Lesson 9, Grammar

The following crucial cognitions should be firmly committed to memory:

Nouns and adjectives

Case forms should be used in to express the following meanings:

Meaning	Case
accompaniment	InsP
accompanying event or circumstance	Loc
agent or experiencer
- subject of the sentence, default	Nom
- subject of the sentence, exceptional in folk epics	Voc
- complement of the nominal head	Gen
appositon to a nominal head	Nom
area covered	Loc
calling	Voc
cause and consequence	GenP
centralness	GenP
circumference	GenP
circumstance	InsP
comparison
- after a sequence of an adjective and kao ‘as’, or nego ‘then’	Nom
- after a sequence of an adjective and od ‘than’	GenP
- after verbs	Ins
- after jednak, ravan ‘equal’, sličan ‘similar to’	Dat
- after gotovo, skoro ‘almost’	Acc
contingency, closeness	Loc
criterion
- after prema	DatP
- after po	LocP
direction
- after k(a), prema	DatP
- if the direction is kuća ‘house’ or a person	Dat
- after kod ‘at’ (somebody’s place)	GenP
- after u/na	AccP
element in relation to	InsP
ergative	Ins
experiencer
- constructions like Dosadno mi je ‘I am bored’	Dat
- constructions like Boli me glava ‘I have a headache’	Acc
feature
- modifiers	Any case the head is in
- nouns	Gen
focus of an exclamation	Gen
games	Gen
instrument	Ins
intention	AccP
item measured by or contained in; item present in some quantity or item partially affected by	Gen
location	Loc
location, approximate	Loc
manner	Acc
minimum	AccP
non-predicative clausal models	Nom
object of	Gen
object, direct	Acc
objective	Ins
opposition	DatP
opposition and exclusion	Gen
opposition, static	Loc
origin, source	GenP
possessor of	Gen
position, relative
- after kroz	AccP
- after other relative position prepositions	GenP
possessor	Dat
proximity	DatP
recipient	Dat
replacement	GenP
signal	Acc
somebody’s place	GenP
space covered	Ins
time
- parts of the day Acc
- general time reference	Gen
- repeated days of the week	Ins
- after u, months	LocP
- after u, days of the week	AccP
topic	Loc

The following case endings for nouns and adjectives should be remembered to be retrieved at any point:

Case	Singular					Plural
	Masculine-Inanimate	Masculine-animate	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	0/i, 0 + 0 visok, visoki, moj prozor	0/i, 0 + 0 visok, visoki, moj profesor	a + a visoka, moja studentkinja	o/e + o/e visoko, vruće, moje selo, polje		i + i visoki, moji prozori, profesori	e + e visoke, moje studentkinje	a + a visoka, moja sela, polja
Genitive	og(a)/eg(a) + a visokog(a), vrućeg(a), mojeg(a) prozora	og(a)/eg(a) + a visokog(a), vrućeg(a), mojeg(a) profesora	e + e visoke, moje studentkinje	og(a)/eg(a) + a visokog(a), vrućeg(a), mojeg(a) sela, polja		ih + a visokih, mojih prozora, profesora	ih + a visokih, mojih studentkinja	ih + a visokih, mojih sela, polja
Dative/Locative	om(e/u)/em(e/u) + u visokom(e/u), vrućem(e/u), mojem(e/u) prozoru	om(e/u)/em(e/u) + u visokom(e/u), vrućem(e/u), mojem(e/u) profesoru	oj + i visokoj, mojoj studentkinji	om(e/u)/em(e/u) + u visokom(e/u), vrućem(e/u), mojem(e/u) selu/polju		im + ima visokim, mojim profesorima	im + ama visokim, mojim + studenkinjama	im + ima visokim, mojim poljima/selima
Accusative	0/i, 0 + 0 visok, visoki, moj prozor	og(a)/eg(a) + a visokog(a), vrućeg(a), mojeg(a) profesora	u + u visoku, moju studentkinju	o/e + o/e visoko, vruće, moje selo, polje		e + e visoke, moje prozore, profesore	e + e visoke, moje studentkinje	a + a visoka, moja sela, polja
Vocative	0/i, 0 + e/u visok, visoki, moj prozore, malju	0/i, 0 + e/u visok, visoki, moj profesore, kralju	a + o visoka, moja studentkinjo	o/e + o/e visoko, vruće, moje selo, polje		i + i visoki, moji prozori, profesori	e + e visoke, moje studentkinje	a + a visoka, moja sela, polja
Instrumental	im + om/em visokim, vrućim, mojim prozorom, maljem	im + om/em visokim, vrućim, mojim profesorom, kraljem	om + om visokom, mojom studentkinjom	im + om/em visokim, vrućim, mojim selom/poljem		im + ima visokim, mojim profesorima	im + ama visokim, mojim + studenkinjama	im + ima visokim, mojim poljima/selima

Check out prepositions, their meanings and the English equivalents

Verbs

The following correspondences determine when should Serbo-Croatian tense and mood forms be used:

English	Serbo-Croatian	Example
Conditional Mood	Conditional Mood	bih čitao 'would read'
Future, non-progressive	Future or Relative Future, mostly perfective verbs	ću pročitati/budem pročitao ‘will read'
Future, progressive	Future or Relative Future, mostly imperfective verbs	ću čitati/budem čitao ‘will be reading’
Imperative Mood	Imperative Mood	čitaj ‘read!’
Past, non-progressive	Past Tense or Aorist	sam pročitao/pročitah ‘I read’
Past, progressive	Past Tense or Imperfect	sam čitao/čitah ‘I was reading’
Pluperfect, non-progressive	Pluperfect, mostly perfective verbs	sam bio pročitao ‘I had read’
Pluperfect, progressive	Pluperfect, mostly imperfective verbs	sam bio čitao ‘I had been reading’
Present Perfect	Present Tense or Past Tense	čitam/sam čitao 'I have been reading'
Present, non-progressive	Present Tense, imperfective	čitam ‘I read’
Present, progressive	Present Tense, imperfective verbs	čitam ‘I am reading’

The following basic verb forms should be firmly committed to memory:

The Present Tense

	Singular		Plural
First	{a,i,i,u,e}-m	prič-a-m, žel-i-m, nos-i-m, kucn-e-m, pas-e-m	{a,i,i,u,e}-mo	prič-a-mo, žel-i-mo, nos-i-mo, kucn-e-mo, pas-e-mo
Second	{a,i,i,u,e}-š	prič-a-š, žel-i-š, nos-i-š, kucn-e-š, pas-e-š	{a,i,i,u,e}-te	prič-a-te, žel-i-te, nos-i-te, kucn-e-te, pas-e-te
Third	{a,i,i,u,e}-0	prič-a-0, žel-i-0, nos-i-0, kucn-e-0, pas-e-0	{aju,e,u,u}-0	prič-aju-0, žel-e-0, nos-e-0, kucn-u-0, pas-u-0

The Past Tense

	Singular	Plural			Singular	Plural
First	sam	smo		Masculine	{a,e,i,u,0}-o1 2	{a,e,i,u,0}-li
Second	si	ste	+	Feminine	{a,e,i,u,0}-la	{a,e,i,u,0}-le
Third	je	su		Neuter	{a,e,i,u,0}-lo	{a,e,i,u,0}-la

1 [voc]o vs. [cons]ao: raditi 'work' - ja sam radio 'I worked'; pasti 'graze', ovan je pasao 'mutton grazed'

2 -eo vs. -io in Ijekavian: Ekavian: voleti, Ja sam voleo 'I liked' vs. Ijekavian: voljeti, Ja sam volio 'I liked'

The Future Tense

Compound form:

In Serbian standard da + Present Tense is used instead of the Infinitive. Both the number and person of the auxiliary, and the main verb, have to be coordinated in that case.

Simple form:

Simple form is generated using the infinitive form of the paradigm marker

The Imperative Mood

	Singular	Plural
First		(3rd Person Plural Present Tense – last vowel) + mo/imo1
Second	(3rd Person Plural Present Tense – last vowel) + 0/i 1	(3rd Person Plural Present Tense – last vowel) + te/ite1
Third	neka + 3rd Person Singular Present Tense	neka + 3rd Person Plural Present Tense

1 If -j remains at the end when the final vowel is removed, the endings are 0, -mo, -te, else the endings are  -i, -imo, -ite.

‘they read’ oni čitaju – u = čitaj (čitaj, čitajmo, čitajte) vs.

‘they write’ oni pišu – u = piš (piši, pišimo, pišite)

The imperative has a negative form which is formed by adding the particle ne to the verb, e.g. ne čitaj ‘do not read’, neka ne čita ‘let him not work’, etc.

The Conditional Mood

	Singular	Plural			Singular	Plural
First	bih	bismo		Masculine	{a,e,i,u,0}-o1 2	{a,e,i,u,0}-li
Second	bi	biste	+	Feminine	{a,e,i,u,0}-la	{a,e,i,u,0}-le
Third	bi	bi		Neuter	{a,e,i,u,0}-lo	{a,e,i,u,0}-la

1 [cons]o vs. [cons]ao

2 -eo vs. -io in Ijekavian

The truth values are formed using the same operations on the first auxiliary as in the case of simple tenses.

Pronouns

	Sg						Pl
	1st	2nd	3rd			Ref	1st	2nd	3rd
			M	N	F				M	N	F
N	ja	ti	on	ono	ona	-	mi	vi	oni	ona	one
G	mene, me	tebe, te	njega, ga		nje, je	sebe, se	nas	vas	njih, ih
D	meni, mi	tebi, ti	njemu, mu		njoj joj	sebi, si	nama, nam	vama, vam	njima, im
A	mene, me	tebe, te	njega, ga		nju, ju, je	sebe, se	nas	vas	njih, ih
V	-	ti	-		-	-	mi	vi	-
I	mnom(e)	tobom	njim(e)		njom	sobom	nama	vama	njima
L	meni	tebi	njem(u)		njoj	sebi	nama	vama	njima

1st

Poss

2nd

Poss

3rd

Poss

3rd

Poss

3rd

Poss

M

F

N

Sg

S-Cr

ja

moj

ti

tvoj

on

njegov

ona

njen, njezin

ono

njegov

Eng.

I

my, mine

you

your, yours

he

his

she

her, hers

it

its

Pl

S-Cr

mi

naš

vi

vaš

oni

njihov

one

njihov

ona

njihov

Eng

we

our, ours

you

your, yours

they

their, theirs

they

their, theirs

they

their, theirs

Possessive pronouns

The third-person possessive pronouns are inflected just like hard-stem adjectives. The first and second person, and the reflexive pronoun is inflected as follows:

	Singular (Dat.=Loc.)
	Masc	Neut	Fem
Nom.	{mo,tvo,svo}j	{mo,tvo,svo}j e	{mo,tvo,svo}ja
Gen.	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)g(a)	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)g(a)	{mo,tvo,svo}je
Dat.	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)m({u,e})	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)m({u,e})	{mo,tvo,svo}joj
Acc.	{mo,tvo,svo}j 1 {mo,tvo,svo}-(je)g(a)	{mo,tvo,svo}je	{mo,tvo,svo}ju
Voc.	{mo,tvo,svo}j	{mo,tvo,svo}je	{mo,tvo,svo}ja
Ins.	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jom
Loc.	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)m({u,e})	{mo,tvo,svo}(je)m({u,e})	{mo,tvo,svo}joj

	Plural (Dat.=Ins.=Loc.)
	Masc	Neut	Fem
Nom.	{mo,tvo,svo}ji	{mo,tvo,svo}ja	{mo,tvo,svo}je
Gen.	{mo,tvo,svo}jih	{mo,tvo,svo}jih	{mo,tvo,svo}jih
Dat.	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim
Acc.	{mo,tvo,svo}je	{mo,tvo,svo}ja	{mo,tvo,svo}je
Voc.	{mo,tvo,svo}ji	{mo,tvo,svo}ja	{mo,tvo,svo}je
Ins.	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim
Loc.	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim	{mo,tvo,svo}jim

Interrogative Pronouns who and what

Nom.	ko/tko	šta/što1
Gen.	kog(a)	čeg(a)
Dat.	kom({e,u})	čem(u)
Acc.	kog(a)	šta/što1
Voc.	-	-
Ins.	kim(e)	čim(e)
Loc.	kom(e)	čem(u)