Serbian Cases — Declension Guide

❓ What are cases?

In English, word order mostly determines meaning: "The student sees the teacher" vs "The teacher sees the student." In Serbian, the ending of the word changes to signal who is doing what — so word order is freer. This changing of endings is called declension (promena po padežima).

Serbian has 7 cases (padeži). Each case answers a different question and marks a different grammatical role (subject, object, possession, direction, etc.).

📋 The 7 cases at a glance

Case 1

Nominativ

Ko? Šta? — Who? What?

The subject of the sentence. This is the dictionary form.
Student uči. — The student studies.

Case 2

Genitiv

Koga? Čega? — Whose? Of what?

Possession, origin, or "of."
Knjiga studenta. — The student's book.

Case 3

Dativ

Kome? Čemu? — To whom? To what?

Indirect object — giving, telling, helping.
Dajem knjigu studentu. — I give the book to the student.

Case 4

Akuzativ

Koga? Šta? — Whom? What?

Direct object or direction.
Vidim studenta. — I see the student.

Case 5

Vokativ

O! — Direct address

Calling or addressing someone.
Studente, slušaj! — Student, listen!

Case 6

Instrumental

S kim? Čim? — With whom? With what?

Means, tool, or accompaniment (bare instrumental for means/tools; s/sa usually marks accompaniment).
Pišem olovkom. — I write with a pencil.

Case 7

Lokativ

O kome? O čemu? Gde? — About/at what?

Location or topic — always with a preposition (u, na, o, po).
Mislim o studentu. — I think about the student.

Shortcut: In singular, Dativ, Lokativ, and Instrumental often look very similar (many words share the same ending for Dat/Lok). That means once you learn the "to/at/about" ending, you've covered 3 of the 7 cases.

🔧 How to convert a word between cases

The ending a noun takes depends on two things: its gender (masculine / feminine / neuter) and its number (singular / plural). Below are the most common singular endings for each gender. These cover the majority of everyday words — there are irregulars, but this gets you ~80% of the way.

1. Identify the gender → 2. Find the case you need → 3. Swap the ending

Masculine Nouns ending in a consonant

Examples: grad (city), student (student), prijatelj (friend), pas (dog)

Case	Ending	Example: grad	Example: prijatelj
1. Nominativ	— (consonant)	grad	prijatelj
2. Genitiv	-a	grad-a	prijatelj-a
3. Dativ	-u	grad-u	prijatelj-u
4. Akuzativ	— (inanimate) / -a (animate)	grad	prijatelj-a
5. Vokativ	-e / -u	grad-e	prijatelj-u
6. Instrumental	-om / -em	grad-om	prijatelj-em
7. Lokativ	-u	grad-u	prijatelj-u

Animate vs inanimate: For the accusative (case 4), things (grad, sto, prozor) keep the nominative form, but people/animals (prijatelj, student, pas) take the genitive ending -a.

Feminine Nouns ending in -a

Examples: žena (woman), knjiga (book), devojka (girl), kuća (house)

Case	Ending	Example: žena	Example: knjiga
1. Nominativ	-a	žen-a	knjig-a
2. Genitiv	-e	žen-e	knjig-e
3. Dativ	-i	žen-i	knjig-i
4. Akuzativ	-u	žen-u	knjig-u
5. Vokativ	-o / -e	žen-o	knjig-o
6. Instrumental	-om	žen-om	knjig-om
7. Lokativ	-i	žen-i	knjig-i

Feminine is the easiest: Dativ and Lokativ both end in -i, Genitive in -e, and Accusative in -u. Just swap the final -a for the new vowel.

Neuter Nouns ending in -o or -e

Examples: selo (village), more (sea), dete (child), pismo (letter)

Case	Ending	Example: selo	Example: more
1. Nominativ	-o / -e	sel-o	mor-e
2. Genitiv	-a	sel-a	mor-a
3. Dativ	-u	sel-u	mor-u
4. Akuzativ	= Nominativ	sel-o	mor-e
5. Vokativ	= Nominativ	sel-o	mor-e
6. Instrumental	-om / -em	sel-om	morem
7. Lokativ	-u	sel-u	mor-u

Neuter bonus: The accusative and vocative are always the same as the nominative — no change needed. That's 3 cases for the price of 1.

✍️ Worked example: one word through all 7 cases

Let's take the word _grad_ (city — masculine, ends in consonant) and walk it through every case in a real sentence context:

Base word

grad — city (masculine, consonant-ending)

Case	Word	Example sentence
1. Nominativ	grad	Grad je lep. — The city is beautiful.
2. Genitiv	grada	Stanovnici grada. — The city's residents.
3. Dativ	gradu	Poklanjam gradu park. — I gift the city a park.
4. Akuzativ	grad	Vidim grad. — I see the city.
5. Vokativ	grade	Grade moj! — Oh my city!
6. Instrumental	gradom	Ponosim se gradom. — I'm proud of the city.
7. Lokativ	gradu	Živim u gradu. — I live in the city.

⚡ Cheat-sheet: the ending patterns

Case	Masc	Fem	Neut
Nom	consonant	-a	-o / -e
Gen	-a	-e	-a
Dat	-u	-i	-u
Akk	— / -a	-u	= Nom
Vok	-e / -u	-o / -e	= Nom
Inst	-om / -em	-om / -em	-om / -em
Lok	-u	-i	-u

What this guide doesn't cover: plural endings (different from singular), consonant mutations (k→č, g→ž, h→š before certain endings), the few feminine nouns ending in a consonant (stvar, ljubav), and irregular nouns. For those, a full grammar reference or Serbian teacher is the next step. This guide covers ~80% of everyday singular declension.

How to practice: Pick a noun you know → identify its gender → try to say it in all 7 cases using the cheat-sheet. Example: knjiga (book, feminine) → knjiga, knjige, knjizi, knjigu, knjigo, knjigom, knjizi. If you can do 5 common nouns from memory, you've internalized the system.