Vocative of names & titles

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

The vocative of names and titles: Marko!, Petre!, gospođo, or how to call someone in Serbian

You already know the vocative (vokativ): the special form a noun takes when you call out to someone (Ivane!, ženo!, druže!), where English just says “John!” with the same word as in “John is here”. You can build it and use it with a greeting. Now come names and titles. People are called most often by name (Marko!, Ana!, Petre!) or by title (gospodine!, gospođo!, doktore!), and this is where the vocative has the most fine print: some names change, some do not, and some have two correct forms. This is the third and last lesson on the vocative.

Men’s names: Milane, but Marko

The last sound of the name decides. A name ending in a consonant behaves like any ordinary masculine noun (brat → brate, “brother!”) and takes the vocative -e. If that consonant is a “soft” or a hushing one, the ending is -u instead, as in prijatelj → prijatelju (“friend!”): Miloš → Milošu. A name ending in -o or -e takes no vocative ending and stays as it is.

Look at Petar → Petre: the fleeting “a” drops out as soon as an ending is added (just as in otac → oca, “father”, “of the father”; see the lesson “Fleeting a”), so you get Petre, not “Petare”. Aleksandar → Aleksandre works the same way. Marko, Branko, Darko and Zdravko are called in their dictionary form, and their k does not change: in the vocative the switch k → č (junak → junače, “hero!”) only happens before the ending -e, and these names take none. Đorđe, the Serbian George, with two đ sounds (like the d in British duty), and Rade already end in -e and do not change either: you call Đorđe!, exactly as it is written.

Women’s names: Ano or Ana?

With women’s names in -a, much depends on the length of the name. A short name of two syllables takes -o, like žena → ženo (“woman!”): Ana → Ano, Nada → Nado, Vera → Vero. But in everyday speech even these names are often called in the plain nominative, just as you would in English: Ana!, Vesna!, Sonja! Both forms are correct, Ano and Ana alike: usage varies here. Names of three syllables or more keep their dictionary form in the standard: Jelena!, Marija!, Milena!

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

The vocative of names and titles: Marko!, Petre!, gospođo

Calling someone by name or title. The core rule: ends in a consonant, add -e; ends in -o or -e, leave it alone. Consonant-final names behave like ordinary nouns (brat → brate).

Men’s names

Women’s names: Ana or Ano

Words in -ica: their own -e

Titles and polite address

Pet names and foreigners