Editing Serbo-Croatian (section)

== Grammar ==
[[File:Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga knjizevnoga jezika.JPG|thumb|[[Tomislav Maretić]]'s 1899 Grammar of Croatian or Serbian]]
{{Further|Serbo-Croatian grammar}}
Serbo-Croatian is a highly [[inflected language]]. Traditional grammars list seven [[Grammatical case|cases]] for [[noun]]s and [[adjective]]s: [[Nominative case|nominative]], [[Genitive case|genitive]], [[Dative case|dative]], [[Accusative case|accusative]], [[Vocative case|vocative]], [[Locative case|locative]], and [[Instrumental case|instrumental]], reflecting the original seven cases of [[Proto-Slavic language|Proto-Slavic]], and indeed older forms of Serbo-Croatian itself. However, in modern [[Shtokavian dialect|Shtokavian]] the locative has almost merged into dative (the only difference is based on accent in some cases), and the other cases can be shown declining; namely:
* For all nouns and adjectives, the instrumental, dative, and locative forms are identical (at least orthographically) in the plural: ''ženama'', ''ženama'', ''ženama''; ''očima'', ''očima'', ''očima''; ''riječima'', ''riječima'', ''riječima''.
* There is an accentual difference between the genitive [[singular (grammatical number)|singular]] and genitive [[plural]] of masculine and neuter nouns, which are otherwise homonyms (''seljáka'', ''seljaka'') except that on occasion an [[Serbo-Croatian phonology#Fleeting a|"a"]] (which might or might not appear in the singular) is filled between the last letter of the root and the genitive plural ending (''kapitalizma'', ''kapitalizama'').
* The old instrumental ending "ju" of the feminine consonant stems and in some cases the "a" of the genitive plural of certain other sorts of feminine nouns is fast yielding to "i": ''noći'' instead of ''noćju'', ''borbi'' instead of ''boraba'' and so forth.
* Almost every Shtokavian number is indeclinable, and numbers after prepositions have not been declined for a long time.

Like most Slavic languages, there are mostly three [[Grammatical gender|genders]] for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter, a distinction which is still present even in the plural (unlike [[Russian language|Russian]] and, in part, the [[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian dialect]]). They also have two [[Grammatical number|numbers]]: singular and plural. However, some consider there to be three numbers ([[paucal]] or ''dual,'' too), since (still preserved in closely related [[Slovene language|Slovene]]) after two (''dva'', ''dvije''/''dve''), three (''tri'') and four (''četiri''), and all numbers ending in them (e.g. twenty-two, ninety-three, one hundred four, but not twelve through fourteen) the genitive singular is used, and after all other numbers five (''pet'') and up, the genitive plural is used. (The number one [''jedan''] is treated as an adjective.) Adjectives are placed in front of the noun they modify and must agree in both case and number with it.

There are seven [[Grammatical tense|tenses]] for verbs: [[past tense|past]], [[present tense|present]], [[future tense|future]], exact future, [[aorist]], [[imperfect]], and [[pluperfect]]; and three [[Grammatical mood|moods]]: [[indicative]], [[Imperative mood|imperative]], and [[conditional mood|conditional]]. However, the latter three tenses are typically used only in Shtokavian writing, and the time sequence of the exact future is more commonly formed through an alternative construction.

In addition, like most Slavic languages, the Shtokavian verb also has one of two [[Grammatical aspect|aspects]]: [[Perfective aspect|perfective]] or [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]]. Most verbs come in pairs, with the perfective verb being created out of the imperfective by adding a [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] or making a stem change. The imperfective aspect typically indicates that the action is unfinished, in progress, or repetitive; while the perfective aspect typically denotes that the action was completed, instantaneous, or of limited duration. Some Štokavian tenses (namely, aorist and imperfect) favor a particular aspect (but they are rarer or absent in Čakavian and Kajkavian). Actually, aspects "compensate" for the relative lack of tenses, because verbal aspect determines whether the act is completed or in progress in the referred time.