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The Serbian Locative Case: Endings and Usage
(PDF version)
The locative endings for the three possible classes of
nouns are given in Table 1 below.
Table 1: The locative case of Serbian nouns
|
|
Class I
(masculine: ending in a consonant in nominative) |
Class I
(neuter: ending in –o
or –e in
nominative) |
Class II
(feminine: ending in -a
in nominative) |
Class III
(feminine: ending in a consonant in nominative) |
|
SINGULAR
|
‘window’
|
‘village’
|
‘woman’
|
‘love’
|
| Locative |
prozor-u
|
sel-u
|
žen-i
|
ljubav-i
|
| |
Jovanu (to John)
|
|
|
|
|
PLURAL |
‘windows’
|
‘villages’
|
'women'
|
‘loves’
|
| Locative |
prozor–ima
|
sel-ima
|
žen-ama
|
ljubav-ima
|
As you can see, in both singular and plural, the locative
case endings are the same as the
dative case endings. So, by memorizing
the endings for one case you’ll automatically know the
ending for another case. Two for the price of one!
When to use the locative case in sentences?
As the name implies, the basic meaning of the locative
case is to show the location or position of an object
represented by a noun. Unlike all other cases, the locative
case can only appear after prepositions and not as the
direct or indirect object of verbs.
The locative case is used as an object of the
following prepositions: (For a more comprehensive list
of prepositions, see the file
Serbian prepositions and their cases.)
- Prepositions: u
‘in’ and
na ‘on/at’,
po ‘by, through,
on’ indicating the position or location of the
object (examples 1-3).
Try not to mix the accusative case with the accusative
case when using prepositions u,
na and
po. Remember that
the
accusative case is also used with these
prepositions, but only if it shows the
destination or goal of the movement or action
expressed by a verb, not the actual location or position.
- Preposition: o ‘about,
around’, with verbs of ‘talking’ (examples 5-6), and
to designate a location (7).
- Preposition: prema
‘toward’,
pri ‘at, over, by’,
indicating the place or location of the object or the
time of the action or state. Remember that the
dative case also occurs with the
preposition prema ‘toward’,
but indicates
direction or course of movement or action, not
the actual location. But since these two cases have the
same endings, you don’t need to worry about which is
which.
Table 2: Some examples of locative nouns as objects of
prepositions
|
|
Serbian
|
English |
|
1. |
On je bio u Beogradu.
|
He was in Belgrade.
|
|
2. |
Spavala je u Milanovoj sobi.
|
She slept in Milan’s room.
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|
3. |
Marija je na poslu.
|
Maria is at work.
|
|
4. |
Knjige su na stolu.
|
The books are on the table.
|
|
5. |
Marija je pričala o
knjigama.
|
Marija talked about the books.
|
|
6. |
Oni su govorili o ratu.
|
They spoke about the war.
|
|
7. |
Lanac joj visi o vratu.
|
Her chain is hanging around her neck.
|
|
8. |
Majmuni skaču po drvetu.
|
Monkeys are jumping on the tree.
|
|
9. |
Ona je okrenuta prema suncu.
|
She is turned toward the sun.
|
|
10. |
On je došao u Ameriku pri
kraju rata.
|
He arrived in America by the end of war.
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To ask questions about the locative case, you usually use
gde ‘where’, or
interrogative pronouns in dative case:
O kome
‘about whom’
O čemu ‘about what’
Table 3: Some examples of questions that ask about the
locative object
|
|
Serbian |
English |
Question:
Answer: |
Gde si bila?
Bila sam u Beogradu.
|
Where were you?
I was in Belgrade
|
Question:
Answer: |
O čemu pričaš?
Pričam o ovoj knjizi.
|
What are you talking about?
I’m talking about this book.
|
Question:
Answer: |
O kome pričaš?
Pričam o Mariji.
|
About whom are you talking?
I’m talking about Maria.
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And now some exercises! If you get stuck or are not sure you
got it right, please
email me for
help.Exercise 1 – Fill out the locative case
forms in sentences below
Using the nouns below (given in nominative, or dictionary
form), please insert the appropriate locative forms in the
following sentences. For convenience, I have indicated which
noun goes with which sentence.
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1. pod ‘floor'
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4. stanica ‘station’
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7. fakultet ‘college’
|
|
2. bioskop ‘movie theater’
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5. dvorište ‘courtyard’
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8. ptica ‘bird’
|
|
3. rame ‘shoulder’ (neuter)
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6. dan ‘day’
|
|
|
1 |
Knjiga je na _______________.
|
The book is on the floor
|
|
2 |
Milan je u _______________.
|
Milan is in a movie theater
|
|
3 |
On je okačio torbu o _______________.
|
He hung the chain around his shoulder
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|
4 |
Voz je u _______________.
|
The train is in the station
|
|
5 |
Deca se igraju po _______________.
|
The children are playing at the playground
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|
6 |
Deca su umorana pri kraju _______________.
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The children get tired by the end of day
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7 |
Jovan je proveo ceo dan na _______________.
|
Jovan spent the entire day at his college
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8 |
Marija je pričala o _______________.
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Maria talked about birds
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Exercise 2 – Translate the following sentences
For this exercise you need to know both the
present tense and
past tense. The boldface nouns require the locative
case. If you don’t have a bi-directional
Serbian-English-Serbian dictionary, you may go to the
website:
http://www.krstarica.com/dictionary/
to get the words you need for this exercise. Note that for
nouns, a dictionary will only give you the nominative case
forms.
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1. |
Today, I’m talking about Spring.
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2. |
Yesterday, I was talking about Texas.
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3. |
I was in Belgrade.
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4. |
My window is turned toward the East.
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5. |
Squirrels are jumping on the roof.
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6. |
She sat in my room.
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7. |
Predrag is at the train station.
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8. |
They were talking about Marija.
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