Declension of Determiners

Agreeing Serbian determiners decline with the noun they introduce. Сваки нови запослени becomes са сваким новим запосленим in the instrumental; нека добра идеја becomes о некој доброј идеји in the locative. Their endings largely follow the pronominal or long-adjective pattern, but сав is irregular and the -какав family loses a fleeting а outside its basic masculine nominative form.

This page is a morphology reference. For the meanings of totality, distribution, indefinite selection, and negative characterization, see the quantifier system.

The Agreement Principle

A determiner agrees with the determined noun, not with the speaker, possessor, or some real-world referent mentioned nearby.

Feminine dative свакој matches сестри; plural locative неким matches студентима. Possessives мојој and професоркиним join the same agreement chain.

The Regular Pronominal Pattern: Сваки and Неки

The tables show the complete singular paradigms. Parenthesized final vowels are standard expanded variants.

Masculine accusative follows animacy:

Inanimate рачун keeps nominative-like сваки; animate клијента takes genitive-like сваког.

Plural forms

These are attributive forms used before an expressed noun: неким људима, сваким вратима. When a plural noun is omitted and the form is nominalized, extended -има appears: Некима смо већ одговорили “We have already replied to some [people].” Ordinary distributive “to everyone” is normally singular свакоме, in keeping with the member-by-member meaning of сваки.

Plural неки is fully productive: неки људи, неке идеје, нека питања. Quantificational сваки normally distributes over a singular noun, so its plural forms are restricted chiefly to plural-only nouns and special contrastive uses: свака врата “every door,” сваке маказе “every pair of scissors.” A table records morphological possibilities; it does not make every combination equally frequent.

The -Какав Family and Fleeting А

Никакав, овакав, такав, онакав, какав, некакав, икакав share a crucial stem alternation. Masculine nominative singular ends in -кав, but before other endings the fleeting а between к and в disappears: никакав → никаквог, овакав → оваквом. Feminine and neuter basic forms already show никаква, никакво.

Plural -какав forms

The separated sequence ни на какве results from a preposition inserted inside the negative-pronoun construction. The determiner itself remains feminine accusative plural with препреке.

Irregular Сав

Сав has a fleeting а and a highly contracted oblique stem. Its forms must be learned as a set.

Before an expressed plural noun, use attributive свим: свим учесницима. Standalone “to/with/about everyone” is свима: Свима смо послали поруку.

Feminine свој/свом is formally identical to forms of the reflexive possessive свој, but context and the following noun distinguish them. In у свој кући “in the whole house,” свој is a form of сав; in у својој кући “in one's own house,” својој is possessive. The first phrase is uncommon in everyday speech, where у целој кући is normally preferred; knowing it prevents misanalysis in formal or literary texts.

Transforming Complete Noun Phrases

The following transformations show agreement across determiner, adjective, and noun:

Agreeing Determiners Versus Quantity Governors

An agreeing determiner changes with the outer case: са неким добрим студентима. A quantity word such as неколико, много, мало governs a genitive complement, which remains genitive even when the whole quantity phrase follows many prepositions:

In the first sentence, неким искусним преводиоцима is instrumental plural. In the second, неколико governs genitive plural искусних преводилаца. Do not force adjective-like endings onto неколико.

Practice Tasks

Task 1: Decline the entire chain

Transform нека нова колегиница in the phrases (1) “without some new colleague,” (2) “I approached some new colleague,” (3) “with some new colleague,” and (4) “about some new colleague.”

Answers: без неке нове колегинице; пришао сам некој новој колегиници; са неком новом колегиницом; о некој новој колегиници.

Task 2: Repair the fleeting а

Correct: без никакавог разлога; о овакавом проблему; са савим потребним документима.

Answers: без никаквог разлога; о оваквом проблему; са свим потребним документима.

Common Mistakes

Leaving the determiner in nominative

Attaching endings to the full -какав form

Declining сав as a regular adjective

Missing masculine animacy

Making a quantity word agree

Key Takeaways

• Сваки and неки follow the pronominal adjective pattern.
• Никакав, овакав, and related -какав forms lose a fleeting а before oblique endings.
• Сав is irregular: learn сав — свег — свем — свим and the feminine forms separately.
• Masculine singular accusative distinguishes animate from inanimate nouns.
• Agreeing determiners follow the noun phrase's case; много, мало, неколико instead govern genitive complements.