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The Serbian Present Tense (Sadašnje vreme)
of Irregular Verbs
(PDF version)
Below are the present tense conjugations of the most
frequent Serbian irregular verbs. A list of verbs discussed
here is as follows:
- biti ‘be’
- hteti ‘want’
- moći ‘can’
| I The present
tense of biti
‘to be’ |
Like in English, this verb is irregular, hence, you have
to memorize it. This verb is also discussed in Lesson 1.
Table 1: Present tense of the verb
biti ‘to be’ –
short (clitic) form
|
SINGULAR |
Examples |
Ja
(I) |
sam
(am) |
Ja sam
dobro.
(I’m well.) |
Ti
(you) |
si
(are) |
Ti si
dobro.
(You’re well.) |
| On/ona/ono
(he/she/it) |
je
(is) |
On je
dobro.
(He’s well.) |
Ona je dobro.
(She’s well) |
Ono je dobro.
(It’s well) |
|
PLURAL |
Examples |
Mi
(we) |
smo
(are) |
Mi smo
dobro.
(We’re well.) |
Vi
(you) |
ste
(are) |
Vi ste
dobro.
(You’re well.) |
Oni/one/ona
(they-m/f/nt) |
su
(are) |
Oni su dobro.
(They’re well –for masculine nouns ) |
One su
dobro.
(They’re well – for feminine nouns) |
Ona su dobro.
(They’re well – for neuter nouns |
Notes about the forms in Table 1:
- The present tense forms of
biti (or jesam)
in the above table are called short or 'truncated'
forms, or what grammarians call clitics.
- The long or full forms of
jesam, shown in Table 2 below are used only
for purposes of emphasis. In a normal conversation, one
would use short or 'clitic' forms, presented in Table 1.
- In a way, clitics or truncated forms
of ‘to be’ are found in English too, as in:
I’m, where ‘m is a shortened form of am,
or
‘we’re’, where re stands for are.
Table 2: The present tense of the verb
biti ‘to be’ –
long forms
|
SINGULAR |
Examples |
Ja
(I) |
jesam
(am) |
Ja jesam
dobro.
(I’m well.) |
Ti
(you) |
jesi
(are) |
Ti jesi
dobro.
(You’re well.) |
| On/ona/ono
(he/she/it) |
jeste
(is) |
On jeste
dobro.
(He’s well.) |
Ona jeste dobro.
(She’s well) |
Ono jeste dobro.
(It’s well) |
|
PLURAL |
Examples |
Mi
(we) |
jesmo
(are) |
Mi jesmo
dobro.
(We’re well.) |
Vi
(you) |
jeste
(are) |
Vi jeste
dobro.
(You’re well.) |
Oni/one/ona
(they-m/f/nt) |
jesu
(are) |
Oni jesu dobro.
(They’re well –for masculine nouns ) |
One jesu
dobro.
(They’re well – for feminine nouns) |
Ona jesu dobro.
(They’re well – for neuter nouns |
To negate the verb jesam,
one has to prefix the negative particle
ni (but not
ne) to the short forms
of
jesam.
Table 3: Negated forms of
jesam
|
SINGULAR |
Examples |
Ja
(I) |
nisam
(am) |
Ja nisam
dobro.
(I’m not well.) |
Ti
(you) |
nisi
jesi(are) |
Ti nisi
dobro.
(You’re not well.) |
| On/ona/ono
(he/she/it) |
nije
(is) |
On nije
dobro.
(He’s not well.) |
Ona nije dobro.
(She’s not well) |
Ono nije dobro.
(It’s not well) |
|
PLURAL |
Examples |
Mi
(we) |
nismo
(are) |
Mi nismo
dobro.
(We’re not well.) |
Vi
(you) |
niste
(are) |
Vi niste
dobro.
(You’re not well.) |
Oni/one/ona
(they-m/f/nt) |
nisu
(are) |
Oni nisu dobro.
(They’re not well –for masculine nouns ) |
One nisu
dobro.
(They’re not well – for feminine nouns) |
Ona nisu dobro.
(They’re not well – for neuter nouns |
Note that the negative particle ni
and the present tense forms are treated as one word, so they
are written together. Also, you cannot negated the full form
of jesam: *ne jesam, *ne jesi.
The verb biti (jesam)
‘to be’ has an additional (or extra) present tense
conjugation. In that sense, it is totally unique.
The present tense of biti
‘be’- all forms
The table below shows both the present tense conjugation of
both forms of biti:
regular and extended (or extra) forms.
Table 4: Present tense of the verb
biti ‘to be’ –
all forms
|
|
Full form |
Short form |
Negated |
‘extended’ |
|
SINGULAR |
| 1 |
jesam |
sam |
nisam |
budem |
| 2 |
jesi |
si |
nisi |
budeš |
| 3 |
jeste |
je |
nije |
bude |
|
PLURAL |
| 1 |
jesmo |
smo |
nismo |
budemo |
| 2 |
jeste |
ste |
niste |
bedete |
| 3 |
jesu |
su |
nisu |
budu |
Notes about the forms in Table 4:
- As we said earlier, the fully accented forms in the
first column are used mainly for emphasis.
- The short or clitic forms in the second column, are
used regularly.
- To negate the verb ‘jesam’,
you just insert the particle ‘ni’ to the short forms of
‘jesam’.
- Now look at the column with ‘extended’ present tense
forms of ‘biti’. They don’t resemble ‘jesam’ forms at
all.
- You may notice that these ‘biti’ forms conjugate
like the regular –em
present tense class of verbs.
- So when do you use these two different present tense
forms of biti?
- The jesam and
sam verbs are used
in all sentence types: declarative, interrogative.
- The budem verbs
are specialized for the following sentence types:
sentences that begin with the particles: kad,
ako and
da, usually used for conditional sentences, as in
1. below, or for the so-called Future Tense II
(hypothetical), as in sentence 2.
An example with the extended form of ‘biti’
| 1. |
Ako budem u Americi, nazvaću te. |
'If I am in America, I will call you.' |
| 2. |
Kad budem došla u Ameriku, nazvaću te. |
'When I came to America, I would call you.' |
| II The
present tense of
moći
‘can’ |
The second, also very frequently used verb, is
moći ‘can’ that
has irregular present tense forms. Its conjugation is shown
in Table 5.
Table 5: Present tense of
moći
‘can’
|
Singular |
Examples |
Ja
(I) |
mogu |
Ja mogu
govoriti srpski.
(I can speak Serbian.) |
Ti
(you) |
možeš |
Ti možeš
govoriti srpski.
(You can read Serbian.) |
| On/ona/ono
(he/she/it) |
može |
On može govoriti
srpski.
(He can speak Serbian.) |
Ona može govoriti
srpski.
(She can speak Serbian) |
Ono može govoriti
srpski.
(It can speak Serbian.) |
|
Plural |
Examples
|
Mi
(we) |
možemo |
Mi možemo
govoriti srpski.
(We can speak Serbian.) |
Vi
(you) |
možete |
Vi možete
govoriti srpski.
(You can speak Serbian.) |
Oni/one/ona
(they-m/f/nt) |
mogu |
Oni mogu govoriti
srpski.
(They-m can speak Serbian.) |
One mogu govoriti
srpski.
(They-f can speak Serbian) |
Ona mogu govoriti
srpski.
(They-nt can speak Serbian) |
- The verb moći basically conjugates like the regular
–em verbs, except
for the first person singular. It has the ending –u,
instead of –em.
- The present stem has the infix –g.
That is, in the first person singular and third person
plural. All other forms have ž.
You may aks why. This is due to the phonological rule
that turns g into
ž before the vowel
e. This process is
called palatalization, when the consonant becomes
‘softer’ (pronounced more towards the palate) in the
vicinity of the front vowel, such as
e.
| III The
present tense of
hteti
‘want, will’ |
The table below shows both the present tense
conjugation of hteti: full form, short form, and negated
form.
Table 6: Present tense of the verb
hteti ‘to want, will’
– all forms
| Full form |
Short form |
Negated |
Examples |
| SINGULAR |
| 1 |
hoću |
ću |
neću |
Ja ću ići. ‘I want to go’. |
| 2 |
hoćeš |
ćeš |
nećeš |
Ti nećeš ići. ‘You don’t want to go’. |
| 3 |
hoće |
će |
neće |
On hoće pevati. ‘He wants to sing’ |
| PLURAL |
| 1 |
hoćemo |
ćemo |
nećemo |
Mi ćemo pevati. ‘We want to sing’. |
| 2 |
hoćete |
ćete |
nećete |
Vi nećete ići. ‘You don’t want to go.’ |
| 3 |
hoće |
će |
neće |
Oni će šetati. ‘They want to walk.’ |
Notes about the forms in Table 6:
- Just like the verb jesam,
the verb hteti also
has full present forms and short forms. The full forms
are used for emphasis only.
- To negate the verb
hteti, you prefix the
negative particle
ne to the short
forms of hteti.
- This verb is used for making future tense as well,
since it also means ‘will'. See the future tense
file.
As a conclusion to this section, here is the table of all
conjugated forms for all three irregular verbs:
Table 7: Present tense verb forms for
biti,
hteti and
moći
| English |
Infinitive |
Present – short forms
singular- first line,
plural – second line |
Present – long forms
singular- first line,
plural – second line |
Verb class |
| be |
biti |
sam, si, je,
smo, ste su |
jesam, jesi, jeste,
jesmo, jeste jesu |
fully irregular |
| want |
hteti |
ću, ćeš, će
ćemo, ćete, će |
hoću, hoćeš, hoće
hoćemo, hoćete, hoće |
-em class
but irregular |
| can |
moći |
mogu, možeš, može
možemo, možete, mogu |
-em class
but irregular |
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