General rules for forming plural nouns

Forming plural nouns in the feminine (ženski rod) and neuter (srednji rod) genders is very straightforward.

Feminine
The –a at the end of the word changes into –e:

kuća – house → kuće
žena – woman → žene
stolica – chair → stolice

Neuter
The final –o or –e in the word is always change into –a:

pivo – beer → piva
vino – wine → vina
sunce – sun → sunca
more – sea → mora


The rule for masculine (muški rod) is also generally simple, but with a few exceptions:

Masculine
In most cases the plural is formed by adding an –i at the end:

televizor – TV → televizori
prijatelj – friend → prijatelji
susjed – neighbor → susjedi

Some exceptions when pluralising masculine nouns

  • For masculine nouns with only one syllable, we add the ending –ovi:
    most – bridge → mostovi
    stol – table → stolovi
    trg – square → trgovi


  • For the words which end in –k, the plural ending changes to –ci:
    dječak – boy → dječaci
    liječnik – doctor → liječnici
    poznanik – acquaintance → poznanici

  • A few common words don’t follow any of these rules, which it's best just to learn by heart. For example:
    čovjek – man → ljudi – people
    brat – brother → braća
    kći – daughter → kćeri
    dijete – child → djeca

  • Masculine nouns of one syllable which end with a palatal consonant (i.e. č, ć, đ, dž, š, ž, lj, nj, j) receive the ending –evi:
    nož – knife → noževi
    miš – mouse → miševi
    muž – husband → muževi

  • Words which end in –ac, lose the final
    –a and receive the ending –ci:
    Amerikanac – American → Amerikanci
    policajac – policeman → policajci
    vatrogasac – firefighter → vatrogasci

A couple more exceptions which we'll deal with later ...

  • A handful of feminine nouns end in consonants.
    These nouns receive the ending –i in the plural such as:
    bolest – sickness → bolesti
    smrt – death → smrti
  • Things get a bit more complicated one combines nouns with numbers (e.g. two tables or seven ducks)

That's enough for now ... for more exercises visit our blog post Croatian Grammar: Plural exercises! :-)

Exercise: Can you form the plural of the following nouns?

– friend Answer prijatelji

– friend Answer prijateljice

– milk → Answer mlijeka

– mouse → Answer miševi

– participant → Answer polaznici

– bat → Answer šišmiši

– room →

– sister → Answer sestre

– actor → Answer glumci

– train → Answer vlakovi