Serbian Noun Gender

Every Serbian noun carries a gender — masculine, feminine, or neuter — and unlike French or German, you almost never have to memorise it. The final letter gives it away.

The Three Genders

Gender matters because everything that describes a noun — adjectives, possessives, past-tense verbs — changes shape to match it.

Reading Gender from the Ending

That single table covers the overwhelming majority of Serbian nouns. Read the last letter, know the gender.

Agreement: Making Words Match

Adjectives and possessives copy the noun's gender ending:

The pattern is beautifully regular: consonant / -а / -о on the noun → -и / -а / -о on the adjective. Whole phrases rhyme with themselves: велика бела кућа — a big white house.

The Usual Suspects

A few patterns to watch:

• Masculine -а nouns: male people like тата (dad), колега (colleague), судија (judge) end in -а but stay masculine: мој тата.
• Feminine consonant nouns: a family of abstract nouns ends in a consonant yet is feminine — ноћ (night), љубав (love), ствар (thing): добра ноћ.
• Neuter surprises: дете (child) is neuter regardless of the child: моје дете.