ABSTRACT
The somewhat longer chapter outlines the four grammatical categories that mark nouns in BCMS – gender, number, case and animacy. In the gender section it lists gender endings for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. In the number section it lists endings that turn singular nouns into their nominative plural forms, with separate explanations of resulting consonant and vowel changes in some masculine nouns and a separate subheading for neuter collective nouns.
The largest section on case structure opens with the explanation of what cases are and draws parallels with noun/pronoun case structure in English. It outlines three declensions in BCMS and uses the First and Second Declensions (which encompass most nouns) to present seven cases in the singular and plural. In the presentation of each case it first explains the morphology of the case followed by its usage, with numerous examples grouped according to usage. It presents the cases of the Third Declension separately and contains a subheading titled “Frequently Used Nouns Displaying Irregularities in Declension”. This part lists case endings for the nouns vrijeme = vreme, posao, dio = deo, otac, kći, dijete = dete, body parts, nouns ending in -lac and neuter and feminine plural-only nouns.
