Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives can be formed from proper nouns or nouns denoting people:

  Antun Antunov Antunov brat Antun's brother
Marko Markov Markov novi auto Marko's new car
putnik putnikov putnikov šešir the passenger's hat

 

 

If the final consonant is 'soft', the suffix becomes -ev:

  prijatelj prijateljev prijateljev pas (my) friend's dog
Ðorde Ðorđev Ðordev mali sin Dorde's little son
Petroviđ Petroviiđev Petroviiđev ured Petroviiđ's office

 

 

Feminine nouns ending in -a drop the final and replace it by -in:

  Marija Marijin Marijin brat Marija's brother
sestra sestrin sestrin neićak (my) sister's nephew

 

 

These possessive adjectives are then declined like regular definite¹ adjectives with the appropriate endings added to the new suffix:

Antunova sestra je ovdje   -   Antun's sister is here
Vidjela sam markovog brata  -  I saw Marko's brother
Jesi li to rekao putnikovoj sestri?  -  Did you tell that to the passenger's sister?

NB: These forms cannot be preceded by a qualifying adjective:

             Ovo je putnikova torba 
but        To je torba onog drugog putnika

Examples:

Je li Slavko Jasnin muž?                    Ne, Slavko je Marijin muž.

A kako se zove Alanova žena?           Zove se Nora.

Tko je mali Ranko?                             On je Marijin nećak.

Gdje živi dječakova baka?                  U Zadru, živi s marijinom mlađom sestrom.

Je li to ranije bila Antunova kuća?    Jest, a Babićevom trgu.

¹You will also find indefinite endings for masculine possessives.