Possessive adjectives (-ov/-in)

Lesson opening

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Possessive adjectives: Markova knjiga, “whose” in one word

English has a neat way of saying whose something is: it adds ’s to the owner, as in Mark’s book or my sister’s car. Serbian has its own version, and it goes one step further: it turns the owner into an adjective. “Marko’s book” is Markova knjiga, where Markova is an adjective made from the name Marko, something like “the Marko-ish book”. You have glimpsed the pattern. In “Possessive pronouns”, njegov (his) and njihov (their) were built with the same -ov, and Marko → Markov turned up there too; in “Possessive genitive”, bratov auto stood next to auto brata. A possessive adjective is a “whose” word made from the owner’s name or title with one of three suffixes, -ov, -ev or -in: brat → bratov (brother’s), sestra → sestrin (sister’s), majka → majčin (mother’s), Marko → Markov (Marko’s).

The big difference from English is that the Serbian “’s” is a real adjective. English ’s never changes: Mark’s car, Mark’s book, Mark’s keys. Serbian Markov changes its ending to agree with the thing owned, like any other adjective. Serbian also has a second way of saying “whose”, the genitive case (knjiga Marka, roughly “the book of Marko”), but it usually prefers the adjective when the owner is one particular person, in conversation and in books alike.

How it is built: -ov, -ev, -in

You know the soft consonants that call for -ev from the instrumental (mužem, but gradom): j, lj, nj, č, ć, đ, dž, š, ž, c. Hence Miloš → Milošev, Đorđe → Đorđev (George’s: Đorđe is the Serbian George, with a real đ, like the d in British duty), otac → očev (father’s, with c → č), stric → stričev (the uncle’s, a father’s brother). What counts is the last consonant of the stem: đak → đakov (the pupil’s) begins with a real đ, but it ends in a hard k, so it takes -ov.

Where the suffix changes the consonant, and where it does not

Before -in the consonant usually stays as it is, as in the table and in seka → sekin (sis’s), Milka → Milkin, sluga → slugin (the servant’s). Only a few old words change k to č; one more is vladika → vladičin (the bishop’s). And separately: in words ending in -ica the c becomes č, Milica → Miličin (names come up in full in “Declension of names”).

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Possessive adjectives: Markova knjiga

“Whose” in one word: the owner becomes an adjective with -ov, -ev, -in. Only from an animate owner (a person or an animal); it agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner. The ending of the word picks the suffix, not the owner’s sex.

Suffixes -ov, -ev, -in

Soft consonants (→ -ev): j, lj, nj, č, ć, đ, dž, š, ž, c. The last consonant decides: đak → đakov. Works with any name: Nenad → Nenadov auto, Vera → Verina torba.

Before -in: usually no change

Declension and spelling

• Short form only in the nominative, like nov; in the other masculine and neuter cases usually long: Markovog, Markovom (bookish: Markova auta, Markova brata).
• From a proper name, a capital: Markov, Anina soba, Milošev, Đorđev. From an ordinary noun, a small letter: bratov, majčin, gospođin, sestrina soba.

Adjective or genitive

The genitive of one word (auto brata) is correct but heavier in conversation; common in the news: izjava ministra. For things there is also -ski: gradski (city, urban). Surnames in -ić are frozen possessives: Petrović = Petrov + -ić, “Petar’s son” (-ić = “son”, as in kraljević); likewise Marković, Jovanović, Đorđević. No change for gender: Marko Petrović, Ana Petrović.