Pluralia tantum

The nouns that have only plural form are called pluralia tantum. Most of these nouns are made of two parts which make the whole. They require verbs and adjectives in plural.  They are either feminine or neuter gender, but used in plural. Some of them are: makaze, vrata, djeca, jasle, pantalone, farmerice, naočare, novine, merdevine (stube),…

Proverbs – part 2

P 1.Ide kao alva.                                 To sell very fast 2. Ko o čemu, baba o uštipcima.  To harp forever on the same string 3. Ni po babu, ni po stričevima.      Without fear or favor 4. Nekad bilo, sad se pripoveda.     It’s only a memory now. 5. Bolje ikad, nego nikad.                 Better late than never. 6. Obećavati…

Sayings, proverbs and phrases

Kad na vrbi rodi grožđe.                          When pigs fly. Ko prvi – tome djevojka.                          First come – first served. Ko rano rani dvije sreće grabi.                Early bird catches the warm. Od inata nema goreg zanata.                Spite is the worst characteristics. Dići prašinu.                                              To kick up dust. To make a fuss. Svakog gosta tri dana dosta.            After 3 days guest…

Fleeting A (nepostojano A)

The so-called “fleeting A” or “movable A” refers to the phonetic alternation in which short a makes an appearance and loss in certain inflected forms of nouns. Historically, Montenegrin did not tolerate any final consonantal clusters except st, zd, št, žd, šć, žđ, šč, and dž, as they were often difficult to pronounce in the…