Hyphens, Abbreviations, and Numerals

Serbian uses the same familiar shapes -, ., and Arabic digits as English, but not always for the same jobs. A hyphen can join the parts of a compound, a full stop can turn a digit into an ordinal, and many abbreviations either require or forbid a full stop according to their type. These are conventions: pronunciation alone cannot tell you where every mark belongs.

For the broader inventory of shortened forms and nonalphabetic signs, see abbreviations and symbols.

The most useful discipline is to identify the construction first. Is - joining parts of one written expression, is a longer dash separating clauses, is the digit cardinal or ordinal, and is the shortened form an abbreviation, an acronym, or a measurement symbol?

The hyphen joins without spaces

The Serbian crtica (hyphen) is written with no space on either side. It appears in fixed paired expressions, compounds whose parts remain visibly coordinated, and formations whose first element is a digit or an abbreviation.

Not every particle-like sequence takes a hyphen. Indefinite combinations with год, било, ма are normally separate when they mean unrestricted choice: ко год, шта год, било који, ма какав. By contrast, lexicalized reciprocal pairs such as какав-такав are hyphenated. This distinction is conventional and must be learned with the expression.

Hyphen and dash are different signs

A dash (црта) separates sentence material and normally has spaces around it. A hyphen (цртица) joins the pieces of a word-like unit and has no surrounding spaces.

English keyboard habits often turn both into the same short character. In careful Serbian typography, keep the functions distinct. A range such as стране 15–20 uses a range dash; the derived adjective 20-годишњи uses a hyphen.

Abbreviations: with a full stop, without one, or all capitals

Common shortened words normally take a full stop because the end of the word has been omitted: бр. (број), стр. (страна), год. (година), проф. (професор). Multiword conventional abbreviations include нпр. (на пример), тј. (то јест), and итд. (и тако даље).

Some contracted titles retain the final letter and are written without a full stop: др (доктор), мр (магистар), гђа (госпођа). Acronyms and initialisms such as РТС, САНУ, НАТО have no full stops between letters.

An uppercase acronym that declines takes a hyphenated lowercase ending: РТС-а, РТС-у, НАТО-а. Other abbreviations are conventionally indeclinable, including САД and commonly ЕУ: из САД, у ЕУ. Do not attach endings merely because English would use a possessive apostrophe.

Measurement symbols and spacing

International measurement symbols are written without a full stop and do not change for case or number: kg, km, cm, l. They are normally separated from the preceding number by a space. The surrounding Serbian text may be Cyrillic while the international symbol remains Latin.

Serbian uses a decimal comma in ordinary domestic notation: 3,5 kg, not English 3.5 kg. The orthographic percent sign is placed directly after the number: 55%. After a comma, full stop, colon, or semicolon, put a space before the next word; never put a space before those punctuation marks.

Ordinals written with digits

An Arabic digit becomes an ordinal through a following full stop: 1. спрат “first floor,” 5. разред “fifth grade,” 21. век “twenty-first century.” Do not add English-style letter endings or Serbian case endings after the digit.

Roman numerals are already read as ordinals in these uses and normally take no full stop: XXI век, Петар I, II спрат. When another punctuation sign immediately follows an Arabic ordinal, the ordinal full stop may be omitted to avoid a pile-up, as in the range 5–10. маја.

Case and derivation after digits

Ordinary case is shown by the surrounding noun and adjective, not by a letter ending stuck onto a digit. Write у 76. години, not у 76-тој години; на 5. спрату, not на 5-ом спрату. The dot represents the entire ordinal ending, whatever case the phrase requires.

There are limited conventional hyphenated formations in which a digit is the first element of a derived word. These are not ordinary case endings:

• 20-годишњи студент — a twenty-year-old student
• 100-годишњица — a centenary
• 90-их година — in the 1990s / in the nineties
• 20-ак људи — about twenty people; admitted, though the fully written двадесетак is preferable

The pattern is therefore semantic: an ordinal digit takes a dot, while a digit forming one word with a suffix or lexical element takes a hyphen. A form such as 30-ог confuses those two systems.

Dictation and proofreading task

During dictation, decide whether the speaker says a cardinal, an ordinal, or a derived numerical word. “On the fifth floor” requires на 5. спрату; “a five-minute break” requires 5-минутна пауза. The sound alone does not dictate the punctuation.

Proofread this notice: Predavanje dr. Ilića je na 3-ćem spratu; traje 45min., tj nema pauzu. The contracted title dr has no dot, the ordinal uses a dot rather than -ćem, the measurement needs a space and no dot, and a comma is required before тј.

Common Mistakes

Adding spaces around a hyphen

Giving every abbreviation a full stop

Adding a letter ending to an ordinal digit

Omitting the space before a measurement symbol

Confusing a hyphen with a dash

Key Takeaways

• A hyphen joins with no spaces: кад-тад, веб-сајт, 20-годишњи; a dash separates sentence material.
• Distinguish abbreviations with a full stop (стр., нпр.) from contractions (др, гђа), acronyms (РТС), and unit symbols (km).
• Write Arabic ordinals with a dot:
  3. спрат, 21. век
  ; do not add -ом, -ој, or English-style endings.
• Limited derived forms use a hyphen: 90-их, 20-ак, 100-годишњица.
• Respect spacing: 12 km, 3,5 kg, 25%, and no spaces around a hyphen.