Clothing and Appearance | Serbian Grammar

Talking about clothing in Serbian brings together noun gender, plural-only garments, adjective agreement, and several verbs that English often translates with wear. Носити describes wearing or carrying, обући means put on clothing, обути is used for footwear, and стајати with a dative person describes how something suits them.

This page focuses on neutral, useful descriptions rather than judgments about bodies. For detailed color agreement, see Colours and Descriptions.

Core clothing nouns

Item	Gender/number	Natural agreeing phrase
мајица	feminine singular	бела мајица
кошуља	feminine singular	плава кошуља
хаљина	feminine singular	црна хаљина
јакна	feminine singular	топла јакна
капут	masculine singular	дугачак капут
џемпер	masculine singular	сиви џемпер
панталоне	plural	црне панталоне
фармерке	plural	нове фармерке
ципеле / патике	plural	удобне ципеле / беле патике

Панталоне, фармерке, ципеле, and патике take plural agreement even when they denote one wearable pair.

За разговор за посао обукла је белу кошуљу, црне панталоне и удобне ципеле.

For the job interview, she put on a white shirt, black trousers, and comfortable shoes.

Овај сиви џемпер је топао, али су ми рукави предуги.

This gray sweater is warm, but the sleeves are too long for me.

Носити: wear or carry

Носити is imperfective and can mean “wear,” “carry,” or habitually have on. Context and the object distinguish the meanings.

На послу обично носим кошуљу, а викендом мајицу и фармерке.

At work I usually wear a shirt, and on weekends a T-shirt and jeans.

Она носи црвену торбу и у руци носи кишобран.

She is wearing/carrying a red bag and carrying an umbrella in her hand.

The first носи describes an accessory associated with the outfit; the second clearly means physical carrying. Serbian does not need a progressive form corresponding to English is wearing.

Put on, take off, and get dressed

Use perfective обући for putting on an item of clothing and reflexive обући се for getting dressed. Imperfective облачити (се) presents the process or habit. For shoes, boots, socks, and similar footwear, normative Serbian distinguishes обути.

Action	Frame	Example
put on clothing	обући + accusative	обући јакну
put on footwear	обути + accusative	обути ципеле
get dressed	обући се	брзо се обући
take off	скинути + accusative	скинути капут / ципеле

Обуци јакну и обуј суве патике пре него што изађеш.

Put on a jacket and dry trainers before you go out. (informal singular)

Изволите, скините капут и оставите га на вешалици.

Please, take off your coat and leave it on the coat rack. (polite/plural)

The clitic га refers to masculine капут and takes its normal second-position place after оставите.

💡

Keep the lexical contrast in one memory pair: обући јакну, but обути ципеле. In casual speech the boundary may blur, but the standard distinction is useful and clear.

How something looks on a person

Добро ти/вам стоји means “it looks good on you / it suits you.” The person is dative. The garment can be the subject and trigger plural agreement: ципеле ти добро стоје.

Та боја ти лепо стоји, а јакна ти је баш добра.

That color suits you, and the jacket looks really good on you. (informal singular)

Ове ципеле вам добро стоје, али да ли су вам удобне?

These shoes suit you, but are they comfortable? (polite/plural)

Одговарати also takes dative and focuses on suitability, size, or practical fit.

Мањи број ми не одговара, али ми овај капут савршено пристаје.

The smaller size doesn't fit me, but this coat fits me perfectly.

Стајати, пристајати, and одговарати overlap, but not completely: стајати/пристајати often evaluate appearance, while одговарати can also mean the size or conditions are suitable.

Describing a person neutrally

Use има + accusative for hair, eyes, and features; use носи for clothing/accessories; use у + locative to identify someone by an outfit.

Има кратку смеђу косу, зелене очи и носи наочаре.

She has short brown hair, green eyes, and wears glasses.

Тражим мушкарца у тамноплавом капуту са црним ранцем.

I'm looking for a man in a dark-blue coat with a black backpack.

У тамноплавом капуту uses locative after у because it describes a state of dress. Са црним ранцем uses instrumental and adds an identifying possession/accessory.

To say how someone appears at a moment, изгледати can take an invariant adverb such as уморно or an agreeing adjective such as уморан/уморна:

Данас изгледаш уморно; јеси ли добро спавала?

You look tired today; did you sleep well? (addressing a woman informally)

Comments on fatigue or health can be sensitive. In neutral interaction, compliments about a chosen item—Лепа ти је јакна—are usually less intrusive than evaluations of someone's body.

In a clothing shop

Useful frames combine polite questions, accusative objects, and size phrases.

Могу ли да пробам ову јакну у већем броју?

Can I try this jacket in a larger size?

Имате ли ове панталоне у црној боји и величини 40?

Do you have these trousers in black and size 40? (polite/plural)

Пробати takes the garment as accusative. У већем броју / у црној боји uses locative to name the available version.

Situational dialogue

— Извините, могу ли да пробам овај капут? — Наравно. Коју величину носите? — Обично носим 38. — Ево, изволите. — Добро ми стоји, али су ми рукави мало дугачки. Имате ли мањи број? — Имамо, одмах ћу вам донети.

— Excuse me, may I try on this coat? — Of course. What size do you wear? — I usually wear 38. — Here you are. — It looks good on me, but the sleeves are a little long. Do you have a smaller size? — We do; I'll bring it to you right away.

The dialogue combines accusative овај капут, dative ми/вам, plural agreement with рукави, and polite plural имате.

Practice

Task 1: Choose the dressing verb

Обуци кошуљу, обуј ципеле, а капут скини кад уђеш.

Put on your shirt, put on your shoes, and take your coat off when you come in. Answer: обући for clothing, обути for footwear, скинути for removal.

Task 2: Describe without naming

Особа коју тражимо има коврџаву косу и носи зелену јакну са капуљачом.

The person we're looking for has curly hair and is wearing a green hooded jacket.

Common Mistakes

Treating a plural-only garment as singular

❌ Ова панталона ми је мала.

Incorrect for an ordinary pair of trousers—панталоне is plural and takes ове...мале.

✅ Ове панталоне су ми мале у струку.

These trousers are too small for me at the waist.

Using the clothing verb for footwear

❌ Обуј јакну и изађи.

Incorrect standard lexical choice—обуј is for footwear; a jacket takes обуци.

✅ Обуци јакну и обуј чизме пре него што изађеш.

Put on your jacket and boots before you go out.

Making the person nominative with стајати

❌ Ја добро стојим ова хаљина.

Incorrect—the garment is the subject and the person is dative: хаљина ми стоји.

✅ Ова хаљина ми добро стоји, а и величина ми одговара.

This dress suits me, and the size fits me too.

Using nominative after у in an outfit description

❌ Тражим жену у црвена јакна.

Incorrect—describing someone in clothing requires locative у црвеној јакни.

✅ Тражим жену у црвеној јакни и са сивом торбом.

I'm looking for a woman in a red jacket with a gray bag.

Key Takeaways

Clothing nouns control agreement; панталоне, фармерке, ципеле, and патике are plural.
Носити describes wearing/carrying, обући putting on clothing, обути footwear, and скинути removal.
A garment стоји/стоје well; the wearer is dative ми/ти/вам.
Identify an outfit with у + locative and an accessory with са + instrumental.
Polite shop questions reuse ordinary case and agreement rather than special “shopping grammar.”

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