| Singular | Plural |
| Serbo-Croatian | English | Serbo-Croatian | English | |
| 1 | ja sam | 'I am' | mi smo | 'we are' |
| 2 | ti si | 'you are' | vi ste | 'y'all are' |
| 3 | on je | 'he is' | onisu | 'they (masculine gender) are' |
| 3 | ona je | 'she is' | one su | 'they (feminine gender) are' |
| 3 | ono je | 'it is' | ona su | 'they (neuter gender) are' |
There are two differences between Serbo-Croatian and English which need to be noted here.
First, in Serbo-Croatian each person in both numbers has its own form. In English, on the other hand, one form expresses several different persons. The English form
'are' is thus either si, smo, ste, or su.
Second, in the third person plural, Serbo-Croatian uses three different pronouns in the third person plural as opposed to only one in English. The English
'they' is thus either oni, one, or ona. This Serbo-Croatian feature will be discussed in the sections devoted to the gender and pronouns.