Talk:Serbo-Croatian grammar

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Palatal

There is something profoundly unclear about this article: there are inflection patterns given for palatal consonants with examples that do not correspond to what the Serbo-Croatian phonology article defines as such, namely nj, ć, đ, j, and lj. The word "prišt", given as one example, contains no such sound. If the definition of palatal in grammar is different from the definition in phonology, we should definitely mention this; I am not an expert, so I can't make such an edit myself but, as it is now, the article is confusing.

complainer (talk) 07:19, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

:Addressed, now. The proper nomenclature is "soft", which only partially corresponds with palatal consonants. There are some "soft" consonants which are actually reflexes of old phonemes: št in prišt - prištevi is reflex of proto-Slavic /щ/, while e.g. r in car - carevi (cf. bor - borovi) comes from Old Church Slavonic цaрь 'tzar', the soft sign denoting a palatalization. No such user (talk) 09:26, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Definite and indefinite adjectives

The examples of declensions of adjectives given in the article are wrong. Adjectives also have grammatical aspect, but not perfective or imperfective, but definite or indefinite. "velik" is indefinite, while "veliki" is definite. Ex: "Vidio sam velik zid" - I saw a big wall. "Vidio sam veliki zid" - I saw the big wall. The declensions are also quite different in the masculine, while feminine and neuter retain a difference only in accents. So for masculine indefinite, it would go something like this:

:N velik veliki

:G velika velikih

:D veliku velikim

:Ac velik velike

:V velik veliki

:I velikim velikim

:L veliku velikim

And for masculine definite, it would be like this

:N veliki veliki

:G velikog velikih

:D velikom velikim

:Ac veliki velike

:V veliki veliki

:I velikim velikim

:L velikom velikim

It would seem that someone made a mix of these two separate declensions.

P.S.: In the plural, the difference is in the accent, with the final vowel being lengthened. 92.36.135.59 (talk) 00:40, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Corrected. Burzuchius (talk) 16:10, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

Imperfect and aorist

Isn't it that the imperfect is restricted imperfective verbs, whereas the aorist is restricted to perfective verbs, and that hence only those few verbs with both aspects have both of these tenses? That should be mentioned (unless mistaken). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.204.102.111 (talk) 16:13, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Number of patterns

You inflate the number of declension patterns by treating fleeting vowels and predictable orthographical changes as separate declensions, but totally ignore noun animacy and long plural forms. This is very misleading for learners as they would think the particularities as a result of that very pattern instead of animacy or long plurals. Please split the patterns into more categories or reduce the numbers and add notes explaining animacy, long plurals, fleeting vowels and orthographical changes in a clear way. --2001:16B8:311F:5000:4548:E0D3:7A62:EBDB (talk) 17:31, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Animate or inanimate

According to the declension tables bubreg (kidney) would be animate, and sužanj (slave) would be inanimate. Is this really correct?--46.94.137.99 (talk) 11:46, 6 November 2021 (UTC)

:They are incorrect; [https://hjp.znanje.hr/index.php?show=search_by_id&id=f15gXBY%253D bubreg] is inanimate and [https://hjp.znanje.hr/index.php?show=search_by_id&id=d1llXxQ%253D sužanj] is animate (click on "Izvedeni oblici" for the declension). Doremo (talk) 12:28, 6 November 2021 (UTC)