Declension of 'tri' and 'četiri' — Croatian Grammar

The numbers three () and four () round out the small-number band. Together with , they share one key behaviour: the noun after them takes the special counted form, not the ordinary plural. They are simpler than in one way, though - they do not change for gender.

The Noun Takes the Counted Form

After and , just as after , the noun appears in the counted (genitive-singular, old dual) form.

tri motocikla
three motorbikes
tri starija brata
three older brothers
Imam četiri mačke.
I have four cats.
Ova farma ima tri ovce.
This farm has three sheep.

No Gender Change

Unlike / , the words and do not change for gender - one form serves all three genders, which makes them the easiest of the small numbers to use.

tri dolara
three dollars (masculine)
tri sestre
three sisters (feminine)
tri sela
three villages (neuter)
četiri prijatelja
four friends

Adjectives Match Too

An adjective between or and the noun also takes the counted form (the genitive-singular, old dual ending), agreeing with the noun.

tri mlađa brata
three younger brothers
četiri velike kuće
four big houses

The Boundary at Five

The counted form a noun takes after , and stops at four. From (five) on, the noun switches to the genitive plural, which is why "four cats" and "five cats" look different - the cut-off between the small numbers and five upward falls right here.

četiri mačke
four cats (counted form)
pet mačaka
five cats (genitive plural)

In Compound Numbers

The split between the counted form (after two to four) and the genitive plural (from five on) reaches into bigger numbers: a compound ending in or keeps the counted form, while one ending in five or more switches to the genitive plural.

dvadeset i tri dolara
twenty-three dollars
trideset i četiri godine
thirty-four years

In the Oblique Cases

and have rarely-used oblique forms - genitive , ; dative and instrumental , . In everyday Croatian they are often left unchanged.

s trima sestrama
with three sisters (instrumental)

Counting Men

For a group of three or four males, Croatian also has the collective forms and , followed by the genitive; for children and mixed groups it uses and .

trojica prijatelja
three friends (men)
troje djece
three children

Telling Time and Set Phrases

As with , the counted form a noun takes after and turns up in clock times and set expressions: is "three o'clock", and means "on all fours".

Sastanak je u tri sata.
The meeting is at three o'clock.
Dijete puže na sve četiri.
The child crawls on all fours.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Croatian course

6 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 33. A few of them, with the words “Declension of 'tri' and 'četiri'” is about in bold:

Imam dva auta, dva bicikla i tri motocikla.
I have two cars, two bicycles, and three motorbikes.
Lesson 33

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