Serbian 101 · Grammar
Seven little words — and one rule that runs the opposite way from English.
English possessives look at the owner. A woman says her book, a man says his book, whatever the book happens to be.
Serbian looks the other way. The possessive agrees with the thing being owned — its gender, its number. So a man and a woman both say moj brat, moja sestra, moje dete. Who's speaking makes no difference at all.
You've already met this machinery twice: in the colours (crven, crvena, crveno) and in the number one (jedan, jedna, jedno). Same endings, same logic. This is simply the most useful place it turns up.
Let's make it fun!
Only IFF you want to know it all
These are the masculine forms — the shape you'd look up. Everything else grows from here.
| English | Serbian | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| my | moj мој | — |
| your (ti) | tvoj твој | one person, informal |
| his | njegov његов | also its, for a neuter owner |
| her | njen њен | njezin is the same thing, heard more in Croatia |
| our | naš наш | — |
| your (vi) | vaš ваш | several people, or one person politely |
| their | njihov њихов | — |
Every one of the seven takes the same three endings. Nothing, then -a, then -e:
| Muški | Ženski | Srednji | |
|---|---|---|---|
| my | moj brat | moja sestra | moje dete |
| your | tvoj brat | tvoja sestra | tvoje dete |
| his | njegov brat | njegova sestra | njegovo dete |
| her | njen brat | njena sestra | njeno dete |
| our | naš brat | naša sestra | naše dete |
| your (vi) | vaš brat | vaša sestra | vaše dete |
| their | njihov brat | njihova sestra | njihovo dete |
Look down the neuter column and you'll spot the one wrinkle. Moj, tvoj, naš, vaš end in -e — moje, tvoje, naše, vaše — because the sound before the ending is soft. Njegov, njen, njihov end in -o. It's the same softening you met with loš → lošeg; here it just happens quietly at the end of a very common word.
Pazi na ovo
Ovo je njegova sestra. — his sister · a man owns her
Ovo je njena sestra. — her sister · a woman owns her
Ovo je njegov brat. — his brother
Ovo je njen brat. — her brother
This is the one place the owner does matter — but only in the choice between njegov and njen. Once you've chosen, the ending still comes from the thing owned. Two decisions, one after the other, and learners often make only the first.
Play it
A Wordwall round, then Marina's own falling-words game on the same grammar.
Moj, tvoj — matching round
Igra, pa upotreba
Ista lekcija, drugo raspoloženje — Snowball: MOJ / TVOJ, sa međunarodnim rečima i životinjama.
Igraj ovde, bez odlaska
Race down the slope sorting family words into MOJ, MOJA and MOJE — one wrong lane and you wipe out. Four levels, and the whole lesson in your fingers.
Print it
Four PDFs, all built around family words — the nouns these adjectives live with most.
Two exercises at 101 level — one pairs the possessives with biti, the other drills the endings on their own.
My and Your, Exercise 9 →Serbian 101
The verb that sits between ovo and moja sestra.
GrammarThe dictionary form, and the case every other case is measured against.
VocabularyThe same three endings, on something you can see.
BasicsThirty letters, thirty sounds, and not a single silent one.
BasicsNine everyday phrases, and the TI/VI decision behind them.
BasicsOne to ten — and jedan, which behaves just like moj.