Dialogue: Counting and Numbers in Use

Numbers in Croatian are not just words you memorise — they actively bend the noun that follows. The single most important pattern in the whole counting system is the three-way split: 1 behaves like an adjective and agrees, 2, 3, 4 trigger a special paucal form, and 5 and up drag the noun into the genitive plural. This market-stall dialogue puts that rule to work on real things — apples, eggs, kilos, euros — alongside the question word Koliko…? ("how much / how many?"). Reading it as one exchange shows you that you cannot count in Croatian without choosing a noun form at the same time.

The dialogue

— Prodavač: Izvolite, što trebate? — Kupac: Dobar dan. Trebam jednu dinju i pet jabuka. — Prodavač: Evo. Želite li još nešto? — Kupac: Da, dvije banane i tri naranče. — Prodavač: Može. To je sve? — Kupac: Koliko košta kilogram trešanja? — Prodavač: Četiri eura kilogram. Danas su jako dobre. — Kupac: Onda uzmem dva kilograma, molim. — Prodavač: Odlično. Trebate li jaja? Imam svježa. — Kupac: Da, dajte mi deset jaja. — Prodavač: Sve zajedno dvadeset i jedan euro. — Kupac: Izvolite. Hvala vam!

Grammar in action

The number 1 agrees — jedna dinja. Jedan ("one") is not really a counting word; it behaves like an adjective and agrees with its noun in gender and case. So you get masculine jedan, feminine jedna, neuter jedno. Dinja ("melon") is feminine, hence jednu dinju in the accusative. Because jedan agrees, the noun stays singular — there is no special government, just ordinary adjective concord.

Both rules sit side by side in one breath here: jednu dinju (agreeing singular) and pet jabuka (genitive plural after 5).

2, 3, 4 — the paucal — dvije banane, tri naranče. This is the form English has no equivalent for. After 2, 3, 4 (and compounds ending in them) the noun takes a special paucal ending — historically the dual. For feminine nouns it looks like the genitive singular: banana → dvije banane, naranča → tri naranče. And two itself is gendered: dva for masculine/neuter, dvije for feminine. So "two bananas" (feminine) is dvije banane, but "two kilos" (masculine) is dva kilograma.

Why 2–4 behave differently from 5+ — and the gendered dva/dvije split — is explained on the paucal (two to four).

5 and up — the genitive plural — pet jabuka, deset jaja. From 5 onward the number takes over completely: the noun goes into the genitive plural and stays frozen there, no matter the role of the phrase in the sentence. Jabuka → pet jabuka ("five apples"); jaje → deset jaja ("ten eggs", with an irregular plural stem). The intuition: a big number names a quantity, and the counted stuff hangs off it in the genitive, just like a glass of water takes vode.

This is the same partitive logic that governs amounts in general; see the partitive and quantity genitive.

Compound numbers reset to the unit — dvadeset i jedan euro. A compound number's last word decides the noun form. Dvadeset i jedan ("twenty-one") ends in jedan, so — astonishingly — the noun goes singular and agreeing: dvadeset i jedan euro, not eura. Likewise dvadeset i dva would take the paucal, and dvadeset i pet the genitive plural. The tens are irrelevant; only the final digit governs.

Koliko…? — asking how much. Koliko covers both "how much" and "how many", and whatever you ask about goes into the genitive — koliko košta kilogram ("how much does a kilo cost") asks the price; koliko jabuka would ask the count. It pairs naturally with koštati ("to cost") at any market.

Vocabulary

Culture & register note

Key Takeaways

• 1 behaves like an adjective: it agrees in gender/case and the noun stays singular (jednu dinju).
• 2, 3, 4 take the paucal (dvije banane, tri naranče, dva kilograma), and two is gendered — dva (masc./neut.) vs dvije (fem.).
• 5 and up force the genitive plural, frozen regardless of role (pet jabuka, deset jaja).
• In a compound number, only the final word governs: dvadeset i jedan euro is singular because it ends in jedan.
• Koliko…? asks "how much / how many", and what you count appears in the genitive (kilogram trešanja).