Vocative forms

Lesson opening

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The vocative: the form for calling someone

Serbian has seven cases, and one of them has no counterpart in English at all: the vocative (Serbian vokativ), a special form of a noun or name used to call a person and to speak to them directly. When you call out Ano!, druže! or gospodine!, you are putting the word into the vocative. In English, calling someone changes nothing but the tone of voice and a comma: Anna, come here! In Serbian the word itself changes its ending, and you need to be able to build that ending.

This lesson is about the forms: which endings the vocative takes in the masculine, feminine and neuter, where a consonant change comes into play (Bog → Bože!), and when the vocative simply looks like the nominative. How to use a form of address, with the right comma and the right warmth or reserve, is the next lesson, “Direct address”. Form first, use second.

Feminine nouns in -a: -o

Start with the most regular pattern. Feminine nouns and names ending in -a swap that -a for -o in the vocative:

In the same way majka ("mother") gives majko, and gospođa ("Mrs, madam") gives gospođo. One group behaves differently: nouns ending in -ica take -e, not -o. So drugarica ("female friend") → drugarice, učiteljica ("female teacher") → učiteljice, and the name Milica → Milice. Keep the pair of rules together: feminine -a usually gives -o, but -ica gives -e. Short women’s names of two syllables take -o too: Nada → Nado, Vera → Vero, but Danica, a name in -ica, → Danice. Names of three syllables or more keep the nominative as their vocative in the standard: Jovana!, Milena!, Marija! And even a short name is often called in the plain nominative in everyday speech: Ana! Both forms are correct, Ano and Ana alike; more on the choice in the lesson “Vocative of names & titles”. Names in -ica keep their -e.

Masculine nouns: -e and -u

This is where it gets interesting. The masculine vocative has two endings, and the choice depends on the consonant the stem ends in. The main ending is -e; after a “soft” consonant it is -u instead:

Look closely at the second row. In words ending in k, g or h (the h of Scottish loch), the consonant changes before the ending -e: k → č, g → ž, h → š. That is why Bog becomes Bože, never "Boge", and junak becomes junače, never "junake". English has changes of the same kind, only less visible because the spelling hides them: the hard c of electric turns into an s sound in electricity. The Serbian change is old and regular, and the spelling shows it: grammars call it the first palatalisation, in which k, g, h turned into č, ž, š before the vowels e and i.

The third row is the "soft" stems. These are the palatal consonants from the consonant map, said with the middle of the tongue up against the palate: j, lj, nj, č, ž, š, đ, ć. They take -u instead of -e: prijatelju, kralju, mužu, konju. Stems in c are a case of their own: they take -e, and the c turns into č before it: stric ("uncle", a father's brother) → striče, lovac ("hunter") → lovče, mesec ("moon") → meseče, and otac ("father") → oče belongs here too.

Cheat sheet

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The vocative: the form for calling someone

The vocative (vokativ) is the case of address. It answers no question and is not tied into the sentence; it only names the person spoken to. Special endings exist only in the singular. English has no equivalent: it changes nothing but the tone.

All groups: vocative singular

Adjectives in address

The whole noun phrase is in the form of address; the adjective keeps its nominative look: