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Learn Hardcore Serbian: Noć je hladna. - The night is cold.

Hardcore Serbian
/Renting and repairing a home
/Noć je hladna.

Noć je hladna.

Word

Noć je hladna.

Meaning

The night is cold.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Serbian

Lesson

Renting and repairing a home

Breakdown of Noć je hladna.

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Questions & Answers about Noć je hladna.

Why is it hladna and not hladan or hladno?

Because hladan has to agree with noć in gender and number.

noć = a feminine singular noun
adjective base form: hladan = cold
feminine singular form: hladna
neuter singular form: hladno
masculine singular form: hladan

So:

Noć je hladna. = The night is cold.

This is standard adjective agreement in Serbian.

Is noć really feminine even though it does not end in -a?

Yes. Noć is feminine.

English speakers often expect feminine nouns in Serbian to end in -a, and many do, but not all. Some feminine nouns end in a consonant, and noć is one of them.

You can tell it is feminine because of forms like:

ova noć = this night
hladna noć = a cold night

Both ova and hladna are feminine forms, so they show you the gender clearly.

What is je doing in the sentence?

Je is the 3rd person singular present-tense form of the verb biti = to be.

So:

noć = night
je = is
hladna = cold

Literally:

Night is cold.

In natural English, that becomes The night is cold or It is a cold night, depending on context.

What case is noć here?

It is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

The structure is:

Noć = subject
je = linking verb
hladna = predicate adjective

So noć stays in the nominative.

Why is there no word for the?

Because Serbian does not have articles like English a/an/the.

So Noć je hladna can mean:

The night is cold
A night is cold
sometimes just Night is cold, depending on context

Usually, context tells you which meaning is intended.

How is Noć je hladna pronounced?

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

Noć ≈ noch (but with a softer final sound)
je ≈ ye
hladna ≈ HLAHD-nah

A few important details:

ć is a soft sound, somewhat like a very soft ch/t sound
j in Serbian is like English y
h is clearly pronounced

So je is ye, not English jee.

Can the word order change?

Yes, Serbian word order is more flexible than English.

The neutral, straightforward order is:

Noć je hladna.

But you may also hear:

Hladna je noć.

That can sound a bit more expressive or poetic, with extra focus on cold.

Still, for a beginner, Noć je hladna is the safest and most neutral version.

Why is the adjective after the noun here, when I sometimes see adjectives before nouns?

Because this sentence uses the adjective as a predicate adjective, not as part of a noun phrase.

Compare:

hladna noć = a cold night
- here the adjective describes the noun directly inside the noun phrase
Noć je hladna. = The night is cold
- here the adjective comes after je and works as the description in the sentence

So both are correct, but they are different structures.

Can I leave out je?

In a normal standard sentence, no.

You should say:

Noć je hladna.

Not:

Noć hladna.

Serbian usually needs the verb to be in this kind of present-tense sentence. You may occasionally see it omitted in poetry, headlines, or very informal style, but learners should keep je.

What is the dictionary form of hladna?

The dictionary form is usually hladan.

That is the masculine singular nominative form, which is how adjectives are normally listed in dictionaries.

From hladan, you get:

hladan = masculine singular
hladna = feminine singular
hladno = neuter singular

So if you look up hladna, you should expect to find it under hladan.

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