Serbian/Grammar

This is a short overview of the grammar of the Serbian language. It is not meant to be a comprehensive set of lessons, but rather a reference to complement word entries in Wiktionary. Although this is an overview of Serbian grammar.

Grammar

Gender

There are three grammatical genders in Serbian: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Each noun has its own grammatical gender, while adjectives correspond to the gender of the noun.

Gender	Optional pronoun	Example
Masculine, singular	taj	muškarac (man)
Feminine, singular	ta	žena (woman)
Neuter, singular	to	dete (child)
Masculine, plural	ti	muškarci (men)
Feminine, plural	te	žene (women)
Neuter, plural	ta	deca (children)

Gender of the subject also affects the verbs in the past tense. For example, if a person was working, the verb to work (raditi) will change depending on the gender of the subject. If the subject is the first person singular I (ja), the verb will change depending on who is speaking to either male or female form. E.g. a male may say: "Ja sam radio" (I worked), while a female may say: "Ja sam radila".The verb raditi, that means to work,composes the past for with verb biti-like ausiliar-with raditi in different forms declinated.

Number

There are two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. Three common suffixes for plural are i (usually for masculine nouns), e (usually for feminine nouns), and a (usually for neuter nouns). For example:

automobil -> automobili

flaša -> flaše

pismo -> pisma

Some nouns have only plural form, so one word has to be used for both. E.g. pantalone or naočare.

Collective nouns

A special case of nouns are collective nouns. They are not a separate grammatical number but a basic noun form and designate a group of things which are numerous and uncountable. For example:

javorov list ("maple leaf", designates just one leaf)

listovi u herbarijumu ("leaves in a haerbarium", there are several leaves and the exact number is known)

lišće u šumi ("bunch of leaves in a forest", designates a bunch of leaves as an entity)

Cases

The Serbian language uses seven cases, for both singular and plural, for nouns and adjectives. Adjectives follow the noun in declension.

Singular case examples

Case name:	Answers question:	Used to describe:	Sentence example:*
Nominative	Who? What?	Usually the subject of a sentence and predicative	Dečak piše pismo. (The boy is writing a letter.)
Genitive**	Of who? Of what?	Possesion, a part of something	Pismo dečaka. (The letter of the boy.)
Dative	To whom? To what?	The person to whom a thing is given, shown, etc.	Dajem olovku dečaku. (I give a pencil to the boy.)
Accusative	Whom? What?	Usually the object of a sentence	Upitali smo dečaka. (We asked the boy.)
Vocative	Calling	Used to address somebody or something	Hej, dečače! (Hey, boy!)
Instrumental	Using, with, whom? Using, with, what?	Company (with preposition s) or utilization of something or someone to accomplish an action	Idem s dečakom. (I am going with the boy.) Dečak piše olovkom. (The boy writes with a pencil.)
Locative	Where? About whom?	Location, Relation	Znamo više o dečaku. (We know more about the boy.)

Plural case examples

Case name:	Answers question:	Used to describe:	Sentence example:*
Nominative	Who? What?	Usually the subject of a sentence	Dečaci pišu pismo. (The boys are writing a letter.)
Genitive**	Of whom? Of what?	Possesion, a part of something	Pismo dečaka. (The letter of the boys.)
Dative	To whom? To what?	The person to whom a thing is given, shown, etc.	Dajem olovke dečacima. (I give pencils to the boys.)
Accusative	Whom? What?	Usually the object of a sentence	Upitali smo dečake. (We asked the boys.)
Vocative	Calling	Used to address somebody or something	Hej, dečaci! (Hey, boys!)
Instrumental	Using, with, whom? Using, with, what?	Company (with preposition s) or utilization of something or someone to accomplish an action	Idem s dečacima. (I am going with the boys.) Dečaci pišu olovkama. (The boys are writing with pencils.)
Locative	Where? About whom?	Location, relation	Znamo više o dečacima. (We know more about the boys.)

*Please note that there are several declension patterns depending on the word that is being used. Normally, words of same ending and gender follow the same pattern. Sometimes, even if the gender is the same, the word might not have the same declension pattern.

Proper writing (orthography)

The alphabets

Serbian language can be written either using Latin (latinica) or Cyrillic (ćirilica) script, the ONLY slavic language to do so. Both scripts were in common usage in much of Yugoslavia. Each letter represents only one sound and vice versa. The two alphabets can be transliterated between each other letter for letter.

Please note that in the Latin script LJ, NJ, and DŽ are each considered as one letter corresponding to Cyrillic Љ, Њ, and Џ respectively.
Also, because of the different fonts and keyboard styles, the Latin letter Đ is sometimes written as DJ. Đ is accepted and correct, while DJ is not.

Serbian Latin alphabet compared to Serbian Cyrillic alphabet in azbuka order:

A

B

V

G

D

Đ

E

Ž

Z

I

J

K

L

LJ

M

N

NJ

O

P

R

S

T

Ć

U

F

H

C

Č

DŽ

Š

А

Б

В

Г

Д

Ђ

Е

Ж

З

И

Ј

К

Л

Љ

М

Н

Њ

О

П

Р

С

Т

Ћ

У

Ф

Х

Ц

Ч

Џ

Ш

a

b

v

g

d

đ

e

ž

z

i

j

k

l

lj

m

n

nj

o

p

r

s

t

ć

u

f

h

c

č

dž

š

а

б

в

г

д

ђ

е

ж

з

и

ј

к

л

љ

м

н

њ

о

п

р

с

т

ћ

у

ф

х

ц

ч

џ

ш

Serbian Cyrillic Unicode fonts

Please note that it is recommended for better viewing of Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and their other sister sites that you use fonts which support the Unicode system. The Unicode Cyrillic font includes Cyrillic characters for Russian, Serbian, and most other languages that use Cyrillic fonts. However, there is a flaw to the Unicode Cyrillic fonts when it comes to Serbian. The flaw is in the italic forms of five characters and in the roman (regular) form for one of those characters. The five characters are: b, g, d, p, and t. Those glyphs displayed currently with Unicode Cyrillic fonts are based on Russian Cyrillic and not Serbian Cyrillic. Serbian variants can be applied automatically ONLY if supported by the fonts used. The following is a Unicode Cyrillic letter t displayed in its roman form first and italic form following:

roman: т

italic: т

If the italic form appears as a Latin letter m, then the font is displaying it using the Russian Cyrillic (or current Unicode Cyrillic) system. The difference in the italic glyphs for the current Unicode Cyrillic font system and the Serbian Cyrillic can be seen and explained on the following links:

Serbian Italicized Cyrillic letter ш

Please note that until recently in Serbian the letter ш used to be displayed as it is displayed currently (ш), except that it had a line under it. It is very unlikely that you will come across this letter online, but if you do, just remember that it is the letter ш. Some older fonts do support it and use it instead of ш.

Capitalization of words

The following words are capitalized in the Serbian language:

The first word in a sentence: Čovek je šetao gradom.
The first word in a quoted text: Petar reče: "Sutra ću kupiti automobil".
Personal pronouns and pronoun adjectives used in formal speech: Predlog koji ste Vi izneli je dobar.
Names:
- Personal names, nicknames and surnames: Ana, Petar, Boris, Jovana, Jela, Jovanović, Petrović.
- Adjectives of personal names only: Anin, Petrov, Borisov.
- Names of buildings: Stari most, Beograđanka, Ajfelova kula, Kip slobode.
- In the names of towns, countries and continents all nouns and adjectives are capitalized: Novi Sad, Sarajevo, Evropa, Sjedinjene Američke Države.
- Ethnicities and nationalities: Amerikanac, Francuz, Nigerijac.
- Citizens of towns: Novosađanka, Sarajlija, Parižanin.
- The first word of a street name is always capitalized, others are capitalized if it is a proper noun: Ulica neznanih junaka, Njegoševa ulica, Ulica Nikole Tesle.
- Names of geographic locations, such as mountains, lakes or rivers are written with the first word capitalized, and the others if they are proper nouns: Jadransko more, Dunav, Bokokotorski zaliv, Ada Ciganlija.
- Names of space bodies: Sunce, Mesec, Mars, Zemlja, Mlečni put.
- The first word of names of institutions are always capitalized, others are capitalized if it is a proper noun: Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, Osnovna škola "Petar Petrović Njegoš", Nacionalna štedionica.
- The first word of names of books, magazines and other publications are always capitalized, others are capitalized if it is a proper noun: Vojna enciklopedija, Na Drini ćuprija, Đavo u Sarajevu.
- Names of holidays: Nova godina, Bajram, Božić.

Particles

Question particle li

The question particle li is always written separately from other words. For example:

Da li čitaš knjigu? (Are you reading a book?) or

Čitaš li knjigu?

Unless, it is used to form contractions. A contraction formed by li particle (normally) occurs by dropping the i and joining the l with the previous word. For example:

Da l' čitaš knjigu?

Negation particle ne

In front of verbs, ne is almost always written separately, for example:

ne umem (I do not know how)

ne želim (I do not want/wish)

ne volim (I do not like)

The following verbs are written as one word. They are not really an exception, as they are verbs of their own.

neću (I do not want) (I will not)

nemam (I do not have)

nemoj (do not, imperative)

nisam (I am not)