ljudi

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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

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

Declension of ljudi

	singular	plural
nominative	čovjek	ljȗdi
genitive	čovjeka	ljúdī
dative	čovjeku	ljúdima
accusative	čovjeka	ljȗde
vocative	čovječe	ljȗdi
locative	čovjeku	ljúdima
instrumental	čovjekom	ljúdima