Serbian Ordinal Numbers and Telling the Time
In Serbian, an ordinal number (a redni broj) is not a fixed label the way English "first, second, third" is. It behaves like an adjective, which means it agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. That single idea is the spine of this whole lesson, and once it clicks, dates and floor numbers and street names all start to make sense. Start with gender. The same ordinal changes its ending depending on the noun: prvi sprat (the first floor, masculine), prva ulica (the first street, feminine), prvo mesto (the first place, neuter). Watch treći, which goes to treće in the neuter, not "trećo" — the soft consonant pulls it to -e. Because ordinals are adjectives, they also take case endings: Stanujem na drugom spratu (I live on the second floor), where drugom is locative after na. The first ten ordinals are special words you simply memorise: prvi, drugi, treći, četvrti, peti, šesti, sedmi, osmi, deveti, deseti. From eleven up they turn regular and predictable: jedanaesti, dvanaesti, dvadeseti. Telling the time, by contrast, uses cardinal numbers — and here Serbian has a counting split that trips up English speakers. With 2, 3 and 4 the noun is sata: Sada je tri sata (it's three o'clock). With 5 and above it becomes sati: Sada je pet sati (it's five o'clock). To say "at", add u: Sastanak je u pet sati (the meeting is at five). Ask the time with Koliko je sati? Minutes past use i (osam i pet, 8:05); minutes to use do (petnaest do sedam, 6:45). And beware pola: pola devet is 8:30, because Serbian counts toward the coming hour — "half to nine" — where English says "half past eight." Dates put the ordinal in the genitive: Rođen sam prvog maja (I was born on the first of May), Ispit je drugog juna (the exam is on the second of June). Both the ordinal and the month take the genitive. The classic mistake is leaving the date in the nominative: Sastanak je prvi maj sounds like the meeting IS the May Day holiday; you want Sastanak je prvog maja. And never forget gender agreement — prvi ulica is wrong, prva ulica is right, because ulica is feminine.
Examples
- prvi sprat the first floor
- Sada je pet sati. It's five o'clock.
- drugog juna on the second of June
The full lesson
Everything in the video, in text.
-
You want to say prvog maja, but out comes prvi maj. A small thing? It isn't. Ordinal numbers change, and once you learn that, dates and times will stop tripping you up.
-
Here's the secret. Cardinal numbers, jedan, dva, tri, just count. Ordinal numbers tell you the position in a sequence — prvi, drugi, treći. And here's the key: an ordinal number is an adjective.
-
Since an ordinal is an adjective, it behaves like any other adjective. It agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. It changes together with it, just like the word nov or velik.
-
Look at how prvi changes by gender. Masculine: prvi sprat. Feminine: prva ulica. Neuter: prvo mesto.
-
In a sentence it looks like this. Stanujem na drugom spratu. The word drugom is in the locative, because it follows the noun sprat after the preposition na.
-
Now the time. What time is it? We use an ordinal number and the word sat. Sada je tri sata. After two, three and four comes the form sata.
-
From five up, the noun changes. You say: Sada je pet sati. Pet sati, šest sati, sedam sati — the form sati goes from five onward.
-
When you say at what time something happens, you use the preposition u. Sastanak je u pet sati. U pet, u sedam, u deset — the preposition u plus the time.
-
And now the most important part — dates. A date takes the genitive of the ordinal number and the month. prvog maja. Prvog is the genitive of prvi, maja is the genitive of maj. That's why it isn't prvi maj when you say when something happened, but prvog maja.
-
One more date, for practice. Ispit je drugog juna. Drugog juna — again both in the genitive, the ordinal number and the month together.
-
Here's the most common mistake. Many people leave the ordinal number unchanged, as if it were a cardinal number. Sastanak je prvi maj — that sounds as if the meeting itself were the holiday. When you say when, you need the genitive: Sastanak je prvog maja.
-
And one more trap — gender. The ordinal number must follow the gender of the noun. You don't say prvi ulica. Ulica is feminine, so the ordinal number has to be prva: prva ulica levo.
-
And finally, a nuance. The first ten ordinal numbers are special words you have to memorize: prvi, drugi, treći, četvrti, peti, šesti, sedmi, osmi, deveti, deseti. From eleventh up they're formed regularly, with an ending: jedanaesti, dvanaesti, dvadeseti.
-
Remember it like this. An ordinal number is an adjective — it agrees in gender, number and case. Time: up to four it's sata, from five it's sati. And a date as when always takes the genitive: prvog maja.
