Croatian/Main Contents/Level 2/Lesson 3

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Verbs in the present tense of Serbo-Croatian are simpler than those of English. Pišem can mean I write, I do write, or I am writing. In the present tense, verbs can be categorized into three basic types, as: znati, raditi, pisati. As it is difficult to distinguish which category a verb belongs to, it is often given in the infinitive and present forms. For most verbs, the present forms can be deduced from the first person singular (exceptions: biti, htjeti, moći). The infinitive and the first person singular present form are the so-called "principal forms" of a croatian verb.

To form verbs in the present tense, if the first person singular present is not known:
Start with the infinitive: znati
Remove the final three letters: znati - ati = zn-
Add the appropriate endings, ie: Ja znam

The best way is to memorize the 1st person singular to create the other forms without any problems.

Contents

[edit] Verbs Like Znati (principal form: -am)

Znati to know

Pronouns Verb Forms
ja znam
ti znaš
on/ono/ona zna
mi znamo
vi znate
oni/one/ona znaju

[edit] Verbs Like Raditi (principal form: -im)

Raditi to work; to do

Pronouns Verb Forms
ja radim
ti radiš
on/ono/ona radi
mi radimo
vi radite
oni/one/ona rade

[edit] Verbs Like Pisati (principal form: -em)

Pisati to write

Pronouns Verb Forms
ja pišem
ti pišeš
on/ono/ona piše
mi pišemo
vi pišete
oni/one/ona pišu

[edit] Infinitive

It usually ends on ti or ći

TI: Raditi (to work), spavati (to sleep), igrati (to play), jesti (to eat), trčati (to run), ubiti (to kill), tražiti (to search), piti (to drink)

ĆI: Ići (to go), teći (to flow), reći (to say), moći (be able to)


[edit] Reflexive pronouns

In Serbo-Croatian language reflexive pronouns have 2 forms: shorter and longer. It is often better to use shorter form than longer one. Longer ones can sometimes be used on the beginning of a sentence while short forms can't.

Pronouns Reflexive pronouns Shorter
ja mene me
ti tebe te
on/ona/ono njega, nju ga, ju
mi nas
vi vas
oni/one/ona njih ih

[edit] Pronoun drop

Serbo-Croatian, like all other Slavi languages and the Romance ones as well, is a pro-drop language. This means that personal pronouns (I, you,etc.) are omitted from most sentences. Because the verb stem ending clearly indicates who pefrorms the action, It is not necessary to put pronouns, unless it is for emphasis.

For example :'Razumijem srpskohrvatski'- 'I understand Serbo-Croatian'. from this sentence, we know that the speaker is speaking in the first person singular.

Exceptions to pro-drop:

  1. For emphasis, e.g.,
Tko zna odgovor? (Who knows the answer?)
Ja znam! (I know)
  1. Two verbs htjeti, biti have longer forms that are used as answers to questions. They can be translated as "I/you/he/she/it/we/they did" or in some cases "I am/You are/He is/She is/It is/We are/They are" (when confirming identity).
Person Affirmative Negative
Ja/I Jesam Nisam
Ti/You(sing.) Jesi nisi
On,ona,ono/he,she,it Je nije
Mi/we Jesmo Nismo
Vi/You (plur.) Jeste Niste
Oni,One,Ona/They Jesu Nisu


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