The simplest sentences are of type Ana is singing or Ivan is running. Such sentences are in the present tense and in the 3rd person.
2.1 Present tense (singular)
To make sentences of the type Ana is singing in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, you need the 3rd person present tense form or the verb (I’ll call it pres-3 for short).
(Verbs are words that mean an action or state, like listen, wait, eat, sit.)
Verbs are normally listed in Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin dictionaries in the so-called infinitive form (inf for short). For most verbs, you just need to remove the ending -ti, lengthen the vowel before it, and you have the form you need now. For instance, let’s take these verbs right from a dictionary:
|
či·ta·ti read ku·hati cook pje·vati sing |
pli·vati swim u·či·ti study vje·žbati exercise, practice |
For example:
A·na pje·va. Ana is singing.
Ma·rko u·či·. Marko is studying.
We can immediately learn how to say I’m cooking. Such sentences are in the 1st person. It turns out that for almost all verbs, you just need to add an -m to the pres-3 form to get the pres-1 form you now need:
Či·ta·m. I’m reading.
Ku·ham. I’m cooking.
U·či·m. I’m studying.
Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin don’t use personal pronouns (I, you...) often, the preferred way is just to use a special verb form. Pronouns are used only in specific circumstances, which will be described later.
If you are new to learning languages, a warning: in very few instances you can just translate from English word-for-word. For example, take these two sentences:
I am cooking. I like cooking.
In English, they differ only in one word. The matching sentences in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin have only 1 word and 2 words respectively – and no words in common!
If you’re now asking how to say I cook or Ana cooks, there’s no such difference in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin: ku·ham means both I’m cooking and I cook.
2.2 Pronouns on and ona
Instead of names, you can use the following pronouns:
| o·n he | o·na· she |
For example:
O·na· či·ta·. She’s reading.
O·n ku·ha. He’s cooking.
You can even leave out the pronoun if it’s obvious who you’re talking about:
Či·ta·. He/she is reading.
2.3 Verbs changing form
There are verbs where you need to change the last vowel in the present tense, from a to i. One is:
tr·ča·ti run → pres-3 tr·či·
For example:
A·na tr·či·trčati. Ana is running.
If the pres-3 form is not straightforward, I’ll list it after the infinitive form of a verb, in parentheses, like this:
tr·ča·ti (tr·či·) run
A good Serbian, Bosnian or Montenegrin dictionary should list it too (or the pres-1 form, which is more common). A dictionary which doesn’t list present form for such verbs is essentially worthless.
To help you remember all verbs where pres-3 is not simply derived by removing -ti from the inf, if you place your mouse over ‘irregular’ forms – or touch them, if you use a touchscreen – a small pop-up with the inf form will appear above them. Moving your mouse (or touching somewhere else) will close the pop-up. Furthermore, such forms will be written in dark blue. Try it yourself in the example above!
There are more verbs where you have to remember the present form, but it’s not a simple change of a vowel; it again should be listed in a dictionary (you can call such verbs ‘irregular’). For such verbs, the pres-3 form almost always ends in -e:
|
je·sti
(je·de) eat pi·sa·ti (pi·še) write |
pi·ti
(pi·je) drink ska·ka·ti (ska·če) jump |
Most verbs which change a consonant as well (here pi·sa·ti, ska·ka·ti) also change their tone to the falling one. Let’s put these forms to use:
A·na je·dejesti. Ana is eating.
Ma·rko pi·šepisati. Marko is writing.
Mi·la·n ska·českakati. Milan is jumping.
The first person form is made in the same way, regardless of the verbs being ‘irregular’ or not (three verbs are exception to this, but they will be introduced later):
Je·demjesti. I’m eating.
Pi·šempisati. I’m writing.
Pi·jempiti. I’m drinking.
Since pijem is derived from pije, the pronunciation of ije is the same as in pije – it’s pronounced clearly as two syllables: pi-jem. This holds to all similar verbs as well.
2.4 Verbs changing stress
Some verb have the expected form in the present tense, but change their stress. For example:
| spa·va·ti sleep | govo·ri·ti speak |
They look like this in the present tense:
A·na spa·va. Ana is sleeping.
Go·vo·rim. I'm speaking.
So we could list them in principle as:
spa·va·ti
(spa·va) sleep
govo·ri·ti
(go·vo·ri) speak
As you can see, they actually ‘shift’ their stress left in the present tense; since the verb spa·va·ti has a mark on the first syllable – that mark has nowhere to go, and falls off, and the mark on the 2nd syllable moves to the 1st syllable – so we’re left with only one mark, i.e. the rising stress. The other verb maintains both marks (i.e. the rising tone) even in the present tense.
Since it would be too much to list present forms that differ only by stress marks shifted, I’ll just indicate that the stress shifts like this: spa·va·ti («).
There are many verbs that shift stress like this. Some are:
| svi·ra·ti («) play (music) | vo·zi·ti («) drive |
Again, before you buy a dictionary, check if it lists present tense forms of these verbs with stress (the best is to specifically check the verbs I listed here). If not, it’s worthless pronunciation-wise.
Thinking of the change rising-tone-on-the-1st-syllable → falling tone as a kind of ‘shift’ will help you learn derived verbs easier. For instance, from vo·zi·ti («) drive, the verb izvo·zi·ti («) export is derived; since it has one syllable more, the tone stays rising in the present tense, just shifts.
2.5 Expressing still, already
We can introduce two useful words to add information to such sentences (they are both adverbs):
| jo·š still | ve·ć already |
We can put them in front of the verb to say that something is still ongoing or it has already started:
A·na ve·ć ku·ha. Ana is already cooking.
Mi·la·n jo·š spa·va. Milan is still sleeping.
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