The vocative case: direct speech

Details: Published: 23 May 2014; By Iva Bezinović

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.

Vocative endings for masculine nouns

Masculine nouns
Regular nouns receive the suffix –e in the vocative case	sin – son sine doktor – doctor doktore profesor – teacher/professor profesore
For nouns ending in –k or -c, the word ending changes to –če	rođak – relative rođače čovjek – man čovječe stric – uncle (paternal) striče ujak – uncle (maternal) ujače
For nouns ending in –g or –z, the word ending changes to –že	vrag – devil vraže vitez – knight viteže
For nouns ending in –h or –s, the word ending changes to –še	duh – ghost duše
If the word ends in a palatal consonant (–č, -ć, -đ, -dž, –š, -ž, -nj, -lj, -j), it usually receives the suffix –u in the vocative	muž – husband mužu konj – horse konju kralj – king kralju

Vocative endings for feminine nouns

Feminine nouns
For regular feminine nouns (ending in –a) the word ending changes to –o	žena – woman, wife ženo majka – mother majko sestra – sister sestro
For nouns with more than two syllables ending in -ica, end in -ice.	sestrica – little sister sestrice prijateljica – friend (female) prijateljice

What happens with first names?

First names
Male names commonly receive the suffix –e in the vocative case	Marin Marine Krešimir Krešimire
Names that end in a vowel and foreign names remain unchanged	Luka Luka Ivo Ivo George George James James
Female names no longer change in the vocative in spoken language	Iva Iva Jelena Jelena
For female names which end in –ica the word ending changes to –e	Janica Janice