Luckily, for adjectives and pronouns the vocative form is the same as nominative. What's more, a lot of people rarely use the vocative, using the nominative instead.
Vocative endings for masculine nouns
Masculine nouns | |
Regular nouns receive the suffix –e in the vocative case |
sin – son → sine doktor – doctor → doktore profesor – teacher/professor → profesore
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For nouns ending in –k or -c, the word ending changes to –če |
rođak – relative → rođače čovjek – man → čovječe stric – uncle (paternal) → striče ujak – uncle (maternal) → ujače
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For nouns ending in –g or –z, the word ending changes to –že
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vrag – devil → vraže vitez – knight → viteže
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For nouns ending in –h or –s, the word ending changes to –še
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duh – ghost → duše
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If the word ends in a palatal consonant (–č, -ć, -đ, -dž, –š, -ž, -nj, -lj, -j), it usually receives the suffix –u in the vocative
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muž – husband → mužu konj – horse → konju kralj – king → kralju
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Vocative endings for feminine nouns
Feminine nouns | |
For regular feminine nouns (ending in –a) the word ending changes to –o
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žena – woman, wife → ženo majka – mother → majko sestra – sister → sestro
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For nouns with more than two syllables ending in -ica, end in -ice.
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sestrica – little sister → sestrice prijateljica – friend (female) → prijateljice
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What happens with first names?
First names | |
Male names commonly receive the suffix –e in the vocative case
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Marin → Marine Krešimir → Krešimire
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Names that end in a vowel and foreign names remain unchanged
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Luka → Luka Ivo → Ivo George → George James → James
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Female names no longer change in the vocative in spoken language
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Iva → Iva Jelena → Jelena
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For female names which end in –ica the word ending changes to –e |
Janica → Janice |
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A note on writing in the vocative
The name or the noun describing who we’re addressing must always be separated by a comma in Croatian:
Bok, Ivane! - Hello Ivan!
Kako si, Ana? - How are you Ana?
Profesore, sretan rođendan! - Happy birthday professor!
Exercise: Can you put these words into the vocative case?
profesorica – teacher/professor
Answer
profesorice
polaznik – participant
Answer
polazniče
Harry! (name)
Answer
Harry!
gospodin - mister
Answer
gospodine
gospođa - lady
Answer
gospođo
vuk - wolf
Answer
vuče
Bog - God
Answer
Bože
susjed - neighbor (male)
Answer
susjede
susjeda - neighbor (female)
Answer
susjedo