Visiting the Aquarium
When exploring an aquarium (akvarij), you will encounter various marine (morski) animals. Words indicating quantities, such as mnogo (many), require the noun that follows to be in the genitive plural.
| This aquarium has many sea fish. | Ovaj akvarij ima mnogo morskih riba. |
Approximate Quantities (-ak)
If you are estimating the size of an animal population and don't know the exact number, you can form an approximate quantity by adding the suffix -ak to the base number:
- 10: deset becomes desetak (about ten)
- 20: dvadeset becomes dvadesetak (about twenty)
- 100: sto (or stotina) becomes stotinjak (about a hundred)
Just like mnogo, these approximate numbers require the following noun to be in the genitive plural. Additionally, any verb paired with these quantities as a subject must take a singular form.
| I think that about ten dolphins are swimming in the pool. | Mislim da u bazenu pliva desetak dupina. |
| About twenty turtles are walking slowly there. | Tamo polako hoda dvadesetak kornjača. |
| Our aquarium now has about a hundred penguins. | Naš akvarij sada ima stotinjak pingvina. |
This rule applies regardless of the animal being counted. Notice below how the genitive plural of shark (morski pas) becomes morskih pasa.
| About twenty sharks live in the big aquarium. | U velikom akvariju živi dvadesetak morskih pasa. |
| I see one octopus and about ten crabs. | Vidim jednu hobotnicu i desetak rakova. |
| About a hundred sea fish are swimming around those dolphins. | Oko tih dupina pliva stotinjak morskih riba. |
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