Nominative
The nominative is a noun’s “bare” form — the one every dictionary entry, declension table, and this site’s own noun search cites a word by.
Usage
The nominative marks the subject of a sentence — the one doing the action: Studenti flet shqip (“The student speaks Albanian”). It’s also the form used after “to be” and similar linking verbs, where English would use a subject pronoun too: Ai është student (“He is a student”).
Formation
Singular, indefinite: just the bare lemma, no ending added, for either gender — mal (“a mountain”), vajzë (“a girl”).
Singular, definite — masculine:
Indefinite ending | Rule | Example |
consonant (most) | add -i | gjysh → gjyshi |
-k, -g, -h | add -u | shok → shoku |
-ër | drop -ë, add -i | libër → libri |
-ë (a few) | replace -ë with -i | burrë → burri |
stressed -a (very few) | add -i | baba → babai |
Singular, definite — feminine:
Indefinite ending | Rule | Example |
-ë | replace -ë with -a | nënë → nëna |
-ël, -ëll, -ër, -ërr | drop -ë, add -a | motër → motra |
stressed -i | add -a | shtëpi → shtëpia |
unstressed -e | replace -e with -ja | shoqe → shoqja |
stressed vowel (other) | add -ja | kafene → kafeneja |
Plural, indefinite — masculine:
Ending | Rule | Example |
most (nationalities, professions) | add -ë | student → studentë |
some | add -a | film → filma |
-im, some loanwords in -et/-on | add -e (gender flips to feminine) | gabim → gabime |
-ër | drop -ë, add -a | libër → libra |
-ll | replace -ll with -j | artikull → artikuj |
-as, -(ë)s, -ues, -yes | unchanged | mësues → mësues |
Plural, indefinite — feminine:
Ending | Rule | Example |
most | replace -ë with -a | gazetë → gazeta |
-ër | drop -ë, add -a | motër → motra |
-i, -e, -a, -o (and some -ë) | unchanged | shtëpi → shtëpi |
Some plurals are simply irregular and have to be memorized: djalë (“boy”) → djem, baba (“father”) → baballarë, vëlla (“brother”) → vëllezër, grua (“woman”) → gra, derë (“door”) → dyer.
Plural, definite — the ending depends on how the indefinite plural itself ends, not on gender directly:
Gender | Indefinite plural ends in | Rule | Example |
masculine | a vowel (incl. -j) | add -t | studentë → studentët |
masculine | a consonant | add -it | mësues → mësuesit |
feminine | unstressed vowel | add -t | revista → revistat |
feminine | stressed vowel | add -të | shtëpi → shtëpitë |
As with the singular, the exact ending always depends on the individual word — see “Plural formation” for more irregular examples, and the noun dictionary for the confirmed forms of an individual word.
See “Cases” for how the nominative relates to the other four, or “Nouns: the basics” for the overview.