Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ľudьje, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *ljaudejes, nominative plural of *ljáudis, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰis, from *h₁lewdʰ-.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ʎûːdi/
  • Hyphenation: lju‧di

Noun

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ljȗdi m pl (Cyrillic spelling љу̑ди); singular: čovjek / čovek)

  1. people, men
    Dva čovjeka su išla cestom.Two men walked down the street.
    Pet ljudi je išlo cestom.Five people walked down the street.
  2. (colloquial) guys, you guys (group of familiar people of any or mixed gender)
  3. (vocative) everybody, everyone (addressing a group of people)

Usage notes

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This plural form takes suppletive stem in the singular, as can be seen in the declension table. Old dual forms have been preserved in the counting for 2, 3, 4 (also for 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34, etc., whereas the singular form is used for 21, 31, 41, etc.) which bind plural form of čovjek / čovek.

Declension

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