Now you know how to say Ana’s sleeping. This chapter explains how to say Ana isn’t sleeping yet and how to ask is Ana sleeping?
3.1 Negation
The negation is very simple: just put the word ne right before the verb. The word doesn’t have its stress, and it’s always pronounced together with the verb, as one word, but it’s always spelled separately (there are three exceptions, which will be introduced later). To indicate that it’s pronounced together, I’ll connect it with the verb with a pale underline. Of course it’s normally not written:
A·na ne_tr·či·trčati. Ana isn’t running.
If the present tense form of the negated verb has the falling tone, the tone spreads to the word ne and becomes rising:
Mi·la·n ne·_spa·va. Milan isn’t sleeping.
This doesn’t happen if the present tense form of the verb has the rising tone!
Since the negation is always pronounced with the verb as one word, people (following the spell as you speak principle) write it as one word sometimes, which is seen as a ‘violation of basic grammar’ and a sign of ‘illiteracy’, especially in Serbia.
3.2 Expressing never, not yet, etc.
There are four words often used to emphasize or specify negation:
|
jo·š not... yet ni·kad(a) never |
u·o·pšte
/ u·o·pće not... at all vi·še not... anymore |
In Bosnian, there are debates which version of the word u·o·pšte / u·o·pće is ‘right’, but both are used.
The word for never has a shorter version without the final vowel. Both are used, the shorter one is more common. The shortening is not colloquial, there are simply two versions of a word.
The important thing is that you have to keep ne, which is different than in English, where you don’t negate the verb if you use never. For example:
Mi·la·n jo·š ne·_spa·va. Milan isn’t sleeping yet.
A·na vi·še ne_tr·či·trčati. Ana isn’t running anymore. Ni·kad ne·_ku·ha·m. I never cook. (lit. ‘I don’t never cook.’)All these words can be placed at any position, but they usually come before ne.
Pay attention: the negation of the verb when you use ni·kad(a) is mandatory.
3.3 Asking what someone is doing
Now, to questions. First, I’ll explain how to ask what someone is doing (at the moment, or generally). While English has the special verb do, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin use a special verb:
ra·di·ti («) work/do
This verb can be used in a generic sense. You should start such questions with the word šta· what:
Šta· A·na ra·di? What is Ana doing? (lit. ‘working’)
— Ku·ha. She’s cooking.
As you can see, there’s nothing special about questions in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin: no special word order, no special rules. You just have to start them with the right question-word. I’ve also given the literal (lit.) meaning, in quotes; of course, it really means what is doing.
We can here answer only with a verb, no pronouns (e.g. o·na· she) are needed, since it’s clear who we’re talking about. Generally, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin prefer very short answers.
To ask directly what someone is doing, use the 2nd person form, i.e. ra·diš:
Šta· ra·diš? What are you doing? (to a single person!)
— Ku·ham. I’m cooking.
This form is used only when you ask a single person, someone you’re familiar with, your family member, co-worker, etc; for your superiors, people you don’t know personally, other forms are used (they will be explained later).
3.4 Asking if someone is doing something or not
There are two ways to ask questions of the type Is Milan sleeping?. The first way, more common, is to start the question with da·_li, nothing else is needed:
Da·_li Mi·la·n spa·va? Is Milan sleeping?
These two words are officially always spelled separately, but pronounced as one word.
The second way, much rarer in speech, is to put the verb first, and put li after it; the two words are again pronounced as one:
Spa·va_li Mi·la·n? Is Milan sleeping? (less common)
In everyday colloquial speech, da·_li is often shortened to da·_l, or a variant je·_l is used, with various spellings (e.g. da l’, dal’, je l’, etc.).
Also colloquially, it’s possible to turn an ordinary sentence into such a question by only using a rising intonation at the end:
Mi·la·n spa·va? Is Milan sleeping? (colloq.)
To answer such questions, you can use just short words, or you can say you don’t know:
— Da·. Yes.
— Ne·. No.
— Ne·_zna·m. I don’t know.
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