19 Possessives and Country Names

• • • Review: First Steps with Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are formed from nouns and pronouns and denote "belonging to someone". In English, words as "John's" and "my" can be regarded as possessive adjectives.

In Croatian, possessive adjectives behave as normal adjectives, but cannot be put into comparative or superlative — there's no "more John's" and "more my" both in English and Croatian.

Croatian does not distinguish between "my" and "mine" — there's only one word for both, similar to all other adjectives, like "blue".

Unfortunately, there no single rule how to make a possessive adjective from a noun.

For masculine nouns representing persons, -ov or -ev is added according to the o/e rule. For example, Ivan → Ivanov "Ivan's", kralj → kraljev "king's", slon → slonov "elephant's".

For feminine nouns representing persons, -in is added, and -a is dropped; before added -i- full assimilation k, g, h, c, z, s → č, ž, š occurs (a thing I like to symbolize with an #). For example, Ana → Anin "Ana's", kraljica → kraljičin "queen's", žena → ženin "wife's", "woman's".

However, for nouns representing general, non-personal things another scheme is used. In English, one just says "school bus". In Croatian, you cannot say so. You must make an adjective out of škola f "school" in order to create such a phrase. The adjective is also called "possessive" but really does not stand for any possession. Endings -ski, -ški, -čki are added to denote some impersonal dependence regardless of gender of the noun. Some instances are:

škola "school" → školski
more "sea" → morski
konj "horse" → konjski
Zagreb (city name) → zagrebäčki (!)
Istra (region name) → istärski "Istrian" (!)

Don't forget it's an adjective, so it changes according to gender, number and the case of the noun! zagrebäčki and istärski are not names for dwellers at all. They are just adjectives, that something "belongs to Zagreb" etc. So the translation of "school bus" would be:

školski autobus "school bus"
školska dvorana "school hall"
školsko dvorište "school yard" (dvorište n "yard")
Sjedim u školskom dvorištu. "I'm sitting in (the) school yard." (školskom dvorištu = dat.sg.)

For some nouns, -ni is added after -a or -œ (if exists) is dropped; the result is really not a possessive adjective, but something close to it:

kuća "house" → kućni: kućni miš "house mouse", "domestic mouse"
noć "night" → noćni: noćni miš "nocturnal mouse"
ljëto "summer" → ljëtni: ljëtna vrućina "summer heat"

Sometimes there's more than one adjective for a noun. For example, from noun žena "woman, wife", one can construct two adjectives:

žena → ženin "belonging to a woman/wife"
žena → ženski "female, feminine", "that has to do with all women"

So, one would say:

ženin kaput "wife's coat" (meaning: a coat that is owned by some individual woman you know)
ženski kaput "female coat" (meaning: a coat that women would buy and wear)

Sometimes the suffix -ji is used for "general dependance":

djëčji "child coat"
mačje krzno "cat fur"

Unfortunatelly, there are no clear rules, it's a "dictionary thing", one has to learn the possessive adjectives.

Possessive adjectives created from personal pronouns are often called "possessive pronouns", but they behave and change as other possessive adjectives do.

person	1st	2nd	3rd m	3rd n	3rd f
sg.	ja → moj	ti → tvoj	on → njegov	ono → njegov	ona → njen or njezin
pl.	mi → naš	vi → vaš	oni → njihov	ona → njihov	one → njihov

So, njegov means "his". Don't forget it's an adjective. Also, observe the ending variations according to the o/e rule.

Sjedimo u našem automobilu. "We're sitting in our car." (našem = dat.sg.)
Hladno je u njenom automobilu. "It's cold in her car." (njenom = dat.sg.)

Possesive adjectives A possessive adjective is made from a noun by a suffix. There's no single rule what suffix to use, some often used are: -œv for male names: Ivan → Ivanov -#in for female names (remove -a): Ana → Anin -ski, -ški, -čki for general nouns: škola "school" → školski -#in for other general nouns: ljëto "summer" → ljëtni

Possesives for some general nouns:

čovjëk "man" → ljudski (general), čovjëkov (individual possession)
dan "day" → dnevni "daily"
godina "year" → godišnji "annual"
grad "city" → gradski
istok "east" → istočni "eastern"
jesen "autumn" → jesenji
jug "south" → južni "southern"
kuća "house" → kućni
ljëto "summer" → ljëtni
mjësec "moon", "month" → mjesečni "monthy"
muškaräc "man, male" → muški "male"
more "sea" → morski
nebo "sky" → nebeski
proljëće "spring" → proljëtni
put "path, trip" → putni
selo "village" → seoski
sjëver "north" → sjëverni "northern"
soba "room" → sobni
sunce "sun" → sunčani "sunny"
tjëdan "week" → tjëdni "weekly"
zapad "west" → zapadni "western"
zima "winter" → zimski
žena "woman, wife" → ženski (general), ženin (individual possession)

This is maybe the right place to introduce country names. For each country, there are three nouns and an adjective in Croatian. The nouns are the country itself ("England"), names for male and female inhabitants ("Englishman", "Englishwoman") and the adjective ("English"), also used as a name of the language. The adjective is never capitalized, nouns always are.

	country/region name	male	female	adjective
Africa	Afrika	Afrikanäc	Afrikanka	afrički
America	Amerika	Amerikanäc	Amerikanka	američki
Arabia	Arabija	Arapin, Arap	Arapkinja	arapski
Austria	Austrija	Austrijanäc	Austrijanka	austrijski
Australia	Australija	Australäc	Australka	australski
Brazil	Brazil	Braziläc	Brazilka	brazilski
Britain	Britanija	Britanäc	Britanka	britanski
Belgium	Belgija	Belgijäc	Belgijka	belgijski
Bosnia	Bosna	Bosanäc	Bosanka	bosanski
Bulgaria	Bugarska *	Bugarin, Bugar	Bugarka	bugarski
China	Kina	Kinez	Kineskinja	kineski
Croatia	Hrvatska *	Hrvat	Hrvatica	hrvatski
Cyprus	Cipär	Cipranin	Cipranka	ciparski
Czech	Češka *	Čeh	Čehinja	češki
Dalmatia ‡	Dalmacija	Dalmatinäc	Dalmatinka	dalmatinski
Denmark	Danska *	Danäc	Dankinja	danski
Egypt	Egipat	Egipćanin	Egipćanka	egipatski
England	Engleska *	Englez	Engleskinja	engleski
Finland	Finska *	Finäc	Finkinja	finski
France	Francuska *	Francuz	Francuskinja	francuski
Germany	Njëmačka *	Nijëmac	Njëmica	njëmački
Greece	Grčka *	Grk	Grkinja	grčki
Hungary	Mađarska *	Mađar	Mađarica	mađarski
India	Indija	Indijäc	Indijka	indijski
Ireland	Irska *	Iräc	Irkinja	irski
Istria ‡	Istra	Istranin, Istrijan	Istranka, Istrijanka	istarski
Italy	Italija	Talijan	Talijanka	talijanski
Latvia	Latvija	Latvijäc	Latvijka	latvijski
Lithuania	Litva	Litaväc	Litavka	litavski
The Netherlands	Nizozemska *	Nizozemäc	Nizozemka	nizozemski
Norway	Norveška *	Norvežanin	Norvežanka	norveški
Poland	Poljska *	Poljak	Poljakinja	poljski
Portugal	Portugal	Portugaläc	Portugalka	portugalski
Romania	Rumunjska *	Rumunj	Rumunjka	rumunjski
Russia	Rusija	Rus	Ruskinja	ruski
Scotland	Škotska *	Škot	Škotkinja	škotski
Serbia	Srbija	Srbin	Srpkinja	srpski
Slavonia ‡	Slavonija	Slavonäc	Slavonka	slavonski
Slovakia	Slovačka *	Slovak	Slovakinja	slovački
Slovenia	Slovenija	Slovenäc	Slovenka	slovenski
Spain	Španjolska *	Španjoläc	Španjolka	španjolski
Sweden	Švedska *	Šveđanin	Šveđanka	švedski
Turkey	Turska *	Turčin (see note)	Turkinja	turski
Wales	Vels	Velšanin	Velšanka	velški

All country names marked with an * change case as (possessive) adjectives. Names marked with an ‡ are regions within Croatia. Sometimes inhabitants of the region use a different name for them than the rest (e.g. Istrijan locally).

All male inhabitants have always only short plural: Grk — Grci. Names for male inhabitants that end on -in have the plural just on -i. Noun Turčin "Turk" has plural Turci etc. (its root is actually Turk-). All nouns follow the common gender rules, no exceptions or i-nouns here, just plain a- and mⁱ-nouns.

nom.sg.	Srbin	Rus	Turčin	Irska
acc.sg.	Srbina	Rusa	Turčina	Irsku
dat.sg.	Srbinu	Rusu	Turčinu	Irskoj
gen.sg. / dual	Srbina	Rusa	Turčina	Irske
nom.pl.	Srbi	Rusi	Turci	—
acc.pl.	Srbe	Ruse	Turke	—
dat.pl.	Srbima	Rusima	Turcima	—
gen.pl.	Srba	Rusa	Turäka	—

Examples and Exercise

Some examples:

Hrvati uče engleski (jezik). "Croats are learning English (language)."
Ja sam Amerikanka. "I'm (an) American (woman)."
Francuski predsjednik je doputovao u Hrvatsku. "(The) French president has arrived to Croatia."
Većina Amerikanäca živi u gradovima. "Most Americans live in cities." (lit. "Most of Americans...")

For an exercise, try making sentences like above ones with various nationalities and country adjectives, e.g. "Frenchmen are learning German", "Czechs are learning Arab".