Declension of 'jedan'

01

Gender in the Nominative

Like an adjective, jedan has three gender forms in the basic (nominative) case - the form you use for the subject of a sentence.

• masculine jedan
• feminine jedna
• neuter jedno

• jedan dolar

  one dollar (masculine)

• jedna banana

  one banana (feminine)

• jedno dijete

  one child (neuter)

02

The Noun Stays Singular

Unlike the higher numbers, jedan leaves its noun in the singular - it counts a single thing, so nothing about the phrase is plural. This is the opposite of dva or pet, which push the noun into a counted or genitive form.

• Kupujem jednu bananu i šest jaja.

  I am buying one banana and six eggs.

• Treba mi jedna šoljica kafe.

  I need one cup of coffee.

03

The Accusative and Animacy

In the accusative - the case of the direct object - the feminine becomes jednu and the neuter stays jedno. The masculine splits by animacy, exactly as adjectives do: for a lifeless thing it stays jedan, but for a person or animal it becomes jednog.

• Imam jedan auto.

  I have one car. (masculine, inanimate)

• Vidim jednog psa.

  I see one dog. (masculine, animate)

• Imam jednu sestru.

  I have one sister. (feminine)

04

It Declines Through the Cases

In the oblique cases jedan takes the long, pronoun-style endings. Masculine and neuter share one set, the feminine has its own.

• genitive jednog (m/n), jedne (f)
• dative and locative jednom (m/n), jednoj (f)
• instrumental jednim (m/n), jednom (f)

• jedna od mojih kolegica

  one of my colleagues (genitive)

• razgovaram s jednim prijateljem

  I am talking with one friend (instrumental)

• u jednoj ruci

  in one hand (locative)

05

'another' and 'a single'

With još (more), jedan means "another"; the negative nijedan means "not a single" and declines exactly the same way.

• Donesi mi još jednu šoljicu čaja.

  Bring me another cup of tea.

• Ne znam nijednu pjesmu.

  I don't know a single song.

06

'one' Meaning 'a certain'

jedan can also work like an indefinite article - "a (certain)" - pointing to one unspecified example, much as English says "this one guy".

• Znaš li jedan dobar restoran?

  Do you know a good restaurant?

• Jedan moj prijatelj živi u Mostaru.

  A friend of mine lives in Mostar.

07

Plural Forms

"One" even has plural forms - jedni (masculine), jedne (feminine), jedna (neuter) - used with nouns that exist only in the plural, and in the pairing jedni ... drugi meaning "some ... others".

• jedne hlače

  one pair of trousers

• Jedni vole, drugi mrze.

  Some love it, others hate it.

08

Set Phrases with 'jedan'

A few common phrases reuse the two forms of the word against each other. jedan po jedan means "one by one"; jedan drugoga is the everyday way to say "each other"; jedan te isti means "one and the same".

• Ulazili su jedan po jedan.

  They came in one by one.

• Volimo jedan drugoga.

  We love each other.

09

The Idiom 'svejedno'

From sve (all) and jedno (one) comes svejedno, literally "all one", used just like English "it's all the same" or "it doesn't matter".

• Svejedno mi je.

  It makes no difference to me.