Serbian Locative Case

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Larisa Zlatic Larisa Zlatic Language Services

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The Locative Case: Endings and Usage

The locative endings for the three possible classes of nouns are given in Table 1 below.

Table 1: The locative case of Serbian nouns

SINGULAR
Class I
(masculine:
ending in a
consonant in
nominative)
window
Class I
(neuter: ending
in o or e in
nominative)

village
Class II
(feminine: ending
in -a in
nominative)

woman
Class III
(feminine:
ending in a
consonant in
nominative)
love
Locative prozor-u sel-u en-i ljubav-i
Jovanu (to John)
PLURAL windows villages women loves
Locative prozorima sel-ima en-ama ljubav-ima

As you can see, in both singular and plural, the locative case endings are the same as
the dative case endings. So, by memorizing the endings for one case youll
automatically know the ending for another case. Two for the price of one!

When to use the locative case in sentences?

As the name implies, the basic meaning of the locative case is to show the location
or position of an object represented by a noun. Unlike all other cases, the locative case
can only appear after prepositions and not as the direct or indirect object of verbs.

The locative case is used as an object of the following prepositions: (For a more
comprehensive list of prepositions, see the file Serbian prepositions and their cases.)

Prepositions: u in and na on/at, po by, through, on indicating the position or
location of the object (examples 1-3).
Try not to mix the accusative case with the accusative case when using
prepositions u, na and po. Remember that the accusative case is also used with
these prepositions, but only if it shows the destination or goal of the
movement or action expressed by a verb, not the actual location or
position.
Preposition: o about, around, with verbs of talking (examples 5-6), and to
designate a location (7).
Preposition: prema toward, pri at, over, by, indicating the place or location of
the object or the time of the action or state. Remember that the dative case also
occurs with the preposition prema toward, but indicates direction or course of
movement or action, not the actual location. But since these two cases have
the same endings, you dont need to worry about which is which.

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Table 4: Some examples of locative nouns as objects of prepositions
Serbian English
1. On je bio u Beogradu. He was in Belgrade.
2. Spavala je u Milanovoj sobi. She slept in Milans room.
3. Marija je na poslu. Maria is at work.
4. Knjige su na stolu. The books are on the table.
5. Marija je priala o knjigama. Marija talked about the books.
6. Oni su govorili o ratu. They spoke about the war.
7. Lanac joj visi o vratu. Her chain is hanging around her neck.
8. Majmuni skau po drvetu. Monkeys are jumping on the tree.
9. Ona je okrenuta prema suncu. She is turned toward the sun.
10. On je doao u Ameriku pri kraju rata. He arrived in America by the end of war.

To ask questions about the locative case, you usually use gde where, or interrogative
pronouns in dative case: O kome about whom O emu about what

Table 4: Some examples of questions that ask about the locative object
Serbian English
Question: Gde si bila?
Answer: Bila sam u Beogradu.
Where were you?
I was in Belgrade
Quesiton: O emu pria?
Answer: Priam o ovoj knjizi.
What are you talking about?
Im talking about this book.
Quesiton: O kome pria?
Answer: Priam o Mariji.
About whom are you talking?
Im talking about Maria.

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And now some exercises! If you get stuck or are not sure you got it right, please email
me for help.

Exercise 1 Fill out the locative case forms in sentences below

Using the nouns below (given in nominative, or dictionary form), please insert the
appropriate locative forms in the following sentences. For convenience, I have indicated
which noun goes with which sentence.

1. pod floor 4. stanica station 7. fakultet college
2. bioskop movie theater 5. dvorite courtyard 8. Amerika America
3. rame shoulder (neuter) 6. dan day 9. ptica bird

1. Knjiga je na ____________ The book is on the floor
2. Milan je u ______________ Milan is in a movie theater
3. On je okaio torbu o ___________ He hung the chain around his shoulder
4. Voz je u _____________ The train is in the station
5. Deca se igraju po _________ The children are playing at the playground
6. Deca su umorana pri kraju ________ The children get tired by the end of day
7. Jovan je proveo ceo dan na _______ Jovan spent the entire day at his college
9. Marija je priala o __________

Maria talked about birds

Exercise 2 Translate the following sentences

For this exercise you need to know both the present tense and past tense. The boldface
nouns require the locative case. If you dont have a bi-directional Serbian-English-
Serbian dictionary, you may go to the website: http://www.krstarica.com/dictionary/ to get
the words you need for this exercise. Note that for nouns, a dictionary will only give you
the nominative case forms.

1. Today, Im talking about Spring.
2. Yesterday, I was talking about Texas.
3. I was in Belgrade.
4. My window is turned toward the East.
5. Squirrels are jumping on the roof.
6. She sat in my room.
7. Predrag is at the train station.
8. They were talking about Marija.

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