The vocative case (vokativ) is used for nouns when these are addressed directly. Most commonly it is seen with people's names when these are being spoken to.
For example, in the sentence "Tko je Ivan?" (“Who is Ivan?”) Ivan is the predicate noun, but in the sentence “Tko je, Ivane?” (“Who is it, Ivan?”), Ivan is being directly addressed.
Luckily, for adjectives and pronouns the vocative form is the same as nominative. What's more, a lot of people rarely use the vocative, using the nominative instead.
Masculine nouns | |
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Regular nouns receive the suffix –e in the vocative case |
sin – son sine |
For nouns ending in –k or -c, the word ending changes to –če |
rođak – relative rođače |
For nouns ending in –g or –z, |
vrag – devil vraže |
For nouns ending in –h or –s, |
duh – ghost duše |
If the word ends in a palatal consonant |
muž – husband mužu |
Feminine nouns | |
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For regular feminine nouns (ending in –a) |
žena – woman, wife ženo |
For nouns with more than two |
sestrica – little sister sestrice |
First names | |
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Male names commonly receive the suffix –e in the vocative case |
Marin Marine |
Names that end in a vowel and foreign names remain unchanged |
Luka Luka |
Female names no longer change in the vocative in spoken language |
Iva Iva |
For female names which end in –ica the word ending changes to –e |
Janica Janice |
The name or the noun describing who we’re addressing must always be separated by a comma in Croatian:
Bok, Ivane! - Hello Ivan!
Kako si, Ana? - How are you Ana?
Profesore, sretan rođendan! - Happy birthday professor!
profesorica – teacher/professor Answer profesorice
polaznik – participant Answer polazniče
Harry! (name) Answer Harry!
gospodin - mister Answer gospodine
gospođa - lady Answer gospođo
vuk - wolf Answer vuče
Bog - God Answer Bože
susjed - neighbor (male) Answer susjede
susjeda - neighbor (female) Answer susjedo