A short piece about two friends who made a board game, and a good place to watch Serbian verbs do several different jobs in ten sentences.
Latiti se is the one to learn first. It means to take something up, to get down to it — and it demands the genitive: latiti se knjige, latiti se posla. Not the accusative, however much the English "to take up a book" suggests otherwise.
Truckajući se is a glagolski prilog sadašnji — the present verbal adverb, built from the third person plural plus -ći: truckaju → truckajući. It describes something happening at the same time as the main action, the way English uses "while …-ing". It never changes for gender or number, which makes it one of the easiest forms in the language and one of the most useful for sounding written rather than spoken.
| Form | In the text | Why |
|---|---|---|
| perfekat | došla, latio, napravio, odigrali, rasprodali, prošao, dobio | finished actions; the participle agrees with the subject |
| prezent | pružaju | an ongoing state — the support is still there |
| imperativ | otpiši | a direct instruction: write me off |
| glagolski prilog | truckajući se | an action running alongside the main one |
Two idioms hide in there as well. Proći kroz glavu — to run through one's head, said of a whole scenario arriving at once. And dobiti reči hvale — to receive words of praise, where Serbian keeps the genitive plural hvale tucked behind the noun.
The infinitive is in brackets — put it into the form the sentence needs.
1. Ideja mi je slučajno. (doći)
2. On se knjige. (latiti se)
3. Darko je odličnu igricu. (napraviti / to make)
4. Mi smo prvu partiju. (odigrati)
5. Podršku porodica i prijatelji. (pružati)
6. Odmah su tiraž od 1000 komada. (rasprodati)
7. se vozom… (truckati se)
8. Čitav scenario mu je kroz glavu. (proći)
9. Šta god da si planirala, me. (otpisati)
10. je reči hvale. (dobiti)
SR (lat): Upisuje se samo glagolski oblik. Latinicom ili ćirilicom; dijakritici su opcioni.
СР (ћир): Уписује се само глаголски облик. Латиницом или ћирилицом; дијакритици су опциони.
EN: Type the verb form only. Latin or Cyrillic, diacritics optional.
Wordwall
The vocabulary from this text, in Marina’s Wordwall round.
A man who lived alone in the wilderness for forty years — and the vocabulary that comes with it.
Ken Smit →