fifty thousand euros, and the repair five hundred
- Има двадесет један динар у џепу и ништа вишеIma dvadeset jedan dinar u džepu i ništa višeHe has twenty-one dinars in his pocket and nothing more
- Колико људи ради у фирми? Око сто двадесетKoliko ljudi radi u firmi? Oko sto dvadesetHow many people work at the company? About a hundred and twenty
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Pet hiljada dinara: how does it work in Serbian?
Remember "two eggs, five eggs": the English noun never moves. Serbian switches shapes — after two, three and four one form, from five up another — and that other form is the plural of-form (genitive plural), the case of "of": "a lot OF money". Without it this unit cannot name a sum, a term or an…
What does it look like in an example sentence Serbian?
“Стан кошта педесет хиљада евра, а поправка пет стотина” (Stan košta pedeset hiljada evra, a popravka pet stotina) — The apartment costs fifty thousand euros, and the repair five hundred. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.