Tijelima

Tijelima is a grammatical form in South Slavic languages such as Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. It is not a stand‑alone noun, but an inflected form of the noun tijelo, which means “body.” The form tijelima appears in everyday usage as part of the noun’s inflection rather than as a separate lexical item.

In standard grammar, tijelima marks the dative plural and the instrumental plural of tijelo. It is used whenever the action relates to more than one body in a dative or instrumental sense. Because South Slavic nouns often share forms across cases, tijelima can be encountered in contexts where the distinction between dative and instrumental is determined by the surrounding syntax and prepositions.

Declension overview (suffixes for the plural of tijelo):

- Nominative plural: tijela

- Genitive plural: tijela

- Dative plural: tijelima

- Accusative plural: tijela

- Instrumental plural: tijelima

- Locative plural: tijelima (in some constructions, the same form may appear in locative contexts)

Etymology and cognates: tijelo derives from Proto-Slavic roots meaning “body.” Its forms are cognate with similar body-related terms across Slavic languages, reflecting a shared morpho-syntactic pattern for plural inflection.

Usage notes: As a grammatical form, tijelima appears in standard prose, legal texts, and literature where reference is made to multiple bodies in dative or instrumental constructions. Its exact interpretation depends on the surrounding verbs and prepositions, which signal the intended case usage.

See also: tijelo, list of inflected forms in South Slavic languages.